IT industry will tide over current downturn: Infosys

Infosys chief and co-founder S Gopalakrishnan today said the Indian IT industry would tide over the current downturn and may surpass the US in terms of having the largest number IT professionals in the world in the next three years.

"In the IT revolution, we are at the centre. We are underinvested, but that is an opportunity. A lot of investment is being done in R&D here because talent is available here. Our education system provides for that," Infosys CEO and Managing Director Gopalakrishnan told reporters here.

"We will be the largest IT country in the world, second only after the US. In the next three years, we will be the largest in the world," he said.

Gopalakrishnan said that the industry offers significant opportunities over the next 30 years.

"We are at the very early stages of the IT industry. Only 25 per cent of the full leverage of IT is understood and used. The impact of IT will be significant in the next 25-30 years. There is still money to be made and wealth to be created in IT," he said.

IT was "exciting as ever" and that there was probably still 25-30 years of impact left before the industry becomes mainstream, he said at 'Systems Continuum 2009', organised by IIT Bombay's Shailesh J Mehta School of Management.