Indian IT Industry Insulated From Economic Downturn: Nasscom

India’s IT industry is insulated from the financial crisis that has hit many economies globally, and companies here have not stopped hiring professionals either, according to Nasscom, the country’s leading IT industry body.

“The growth has certainly slowed down as an immediate impact of recession; however, companies are hiring from campuses for the next quarter,” said Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

Despite the economic meltdown, companies worldwide have to maintain their back-end operations and the crisis will not affect any existing contracts, he said.

Mittal, however, added, “The current situation may have an effect on new contracts.”

Nasscom, along with global accounting firm PriceWaterHouseCoopers, prepared a report recently titled, ‘Opportunities for Indian IT Industry: Japan’, highlighting Japan as an emerging market for Indian companies to invest.

The report, released yesterday, is part of Nasscom’s series of reports on emerging markets for the Indian IT sector.

Although India’s annual IT exports to Japan currently stand at less than $2 billion, the ageing population in the island nation and need for skilled manpower provide a huge avenue of growth for Indian companies, Mittal said.

“The total Japanese IT services market currently stands at $108.6 billion, out of which offshoring is limited to only 8-10 percent at present. Acute manpower shortage in the Japanese economy gives India the pocket for growth,” he said.

He, however, maintained that Japan would not provide an immediate solution to the current economic crisis in the West and its likely repercussions on the Indian IT services industry.

“Japan is ideal as a long term investment destination where the benefits will be reaped for the time to come,” he said. (IANS)