Volatile rupee to hit IT services exports; Nasscom sees growth lower at 10-12% in FY17

Export growth in the country’s IT-BPO sector is expected to be slower at 10-12 percent next fiscal hit by currency fluctuations, especially the weakening of the rupee against the US dollar, Nasscom said on Thursday. The industry is looking at 12.3 percent growth in 2015-16 ending March 31. Last year, the IT services and software industry body had forecast a growth of 12-14 percent in exports. [caption id=“attachment_2598254” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The industry is looking at 12.3 percent growth in 2015-16[/caption] The rupee recently fell to 29-month low against the dollar. Currency movements impact the industry, which earns around 80 percent 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 $107.8 billion in 2015-16. The overall industry (along with domestic consumption and hardware) is expected to reach an estimated $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. “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 percent to 56 per cent. The domestic IT-BPO revenue is expected to post 10 percent growth to Rs 1.41 lakh crore in the ongoing fiscal and further grow by 11-13 percent (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 $7 billion in FDI, including $5 billion in start-up investments, in current fiscal, Nasscom said. “eCommerce contributed $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 expected to add around 2 lakh jobs and is marching steadily to reach total revenue of $350 billion by 2025 with digital revenues spearheading growth. PTI