Outlook for Indian IT cautiously positive; challenges still remain: Nasscom

Outlook for the Indian information technology (IT) sector is 'cautiously positive' in 2018 as challenges remain amidst prospects of greater IT spending with global and US economies improving, industry body Nasscom said.

Dismissing speculation about 2018 being a come-back year for the IT sector, the president of the industry body Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies), R Chandrashekhar, said, "That's the problem, that people proclaim a major revival very quickly."

"Neither was a decline predicted nor a sudden massive revival or change this year," he told PTI here.

Stating that there is always a phase-lag and that many things can happen in-between, Chandrashekhar said outlook for the current calendar year is "cautiously positive".

He conceded that no doubt the global outlook was looking up as "the global economy, the US economy and all of that...are all looking positive. However, it does not immediately translate into bigger prospects for the industry," he cautioned.

"It isn't yet time to say it (challenging times) is all over....now we are seeing everything being great and all that... No," he stressed.

The short-term prognosis for the global economy is good; US economy is doing well, which usually does translate into greater IT spending even though it may not be visible today. But the time it (IT spending) takes and to what magnitude is something which really needs to be monitored closely, he said.

'Old challenges' continue and none of them have disappeared, he said, adding, some of them may have abated, while some others may have reduced either in immediacy or in their magnitude of impact.

"And then there are new ones like continued small administrative actions in the US which have been there... that don't individually have a big impact, but collectively they add up to a number of negatives," he said.

"So, all those things are now a part of business in a global industry which is dealing with de-globalisation and anti-globalisation," he said.

On the industry working towards more digital influence, and subsequent revenues, he said Nasscom has been consistently saying that there are only three things India needs to focus on, "skilling, skilling and skilling.