NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Top 20 Indian hardware and software companies grew 18.7 percent in rupee terms to report revenue of Rs. 183,621 crore ($39.52 billion) in FY ’09 compared to Rs..149,250 crore in FY ’08, revealed a survey conducted by Dataquest, the flagship publication from the CyberMedia Group.

The 23rd annual survey found that 2008-09 was a mixed bag for the Top 20 IT companies, with IT services companies—export and domestic—recording growth, while hardware taking the brunt of the economic slowdown, thirteen of the Top 20 companies reported revenues of over $1 billion, led by TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HP, IBM.

Seven companies in the DQ Top 20 recorded single digit revenue growth including global multinationals Microsoft India (one percent growth to Rs. 3,298 crore), HP India (two percent growth to Rs. 15,763 crore ), Oracle (three percent growth to Rs. 5,962 crore), and Cisco (four percent to Rs. 6084 crore).

The other companies that recorded single digit growth included hardware distributors Redington India (five percent at Rs. 6,576 crore). and Ingram Micro (nine percent to Rs. 9,396 crore). and chipmaker Intel India (nine percent at Rs. 4,698 crore).

"What may look surprising is that export firms doing business in recession-affected developed markets did better than those focused on the Indian market," said Prasanto K Roy, President and Chief Editor, Dataquest.

"That is because in a downturn, most users looked at outsourcing IT to keep costs flexible, which helped IT services firms. Within India's domestic market too, it is services companies like IBM and Wipro that did very well, while new computer buying spend was reduced drastically, hitting hardware and system software business," added Roy.

8 fastest growing companies among the Top 20

Despite the slowdown, which did create a negative sentiment in the market, eight companies clocked growth in the 20s. The eight fastest growing companies among the Top 20 list included MphasiS (Rs 3,173 crore; 69 percent), HCL Infosystems (Rs 8,089; crore 60 percent), Cognizant Technologies (Rs 9,410 crore; 49 percent), Wipro (Rs 23,882 crore; 41 percent), HCL Technologies (Rs 8764 crore; 41 percent), SAP India (Rs 4,320 crore; 33 percent), Dell India (Rs 4,266 crore; 32 percent ) and Infosys (Rs 20,392 crore;31 percent).

India’s largest software firm TCS grew 22 percent to clock revenues of Rs. 25,895 crore, followed by IBM India (Rs 12,048 crore; 19 percent), Patni Computer Systems (Rs 3,011 crore;17 percent), Accenture (Rs 4,400 crore;16 percent) and Tech Mahindra (Rs 4,195 crore; 15 percent).

MphasiS grew 69 percent to Rs. 3,173 crore and jumped five ranks to enter the Top 20 club, while Patni Computers made a comeback after two years by growing its revenues by 17 percent to Rs. 3,011 crore. On the other hand, Satyam exited the Top 20 for obvious reasons, while Lenovo too, moved out of the elite club by recording a de-growth of 18 percent.