India Chronicle September 2007


	INSIDE THIS ISSUE


	01 MAIN


	02 NEWSMAKERS


	03 FOREIGN RELATIONS


	04 ECONOMY


	05 INFOTECH


	06 CULTURE


	07 TRAVEL


	08 CALENDAR


	HIGHLIGHTS

FDI inflows register unprecedented growth
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Father of India
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Chennai and Mamallapuram : The best of now and then
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05. INFOTECH

IT INDUSTRY CROSSES THE $50 BN MARK

According to Dataquest’s annual DQ Top 20 survey of the Indian IT industry, the country's information technology (IT) industry crossed the $50 billion mark in FY07. Dataquest’s annual DQ Top 20 survey of the Indian IT industry revealed that it recorded a growth of 32% in rupee terms and was just shy of 30% growth in dollar terms during the year.

With a growth of 35%, IT exports continued to hold the majority of the revenue share by contributing Rs 1,53,744 crore to the total revenue of Rs 2,26,879 crore. The domestic market continued its three year average growth rate of 27.2% by contributing Rs 73,135 crore, accounting for rest of the revenue pie.

Catalysed by the emerging domestic BPO market, IT enabled services (ITES) reported a growth of 48% to touch Rs 5,400 crore. The domestic IT services market reached Rs 20,948 crore by reporting 30% growth. Packaged software industry witnessed 19% growth to touch Rs 8,053 crore.

The top 20 IT players recorded the highest growth rate in the millennium by recording 44.3% growth rate. With the top three players, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, bagging several large deals and expanding their consultancy business, the top 20 companies accounted for almost 77% of the total software services exports.

Highlighting growth in demand for high-end technology products, the study showed that sales of laser multi-function devices (MFDs) grew 69%. LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors sales increased 153% in stark contrast with sales of traditional CRT (cathode ray monitors) monitors, which reported a decline. Digital cameras also reported a robust growth of 112% to reach the sales figures of nearly half a million.

By posting revenues of Rs 2,135 crore, the IT training sector also recorded a significant growth, as demand for training within corporations in India and overseas was met by Indian players.

Internet penetration in the country continued to rise as the number of users (over 15 years of age and above) in the country touched 23 million during the year with 9 million internet connections, including 2.6 million broadband connections, according to Dataquest.

MEDICAL TOURISM ON THE MOVE

According to Tourism Ministry, medical tourism industry is growing at the rate of 25 per cent a year, it is on track to become a two billion dollars industry in another five years.

According to official figures, an estimated 1,50,000 patients arrived in 2004 from across the globe from USA, UK, Middle East, Africa and SAARC countries for medical treatment in India. In the same year, medical tourism was a $333 million strong market and the ministry said given its growth rate of 25 per cent it will emerge as a $2 billion market in 2012. Tourism ministry sources said the potential of medical tourism is borne out of the fact that there has been an increase of 20 per cent of arrivals of tourists to avail medical treatment in the country.

INDIA IS NOW 5TH LARGEST GLOBAL STEEL PRODUCER

India has moved up two places in global ranking and is now the fifth largest producer of crude steel in the world with the revised figures for production in 2006 ahead of South Korea and Germany.

According to union ministry of steel, which went into the issue of under-reporting of capacity and production data, has revised the production figures for crude steel in calendar year 2006 to 49.45 million tonne as against the earlier reported 44 million tonne, which put India in the seventh position among global steel producers. The revised figures for crude steel production in 2006-07 is pegged at 50.71 million tonne and that of finished steel at 51.90 million tonne. According to figures released by the International and Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) for 2006 released in January, South Korea ranked fifth with a crude steel capacity of 48.4 million tonne and Germany sixth with 47.2 million tonne. With the revised figures, India has pipped both South Korea and Germany.

The changing BPO Landscape: an update on the Indian ITES-BPO Industry

The Indian ITES-BPO segment continues to chart strong year-on-year growth. In the last decade, India has strengthened its leadership position as an offshore destination with an estimated share of 65% of global offshore IT and 46% of global BPO. The addressable market for offshore BPO globally stands at USD 150 billion leaving enough headroom for further growth. India is already the leading skill-surplus destination and will continue to be so in the next decade due to its lead in five key dimensions of competitiveness: abundant talent, quality and scaleable infrastructure, operational excellence, conducive business environment and growing domestic BPO market.

The Indian ITES-BPO exports grew from USD 6.3 billion in FY 2005-06 to USD 8.4 billion in FY 2006-07 while the revenues of domestic BPO grew significantly to USD 1.2 billion in FY 2006-07 from USD 0.9 billion in FY 2005-06. The sector provides direct employment to 553,000 in FY 07 up from 415,000 in FY 06.In order to maintain this leadership position, the NASSCOM ITES-BPO Forum is focused on addressing the specific needs of the industry and further consolidate ‘Brand India’ in the ITES-BPO space worldwide. The Forum has now been active for the past four years and has been conducting a series of activities at a national and regional level involving industry players, government and academia. In its ongoing efforts to maintain the cutting edge advantage and facilitate the build up of skilled manpower, a number of NASSCOM initiatives are underway.



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