Double digit revenue growth a turning point for industry: Infosys CEO

Infosys believes its double digit sequential revenue growth in the second quarter is a befitting reply to doomsdayers who predicted that India's IT services industry would not see such numbers in future because of the global recession.

"It's a turning point for the industry," Infosys CEO and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan said.

"When the downturn happened, lot of people had said that IT services industry in India will not see double digit growth (annually). We had a double digit growth in this quarter," he said.

The NASDAQ-listed firm's revenues in the quarter ending September 30, 2010, rose 24.4 per cent year-on-year to Rs 6,947 crore, while quarter-on-quarter (sequential) growth was 12.1 per cent.

"This is the first quarter that we have double digit (sequential revenue) growth after about three years," Gopalakrishnan said.

For the first time in any quarter, incremental revenue growth was more than $100 million.

He argued that India's IT services industry is very strong and some of the companies are recognised globally. Though there would be ups and downs, this was a "long-term industry".

Infosys' double digit sequential revenue growth gives renewed confidence to this industry that it is resilient and it can actually "pick up and go forward" even in times of downturn, Gopalakrishnan said.