India Software and services export to touch $65 bn

India's vibrant IT software and services industry has been projected to reach an export potential of 57 to 65 billion dollars by 2008, Union IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said.
The software industry in India, one of the pillars of economic development, is currently worth 29.5 billion dollars of which 23.4 billion was exports-- about 20 per cent of the nation's total exports, Maran said, after inaugurating the Coimbatore facility of Robert Bosch India.

India is expected to sustain its leadership position in future also, as export revenue from ITES-BPO sector grew from 2.5 billion US dollars in 2002-03 to 6.3 billion dollars in 2005-06, he said.

The IT and ITES-BPO sector has become the biggest employment generator amongst young college graduates, with the number of jobs almost doubling each year, Maran said.

The number of professionals employed in India by IT and ITES sectors has grown from 2.84 lakh in 1999-2000 to 1.3 million in 2005-06, growing by over 2.84 lakh in the last year alone, he claimed.

While the pace of recruitment picked up for IT services, ITES-BPO companies were recruiting in large numbers through out the year, Maran said adding it was estimated that the ITES-BPO sector hired 400 personnel every working day of the year.

Source: Bussiness Standard