New Delhi, August 23
The economic uncertainty in the US and the European markets may not have an impact on the Information Technology (IT) and ITeS (IT enabled services) sectors in the country with industry body NASSCOM sticking to its earlier prediction of 16-18 per cent growth for the industry. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the NASSCOM BPO Strategy Summit 2011, President Som Mittal said, “There is no reason for us to be worried... We have spoken to customers and they are looking at expanding into geographies and bringing newer solutions to the market.”

Fears of a financial crisis gripping major markets like the US and many European nations has raised concerns of clients cutting their IT budgets, which would impact Indian firms in a major way.

NASSCOM’s upbeat mood was seconded by Wipro and Infosys as well. Wipro’s outsourcing arm does not foresee a major impact in the near term from the global economic crisis, the firm's business technology officer, Nithya Ramkumar said.

Infosys also expects revenue growth of 15-20 per cent in its outsourcing arm. “(Global slowdown) shouldn't affect the BPO business. A downturn should in fact help the BPO business,” Swami Swaminathan, chief executive of Infosys BPO,said on the sidelines of the same conference.

In February, NASSCOM had presented an outlook of 16-18 per cent growth in IT exports in 2011-12, which was on a conservative side due to the slow economic recovery in the US and uncertainty in the European region. Mittal, however, added that the industry would maintain a cautious outlook.