India Shining might have flopped miserably as an election campaign for the
Bharatiya Janata Party, but for the domestic IT industry it was a different
story. And, to gladden all patriotic hearts this shine was not just from the
usual avenue of software exports. In fact, after several years, the domestic IT
market, which grew at 24%, outgrew pure software exports, which recorded a 17%
upsurge. At Rs 33,374 crore, the domestic market was still only 36% of the
overall Indian IT industry, but increased IT spending by most Indian enterprises
ensured that no one would miss the general feel-good atmosphere pervading the
domestic IT market.
No prizes for guessing the verticals that contributed the lion's share of
this Rs 33,374 crore pie. While BFSI still headed the list, telecom,
manufacturing and government remained the dominant sectors. Further, technology
as a vertical also lived up to the industry's growth levels-the infotech
sector itself grew by 24% in IT spending. Top-dog BFSI's grew at 27%, thanks
to increased spending by PSU banks. The insurance industry witnessed
considerable IT implementation, and by itself, grew at a whopping 147% to reach
Rs 668 crore, while banking and financial services, the remaining portion of the
ubiquitous BFSI segment, was pegged at Rs 7,231 crore, a 21% growth over FY
2002-03's figures of Rs 5953 crore. While manufacturing and government
retained their shares from the previous year, these two sectors (manufacturing
and Government) contributed handsomely to overall growth. Amongst other
verticals, healthcare, pharma, logistics and hospitality showed significant
increase, while FMCG, retail and utilities remained peripheral players.
Others include pharma, logistics, healthcare, hospitality, FMCG, retail, utilities |
BFS and telecom spending showed an increase; but more heartening was the jump by the manufacturing sector. The spending was more skewed towards process manufacturers. Insurance by itself merited separate mention |
A large number of PSUs, including BSNL, BHEL, SBI and ONGC amongst others,
witnessed heavy spending on IT during FY 2003-04. However, in calculating the
market shares of different verticals, DQ has considered each of these large
enterprises in their specific domains of expertise. Hence, SBI comes under
banking and BSNL under telecom, while BHEL and ONGC are listed under
manufacturing. If we reckoned it otherwise, the share of the government would
have gone up considerably at the expense of all other verticals. For DQ
purposes, government includes all IT investments by the different state
governments as well as the Union Government in various e-governance projects.
One reason India Shining flopped for the NDA was the perception that
technology advancements had minimal impact on the rural masses. This was true
even for the domestic IT market, despite everybody asserting the imminent need
to bridge the digital divide. The Top 10 cities contributed Rs 20,961 crore,
about 60% of the total IT spending across the country, and this scenario is
unlikely to change much next fiscal. Delhi pipped Mumbai to the numero uno spot
amongst the Top 10 cities (probably with the help of Gurgaon and Noida in NCR),
while the much hyped Hyderabad was relegated to the sixth position.
IT infrastructure outsourcing was one trend that particularly caught the
imagination of India Inc during FY 2003-04. Many enterprises delegated most of
their end-to-end computing activities and also sought strategic consulting
advice on aligning IT with their core businesses. The big-ticket deals included
Bharti TeleVentures awarding IBM a $750 million, 10-year out—sourcing
contract, and Bank of India awarding a 10-year outsourcing contract valued at
$150 million to HP Services. Besides, Accenture bagged a 10-year agreement from
Dabur, and recently, another multi-year contract from Indo Rama Synthetics.
The single biggest driver behind India Inc's increasing proclivity for
outsourcing is its realization that it is both prudent and pragmatic to leave IT
functions to the experts and concentrate instead on core business activities.
Subsequently, the basic model has changed from mere facilities management, which
was focused mostly on body shopping, to device-based outsourcing. The transition
from the earlier model of facilities management, with vendors acquiring their
own manpower, to the current model of asset stripping, where device-based
resources are outsourced, has changed life for most enterprises. IT is now
treated as operational expenditure on most corporate balance sheets where it
once used to be thought a capital expenditure.
IT Spending by City (Rs crore) |
|||||
City |
2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05* | ||
Ahmedabad | 344 | 413 | 498 | ||
Bangalore | 1,465 | 1,817 | 2,205 | ||
Chennai | 2,035 | 2,572 | 3,120 | ||
Cochin | 221 | 256 | 288 | ||
Delhi | 5,709 | 6,622 | 7,682 | ||
Hyderabad | 905 | 1,092 | 1,343 | ||
Kolkata | 1,045 | 1,197 | 1,456 | ||
Lucknow | 200 | 230 | 274 | ||
Mumbai | 5,241 | 6,184 | 7,112 | ||
Pune | 494 | 578 | 654 | ||
Grand Total |
17,659 | 20,961 | 24,631 | ||
|
The year also saw networks getting increasingly complex, and troubled already
by the shortage of qualified IT staff, Indian businesses have actively started
outsourcing their network management needs to Network Management Service (NMS)
providers. While cost is definitely a strong motivation for Indian businesses
seeking to outsource network management services, there are other compelling
reasons too. For instance, outsourcing provides a significant competitive
advantage to most companies that seek to rapidly expand their network across the
country. These organizations find themselves at the crossroads when they
discover that they neither have the time nor the competence to manage their
networks, and realize that they would be better served by focusing on their core
competency, leaving the management of their networks to outside parties. This
realization resulted in an exponential demand for managing enterprise network
services such as LAN, WAN, VPNs, VoIP, intranets and extranets for deploying
various applications.
Rajneesh De in Mumbai