Indian IT cos look inwards to counter export slide

With the export revenues shrinking, Indian IT companies are looking at the domestic market now to compensate for the lost revenue.     
"There is still growth in the industry though at a lower rate... Companies have already started focussing on their domestic business," Nasscom President Som Mittal said on the sidelines of the IIFT National IT Symposium 2009.     

Despite the optimism over recovery by mid-2010, the Indian IT sector is projected to post single-digit growth of 4-7 per cent for its software and services export during 2009-10.     

Nasscom has halved its export growth projections to 4-7 per cent for the ongoing fiscal to touch $48-50 billion, while the domestic IT-BPO market is expected to grow by 15-18 per cent to Rs 650-670 billion in 2009-10.    

Quattro BPO Solutions Chairman and Managing Director Raman Roy, however, said, "There has been a compression in world growth but we have to look at the incremental piece that we are penetrating. There is still growth in a tough environment and that is what needs to be concentrated on."     

Talking about the hiring scenario in the industry, Mittal said the net hiring is expected to continue to increase this year.     

"If the hiring is not in hundreds of thousands like last year, it will be in tens of thousand. The companies will absorb the people to whom offer letters were given and so the net hiring would be up," Mittal said.