KOLKATA, INDIA: Emerging IT companies in the US could drive India's software services exports, with the second quarter of the next fiscal (2009-2010) proving to be the critical phase, a senior industry representative said.

Sanjiv Narayan, chairman, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, said: "Bailout packages being announced by the government of the US would help the IT (information technology) industry of India at a rate faster than earlier imagined."

According to him, it would be the emerging companies in the US rather than the existing corporate houses that will drive exports of software services from India.

"Let the new US president come out with the Federal budget. We believe things will start moving from there," Narayan added.

D K Sareen, executive director, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, said: "The last three months of the current fiscal are critical. We are already feeling the spin-off effect of the US recession over here."

In the first six months this fiscal, India's IT industry registered total business of $25 billion. The total target for 2008-09 is $58 billion.

The growth rate for the first six months in dollar terms was 22 percent and 30 percent in rupee terms.

Asked about next year's target, Sareen conceded the industry was 're-looking at the target of the next fiscal'.

Source: PR Wire