Economy

By realizing its long-term potential, the Indian IT and IT-enabled services industry could be one of the most powerful drivers of India's economic growth. As per the NASSCOM-McKinsey study 2002, the share of IT and ITES in the GDP is going to increase substantially from 1.4 percent in 2001 to 7 percent by 2008. By achieving its long term potential, the IT industry including remote development and IT outsourcing industries will dramatically boost Indian economy.

In addition, revenues from IT outsourcing, remote development and IT enabled services exports are likely to grow at a significantly higher rate than other exports and invisible and by 2008 will exceed all other invisible combined. IT outsourcing and remote development and IT enabled services exports, which currently account for 8 percent of foreign exchange inflows, will contribute more than 30 percent of foreign exchange inflows in 2008. In terms of market share, the long-term potential for India translates into a 4 percent market share in IT services IT outsourcing, remote development and IT-enabled services.

In the past few years, the Indian IT industry has pursued the goal of attaining the highest international standards of quality. A World Bank funded study conducted as early as 1992 to discuss Indian software strategies had concluded that more and more vendors in the US prefer to get their IT outsourcing and remote development needs addressed by India for its quality and cost advantage.

Indian players have created a strong value proposition in the IT software, IT outsourcing, remote development and services arena. Today India can boast of vendor sophistication --with more than 200 companies being quality accredited and serving the needs of over 255 Fortune 500 companies. Today, the world looks towards the Indian IT software and services industry for its good quality and high performance. According to McKinsey & Co., India has and will continue to have a growing number of vendors successfully working on complex projects across all areas of software and services, and performing at levels comparable to those of leading global players. As of 31st March 2002, India had 42 companies at SEI CMM Level 5 assessment. The quality & maturity of the Indian software industry can be measured from the fact that already 316 Indian software companies have acquired quality certifications and more companies are in pipeline to do so.


The other heartening feature has been the growing acceptance and adoption of the newly emerging People-Capability Maturity Model (People-CMM) by the Indian software industry. For a country like India, with its large assets in the form of skilled human resources, the relevance of People CMM needs no emphasis. A large number of Indian IT software and services companies have been quick to realize this and have either implemented or initiated these programs. The high quality apart from its low cost has resulted in making India a choice destination for IT outsourcing, remote development and IT enabled services. Remote development India has become the buzzword for many business managers in UK, Europe main land and US.