Murthy-led panel sets $300 bn target for Indian IT by 2020

BANGALORE, INDIA: An independent Expert Committee of NASSCOM, chaired by Infosys Limited's chairman emeritus, N.R. Narayana Murthy, has set an highly ambitious target of $300 billion aggregate revenues for the Indian IT industry by 2020. It is almost a 300 per cent jump in aspiration from the $108 billion revenues grossed by the industry till 2012.

At a media interaction on Monday to make public the details of the recommendations of the committee constituted by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), Murthy said that the members discussed about the future vision for the industry and the body, besides values, new charters and key areas of focus.

"We would like the IT and ITeS sectors in India to be a trustworthy and society-friendly industry in the world. Through this report, we have been able to chart out a roadmap for ourselves that would help us realize this vision," he explained.

The committee - with members including Google India head Rajan Anandan, Dell India managing director Ganesh Lakshminarayanan and Nasscom executives Ashank Desai, Pramod Bhasin and its serving president, Som Mittal - has identified seven vertical segments for NASSCOM to realign its present structure.

The key focus areas, as suggested by the independent committee, are IT services, business process management (BPM), engineering research & development (ER&D), GICs, software products, domestic market and Internet & mobile. Mittal expressed confidence that there is a potential of $100 billion only from the Internet & mobile vertical by 2020.

"Today, the products market is generating about $1.6-1.7 billion revenues. Our aspiration is to take it to $10 billion. Likewise, mobile is a fast-growing segment," said Murthy, adding that even the number of employees in the industry, currently around 3 million, could double by then.

The committee has also recommended NASSCOM to develop next-gen technologies in association with the industry and focus on skill development. "We have to brand India as a proactive solution provider rather than a reactive one," concluded Murthy.