Government IT spending to touch $6.88 bn in 2015: Gartner

Governments in India will spend $6.88 billion on IT products and services in 2015, an increase of 5.2 percent over 2014, according to market research firm Gartner.

The forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre, devices and telecom services by local, state and the union government.

IT services, which include consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, is expected to grow 10 percent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion - with the business process outsourcing sub-segment growing by 21 percent, the firm said.

"Government spending on software will total $869 million in 2015, a 10.6 percent increase from 2014," said Anurag Gupta, research vice president at Gartner.

"The software market will be led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to a vertical industry). These are stand-alone applications that are not modules or extensions of horizontal applications," he added.

The research firm also predicts that telecom services will also be a $1.6 billion market, with the mobile network services sub-segment recording fastest growth of 3 percent in 2015 to reach $787 million.

According to Gartner, internal services will grow 8.8 percent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion. Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.

"The investments in the 'Digital India' initiative, led by a focus to allow access of government services on mobile devices (part of the mobile government), expansion on broadband and planning for smart cities, will be a stimulus for Indian governments ICT initiatives," Gupta said.