Bangalore, February 4, 2013 —The Indian government ‘s spend on IT products and services will be Rs 368 billion on in 2013, an increase of 10.5 percent over the 2012 expenditure of Rs 333, find Gartner.This includes spending on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.
The largest chunk goes to telecommunications, networking equipment and services, growing 6.8 percent from Rs 111 billion in 2012, to reach Rs 118 billion rupees in 2013, mostly accounted by enterprise network equipment. Software will see the highest growth rate amongst the top level IT spending categories –18 percent in 2013, led by investments in desktop software and infrastructure software.The IT industry is expected to indirectly benefit from mega government-funding into projects like the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which will create an online database with biometric and identity details of Indian residents; the launch of the National Optical Fibre Network and the computerization of commercial taxes in states.
Says Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner: “The Indian government is starting to leverage UID identities to authenticate citizens for transferring welfare benefits directly to the recipient’s bank accounts, in the form of cash transfers, thereby creating a new system for welfare benefits. India goes to the national polls in 2014, and the government will aim to expand the UID operational infrastructure by speed tracking ‘financial inclusion’, allowing easy access to banking for poor & encouraging micro ATMs. To expand the benefits of IT, government aims to invest more than Rs 200 billion in expanding broadband penetration. The electronic chip making project, digitization of academic databases across all educational institutions, vehicle registrations and driving license databases will be the major focus areas.”
Source: Gartner: ‘Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending by Vertical Industry Market, Worldwide, 2010-2016, 4Q12 Update’.