Nasscom sets growth outlook at 10-11% for Indian IT industry in FY18

Key highlights:

• IT industry in FY18 at 10-11% for domestic market
• Growth outlook for IT industry exports at 7-8%
• Improvements in financial services and high potential in digital businesses key drivers

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) on Thursday announced that the growth outlook for the IT industry in FY18 at 10-11% for domestic market and 7-8% for exports, citing improvements in financial services and high potential in digital businesses as key drivers.

This outlook comes on the back of political and economic uncertainties that impacted decision making and discretionary spend during the past year.

Nasscom in February this year for the first time in 25 years had differed its guidance to the next quarter due to political and economic uncertainties such as the Trump-led US government putting tough restrictions on H-1B visas and attacking Indian IT companies.

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In FY17 Nasscom said the growth of the IT industry was 8.6% and had predicted a growth of 8-10% earlier that year.

Nasscom also cited an increase in requirement for integrated digital capabilities and automation based projects from customers, which were key investment areas for the industry.

Nasscom highlighted the industry’s position as a net hirer with the demand for technology skilled professionals growing in the sector and across other sectors as well. It forecasted the IT industry to add 1.3-1.5 lakh new jobs during the year.

The industry body stated that it was however imperative for new and existing talent to reskill themselves to prepare for emerging job roles which required new skillsets.

“The fiscal year will see growth driven by the modernisation of operations for client firms and the adoption of new technologies such as SaaS applications, cloud platforms, BI, cognitive and embedded analytics as enterprise customers scale digital projects,” said Nasscom in a release.

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It said that the growth for the IT industry would be SaaS applications, cloud platforms, BI, congnitive, embedded analytics.

Markets such as Africa, China, Japan, Middle East and Germany would key markets for the IT industry to look at.

It said that 2/3rd of private banks and about 20-30% of public banks to adopt digital technologies in the 2-5 years which would push the IT industry in India.

Raman Roy, Chairman, Nasscom, said, “The IT-PM industry in India continues to demonstrate a sustained growth index. The industry has continuously reinvented itself and its performance in FY 2017 showcases how the industry has focused on building its digital solution offerings through a combination of business model changes and investment in products and platforms.”

R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, said, “Maneuvering through an uncertain phase over the past year, the industry has maintained its status as a key net hirer in the country and global technology and services hub. Considering the evolution that the industry is undergoing due to the adoption of new technologies, it is imperative that we as an industry drive the skilling and reskilling of new and existing talent, so as to ensure the requirement that will be created in the form of new job roles can be fulfilled appropriately and in time, helping us prepare for the future opportunities.”

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An interesting takeaway from the analysis of the sector performance in FY 2017 was the relatively fast adoption of digital solutions by Indian enterprise. The domestic market is expected to grow faster than the export market in FY 2018 driven by this trend.

Nasscom highlighted the vision of the 1 trillion digital economy in India by 2022 and the need for enabling policies and key projects to fast track this over the next five years.

As the industry business models change, Nasscom also highlighted the need to look at more broad-based KPIs for the sector that will demonstrate how the industry is investing for the future and how the outcomes could be measured.