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Introduction

India is the world's largest sourcing destination for the information technology (IT) industry, accounting for approximately 52 per cent of the US$ 124-130 billion market. The industry employs about 10 million Indians and continues to contribute significantly to the social and economic transformation in the country.

The IT industry has not only transformed India's image on the global platform, but has also fuelled economic growth by energising the higher education sector especially in engineering and computer science. India's cost competitiveness in providing IT services, which is approximately 3-4 times cheaper than the US, continues to be its unique selling proposition (USP) in the global sourcing market.

The Indian IT and ITeS industry is divided into four major segments – IT services, business process management (BPM), software products and engineering services, and hardware.

The IT-BPM sector in India grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 per cent over 2000-2013, which is 3-4 times higher than the global IT-BPM spend, and is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 9.5 per cent to US$ 300 billion by 2020.

India has emerged as the fastest growing market for Dell globally and the third largest market in terms of revenue after the US and China, said Mr Alok Ohrie, Managing Director, Dell India.

Market Size

India, the fourth largest base for young businesses in the world and home to 3,000 tech start-ups, is set to increase its base to 11,500 tech start-ups by 2020, as per a report by Nasscom and Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt Ltd.

India’s internet economy is expected to touch Rs 10 trillion (US$ 161.26 billion) by 2018, accounting for 5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). In December 2014, India’s internet user base reached 300 million, the third largest in the world, while the number of social media users and smartphones grew to 100 million.

Public cloud services revenue in India is expected to reach US$ 838 million in 2015, growing by 33 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), as per a report by Gartner Inc. In yet another Gartner report, the public cloud market alone in the country was estimated to treble to US$ 1.9 billion by 2018 from US$ 638 million in 2014. The increased internet penetration and rise of e-commerce are the main reasons for continued growth of the data centre co-location and hosting market in India.

Investments

Indian IT's core competencies and strengths have placed it on the international canvas, attracting investments from major countries. The computer software and hardware sector in India attracted cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows worth US$ 13,788.56 million between April 2000 and December 2014, according to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

The private equity (PE) deals increased the number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) especially in the e-commerce space in 2014. The IT space, including e-commerce, witnessed 240 deals worth US$ 3.8 billion in 2014, as per data from Dealogic.

India also saw a ten-fold increase in the venture funding that went into internet companies in 2014 as compared to 2013. More than 800 internet start-ups got funding in 2014 as compared to 200 in 2012, said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Google India Pvt Ltd and Chairman, IAMA.

Most large technology companies may have so far focused primarily on bigger enterprises, but a report from market research firm Zinnov highlighted that the small and medium businesses will present a lucrative opportunity worth US$ 11.6 billion in 2015 and US$ 25.8 billion in 2020. Moreover, India has nearly 51 million such businesses of which 12 million have a high degree of technology influence and are looking to adopt newer IT products, as per the report.

Some of the major investments in the Indian IT and ITeS sector are as follows:

Wipro has won a US$ 400 million, multi-year IT infrastructure management contract from Swiss engineering giant ABB, making it the largest deal for the technology company.

Tech Mahindra has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Geneva-based SOFGEN Holdings. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Tech Mahindra’s presence in the banking segment.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) plans to set up offshore development centres in India for Japanese clients in a bid to boost the company's margin in the market.

Reliance is building a 650,000 square feet (sq ft) data centre in India—its 10th data centre in the country—with a combined capacity of about 1 million sq ft and an overall investment of US$ 200 million.

Intel Corp plans to invest about US$ 62 million in 16 technology companies, working on wearable, data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT), in 2015 through its investment arm Intel Capital. The Indian IoT industry is expected be worth US$ 15 billion and to connect 28 billion devices to the internet by 2020.

Keiretsu Forum, a global angel investor network, has forayed into India by opening a chapter in Chennai. With this, the Silicon Valley-based network will have 34 chapters across three continents.

Government Initiatives

The adoption of key technologies across sectors spurred by the 'Digital India Initiative' could help boost India's gross domestic product (GDP) by US$ 550 billion to US$ 1 trillion by 2025, as per research firm McKinsey.

Some of the major initiatives taken by the government to promote IT and ITeS sector in India are as follows:

India and the United States (US) have agreed to jointly explore opportunities for collaboration on implementing India's ambitious Rs 1.13 trillion (US$ 18.22 billion) ‘Digital India Initiative’. The two sides also agreed to hold the US-India Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Working Group in India later this year.

India and Japan held a Joint Working Group conference for Comprehensive Cooperation Framework for ICT. India also offered Japan to manufacture ICT equipment in India.

The Government of Telangana began construction of a technology incubator in Hyderabad—dubbed T-Hub—to reposition the city as a technology destination. The state government is initially investing Rs 35 crore (US$ 5.64 million) to set up a 60,000 sq ft space, labelled the largest start-up incubator in the county, at the campus of International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H). Once completed, the project is proposed to be the world’s biggest start-up incubator housing 1,000 start-ups.

Bengaluru has received US$ 2.6 billion in venture capital (VC) investments in 2014, making it the fifth largest recipient globally during the year, an indication of the growing vibrancy of its startup ecosystem. Among countries, India received the third highest VC funding worth US$ 4.6 billion.

Road Ahead

Internet should be a basic human right, say 87 per cent of internet users in India, compared with 83 per cent globally, according to a report by Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

India continues to be the topmost offshoring destination for IT companies followed by China and Malaysia in second and third position, respectively. Emerging technologies present an entire new gamut of opportunities for IT firms in India. Social, mobility, analytics and cloud (SMAC) collectively provide a US$ 1 trillion opportunity. Cloud represents the largest opportunity under SMAC, increasing at a CAGR of approximately 30 per cent to around US$ 650-700 billion by 2020. Social media is the second most lucrative segment for IT firms, offering a US$ 250 billion market opportunity by 2020.

The US$ 12 billion plus rising Indian e-commerce business market is witnessing a rush of hiring and may need 100,000 people over the next six months, as per industry experts. The industry offers a slew of opportunities and scope for innovation thereby attracting the young mind to push their limits.