Newly appointed Nasscom Chairman N Chandrasekaran has expressed confidence that the US$100 billion Indian IT-BPO sector will grow at 11-14 per cent, despite the global economic uncertainties and muted forecast by some member companies.
“Overall, technology has an important role to play whether you look at this year or any other year.

It will play an important role in the revival of markets and businesses. Along with that the emergence of new powerful technologies be it cloud or big data, there are tremendous opportunities globally and nationally,” Chandrasekaran told reporters here.

All these things will play to the strength of the Indian IT industry, he said, adding that the software body is continuing with its 11-14 per cent growth forecast and will take a re-look at it in October.

The global economic uncertainty has led to projected flat or reduction in budgets for outsourcing services by western clients, which has in turn sparked fears about the performance of Indian players, who get almost 80 per cent of their revenues from the US and European markets.

Chandrasekaran said there are numerous opportunities available and the focus needs to be on underpenetrated markets like Eastern Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Nasscom has also appointed MindTree CEO Krishnakumar Natarajan as Vice Chairman of Executive Council for 2012-13. Asked about the challenges being faced by the Indian companies, the senior officials said the foremost task was to tide over the current environment.

“A McKinsey estimate is that by 2020, the industry will be between US$220-300 billion and that is a huge opportunity for the Indian IT industry. There could be short term challenges but in the long term, competitiveness of Indian IT industry is strong,” he said. He added that the industry has changed from taking orders to helping companies transform their business and this will drive the growth further.

Chandrasekaran said the executive council will work on re-inventing and embracing new business models, strengthening innovation capacity and research capabilities of Indian players, strengthening long-term entrepreneurial environment.

SOURCE: Deccan Herald