IT companies will help in increasing India’s services exports to $1 trillion in a decade: Union Minister Piyush Goyal

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal believes that India’s top IT companies will help in increasing India’s services exports to $1 trillion in a decade.

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Goyal further assured the IT companies that the Modi government will give full support to the sector to accelerate growth, as reported by Zee Business reporter Ambarish Pandey. 

In the virtual meeting over the weekend, the minister told leaders of the IT industry that they should focus on high-tech products, for which the central government would provide any assistance needed by the industry.

Goyal said that India was on track to achieve its merchandise exports target of $400 billion this year, while services exports were likely to about $240 billion to $250 billion, which is much lower, but can grow rapidly catch up with merchandise exports.

“When I look at the trajectory of these – I personally believe this is going to be a race to the top. We can converge $1 trillion. That should be the ambition, mission. You have a little bit of catching up to do. I’ll be delighted if you cross $1 trillion faster than them,” the minister told IT industry leaders.

Piyush Goyal welcomed the IT industry’s proposal to start IT hubs in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, which would create numerous jobs and help develop the regions. He said the IT industry should identify the towns, and the Centre would assist them in providing all the necessary infrastructure and facilities.

He further added that the IT industry can make a big contribution to services exports by focusing on new technology and products that can make India a bigger global players in the sector.

The virtual meeting was attended by Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, Tech Mahindra CEO & MD C.P. Gurnani; Srikanth Velamakanni, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence technology startup Fractal Analytics; Mphasis CEO Nitin Rakesh; Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji; Genpact CEO N.V. Tyagrajan; WNS Global Services Group CEO Keshav R Murugesh; Mastek CEO Hiral Chandrana; Krishnan Ramanujam, President and Head of Business & Technology Services at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The IT industry leaders said the sector had seen strong growth last year, and in the past week, strong earnings reported by companies has set a positive tone for the years ahead.