IT exports to grow at slower pace of 10-12% in FY17: Nasscom

Export growth in the country's IT-BPO sector is expected to be slower at 10-12 per cent next fiscal hit by currency fluctuations, especially the weakening of the rupee against the US dollar, Nasscom said today.
The industry is looking at 12.3 per cent growth in the 2015-16 fiscal, ending on March 31. Last year, the IT services and software industry body had forecast a growth of 12-14 per cent in exports.
The rupee recently fell to 29-month low against the dollar. Currency movements impact the industry, which earns around 80 per cent of the revenue from the US and Europe.

Despite the impact, strong uptake of digital technologies like cloud, mobility, IoT and Big Data coupled with a rapidly growing start-up ecosystem are expected to help exports grow double-digit to reach USD 107.8 billion in 2015-16.
The overall industry (along with domestic consumption and hardware) is expected to reach an estimated USD 143 billion in 2015-16. The global IT-BPO spending rose 0.4 per cent in 2015.
"Amidst a volatile global economic environment, the industry has been able to set new benchmarks by sustaining its double-digit growth," Nasscom Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy told reporters here.

"Start-ups and eCommerce are the new champions of the industry and I expect these segments to increase their contribution to industry growth in the years to come," he said, adding that India has increased its market share in global sourcing from 55 per cent to 56 per cent.

The domestic IT-BPO revenue is expected to post 10 per cent growth to Rs 1.41 lakh crore in the ongoing fiscal and further grow by 11-13 per cent (in Indian rupee terms) to achieve revenue of Rs 1.56-1.59 lakh crore in 2016-17.
"We had estimated that the domestic segment will grow at a certain pace on the back of the announcements made by the government and trends that we saw. However, many of those have not taken off. As and when they do, we will see a larger impact," Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar said.
The industry added 2 lakh employees in 2015-16 reaching a total employee base of 3.7 million.

The Indian IT-BPO industry has received over USD 7 billion in FDI, including USD 5 billion in start-up investments, in current fiscal, Nasscom said.
"eCommerce contributed USD 17 billion revenue boosting digital consumption. India continues to gain market share in the global sourcing sector and emerges as the largest, most diversified and scalable destination," Reddy said.
The industry is largely youth dominated and contributes
over USD 25 billion, with NCR being a major hub, to operations by big companies. On an average 60-65 per cent employees reside within Delhi and need to reach their offices in Gurgaon and Noida where the industry is located.

Nasscom said further said many cases of harassment have been reported with vehicles being stopped, challaned and delayed for significant period of time in last two days.
It further said various companies, both Indian and MNCs have reported loss in productivity though business continuity has been invoked to ensure global clients are not impacted.
"As an industry, we are perhaps the cleanest, least polluting and most compliant. If the appropriate infrastructure like enough CNG stations and good supply factory fitted CNG vehicles is made available, we can switch expeditiously," Vidya Srinivasan, Sr VP, Genpact said.
The industry body is seeking deferred timeline for the movement of diesel to CNG or phased implementation as per Delhi Government's plan, exemption for employees to be picked up and dropped home during the night shift and specify the permit needed by the cabs of IT/BPM industry.