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Global IT industry grows 8 percent in 2008, India struggles

New Delhi, June 10, 2009

The IT industry worldwide grew by an estimated 8.2 percent in 2008 because of a good six to eight months of "business as usual" despite the meltdown, though Indian exporters took a beating, leading IT market researcher and consultancy Gartner said Tuesday.

The industry recorded a revenue of $806 billion in 2008 against a turnover of $745 billion in 2007.

"Vendors had six to eight months of �business as usual' in 2008 and then approximately four months encountering the beginning of the global economic downturn, featuring widespread cost restrictions and cost reductions," Kathryn Hale, research vice president for Gartner's worldwide IT services group said.

India's growth trajectory during the period took a major beating with exporters managing only 12.9 percent growth last year, less than a third of the healthy 39.8 percent recorded in 2 007.

"India-based vendors were impacted early in the economic downturn. This would be expected, as these providers sell especially heavily to the financial sector and typically lead with offshore application development services, which are relatively easy to delay in tough times," Gartner said.

It was widely anticipated that with the crash of the banking sector in the US, IT revenues worldwide would take a beating with the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) segment constituting a major chunk of the IT sector's clientele.

"The only two segments of the market that grew less than forecast were IT management and process management," Hale said, adding: "This is particularly surprising".

She said this was so as during economic downturns, the potential cost savings from outsourcing usually kept this market segment buoyant.

"However, apparently, buyer hesitation to commit to the long-term requirements of outsourcing agreements took precedence in 2008," Hale said.  

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