India Eco Summit: 'IT will post double-digit growth next yr'

IT industry body Nasscom today said the sector will regain double-digit growth from April next year leaving behind the prolonged recession.

"Next year, starting from April we will see double digit growth coming back," Nasscom President Som Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here.

The IT industry, which was growing 30 per cent year on year, was hit first by the currency fluctuation followed by the global financial crisis in 2008.

The economic activity seems to have picked up. The technology firms are back on hiring spree. Mergers and acquisitions are in the sight.

As per projections for the current financial year, the IT industry is likely to grow at a meagre 4-7 per cent.

However, he added, "We have made a forecast that in the next 10-12 years the industry (IT) will have a compounded annual growth rate of 12-14 per cent."

Though Nasscom is very bullish about the growth coming back, but refrained from revising the guidance upwards saying it was too early to do that.

Consultant Accenture has said it would shore up its staff strength by 8,000 by next year, mainly in the analytics space. While, Infosys BPO, the back-office unit of IT firm Infosys Technologies has also announced to hire up to 2,000 people by the end of the current fiscal.

"We are already seeing some good change that we had anticipated... The first half has been sad. We still think that this year the growth will be in the range of 4-7 per cent," Mittal said, adding that "it is very unlikely that we revise the guidance."

Talking about the overall industry scenario, he said, "Now customers are talking about transformation and end to end changes... How we can get cost efficiencies not only in IT but the whole organisation."

In fact, technology firms like Accenture and Infosys BPO hiring for next year is an indicator of brightening business prospects, industry analysts said, adding that clocking a double-digit growth should be an achievable target.