January 02, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 22, 1428

BANGALORE, India, Jan 1: India’s information technology market is poised to expand 24 per cent in 2008 as it enters a new “growth trajectory,”an industry report said on Tuesday.

Revenue from the domestic IT and outsourcing market will touch 1.1 trillion rupees (27.9 billion dollars) this year, offsetting a slowdown in IT spending worldwide, according to the report by market research firm IDC.

The industry is now onto a new growth trajectory IDC India country manager Kapil Dev Singh said in a statement.But the firm warned that global IT spending would drop, with the US market of particular concern.

IDC forecast that worldwide IT market growth will slow to between 5.5 per cent and six per cent from 2007’s estimated 6.9 per cent.

India’s booming economy, growing annually by nine per cent, is spurring domestic IT spending as companies upgrade computer systems to stay competitive and consumers log onto the Internet.

India’s software and services exports grew by 33 per cent to 31.4 billion in the financial year to March 2007 while total revenue climbed by 31 per cent to $40 billion.

The domestic market has largely been ignored by an industry that has boomed on work from Western firms trying to cut costs by taking advantage of India’s English-speaking, computer-savvy graduates who work for lower salaries.

As the rupee strengthened 12 per cent last year against the dollar, eroding revenue from the US market that accounts for two-thirds of software exports, IT companies such as Tata Consultancy, Infosys and Wipro are looking at other countries and the home market to diversify risks.

The India domestic IT market will transform significantly propelled by a greater need for more sophisticated services, the report said.—AFP