IT sector to be hit if US, Europe conditions worsen: Infosys

Country’s leading software developer Infosys today said further deterioration of economic conditions in US and Europe could hit the domestic IT sector, though at present the impact was not as bad as it was in 2008.

"If it (poor economic conditions in US and Europe) becomes worse, then we will see a significant slowdown (here)," Infosys Executive Co Chairman S Gopalakrishnan said at a CII event here when asked about the impact of the current crisis in Europe and the US on Indian IT industry.

Stating that India would be impacted as it was part of global economy, Gopalakrishnan said there was some impact on Indian IT industry but it was not as bad as it was in 2008.

"There is some impact (of slowdown in Europe and US) but it is not as bad as it was in 2008. I hope it stays like this and does not become worse," he said.

However, he said India, at present, was better off vis- as-vis other global economies. "6% growth is not bad when the rate of growth in other economies is 0 or 1% and some are facing recession. We are better off in that way," he said.

On the impact of 2008 recession on Infosys’ growth, Gopalakrishnan said the company's growth in 2007 was 35% which fell to 11% in 2008 and then 3% in 2009. However, in 2010, it grew by 26%.

Infosys though cut expenditure in short-term, it continued to invest in human resources by hiring more people for long term to deal with the slowdown, he said.

He further said the company was looking at investing in Intellectual Properties and product solutions to offer variety of technology solutions to achieve higher growth.

Asking the industry to be innovative and imaginative in their projects, Gopalkrishnan said it was very feasible for Indian IT industry to achieve a target of $220 billion by 2020 on the back of new innovations coming up in IT sector.

"It is very much feasible that the size of IT industry could grow from $65 billion - $220 billion in next 8-10 years. There is still innovation in IT sector like cloud computing, mobile applications etc," he said.

He said Infosys gets 97% of turnover from export markets while rest from domestic market. “We are investing in domestic market and government is also investing in this sector. There is an opportunity,” he said.

India’s total domestic IT industry market is $17 billion against global size of $1 trillion.

In reply to a question, he said, the company would look at the possibility of investing in North India.In Chandigarh, it has an employee strength of 5,700.