Indian IT industry to recover in 12 months: NASSCOM chief

In spite of a continuing recessionary trend globally, the Indian IT industry is expected to recover in another 12 months. According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the industry will witness slower growth in the third and fourth quarter of financial year 2008-09.

"The Indian IT industry may have suffered from the recessionary trends but it will recover in another 12 months. Moreover, after 12 months, the Indian IT industry will focus more on domestic market and less on international markets," said Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of NASSCOM and global chief executive officer of Zensar Technologies Limited to reporters during the International Entrepreneurship Forum at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA).

Brushing aside the recessionary trends as sentimental and not actual, Natarajan said that the IT industry will still grow though at a lesser pace.

“Recession times help the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish unobtrusively. This is not the time for sentimentalism. The future of business beckons to collaborative techniques and networking of enterprises," said Natarajan.

As compared to India, Natarajan said that the UK and other European markets will recover in 2-3 years while the US will take another 12-18 months to emerge from the current gloomy conditions.

Among these countries, Japan is the worst hit since it is a big client of Indian and the US IT industry.

Unlike a growth rate of 24 per cent last year, the Indian IT industry will witness a lesser growth rate while the GDP will continue to grow at around six per cent, he added.

When asked about lay offs in the industry, Natarajan said that around one lak job commitments have already been made by IT companies in India during campus interviews for 2009.

Also, additional 50,000 people will be recruited during the next year.

In 2008, the industry recruited around two lakh people, said Natarajan.