Wipro shrugs off slowdown fears

Wipro Technologies, the country's second largest software exporter, has brushed aside slowdown fears saying the industry is doing fine.

"Industry is doing fine. There is a global slowdown. But there is no slowdown in India so far. If there is a global slowdown, you can't be that naive to say, there won't be any impact," Chairman Wipro Azim Premji told PTI.

Premji's exuberance comes amid fears that IT exports revenue could go down to 21-24 per cent from the earlier 30-32 per cent.

Yesterday, Infosys Technologies Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani had said IT services growth would slow down due to the ongoing financial turmoil.

But the IT industry feels they would be in a position to take advantage of the next growth cycle. "Industry is resilient enough to deal with the challenges" is the unanimous opinion of experts.

"There is a global scenario, which is unprecedented and it would have an impact on everyone. But the IT industry has demonstrated time and again that it is resilient enough to deal with these challenges.

"We had a similar situation earlier in 2001, but we were able to not only get out of that but also take advantage of the situation. I am sure, companies are following the right strategies to wait for the situation to subside and then take advantage of the next cycle of growth," he added but declined any comment on specific numbers.