Government IT spending to grow to $7 billion in 2016: Gartner

It includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre, devices and telecom services

Global consultancy firm Gartner, on Thursday, said Indian government will see a marginal 3.1% uptick in the IT spend at $7 billion for 2016.

"The government in India will spend $7 billion on IT products and services in 2016," it said in a note.

This includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre, devices and telecom services by local, state and Union governments, it said.

IT services which include consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support is expected to grow at 8.8% in 2016 to $1.6 billion, it said.

Interestingly, it said the BPO segment will be growing at a whopping 22%.

The estimate showing a marginal uptick in IT spends comes amid a greater thrust on technology from the government, which has launched the high-octane Digital India initiative.

"The 'Digital India' initiative continues to be driving investments in the government, led by access of government services on mobile devices (part of the mobile government), and expansion on broadband services," its principal research analyst Moutusi Sau said.

Without giving any indication about how it compares with the last year's number, Gartner said telecom services will be a $1.5 billion market.

Within the telecom segment, mobile network services will post the fastest growth of 3.5% to be a $193 million opportunity in 2016, it said.

Led by growth in infrastructure, the government spending on software will grow by 9.9% to $938 million in 2016, she said.