Software companies record sales worth Rs 15,890 crore

The National Association

of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) estimated the annual turnover

of the Indian software industry to have crossed Rs 15,890 crore during

1998-99.

"The country witnessed

the highest ever growth in software exports during the year, with total

exports growing to Rs 10,940 crore," said Dewang Mehta, President

NASSCOM.

Dewang said that with

this growth rate and continued support from government software exports

during the current financial year would grow at more than 50 percent and

can be to the tune of Rs 16,700 crore.

According to the NASSCOM

survey the industry recorded an overall growth of 58 percent during 1998-99,

up from Rs 10,040 crore turnover in 1997-98.

As per the survey

India exported software to 86 countries. Around 60 percent of exports

was made to the US and Canada, and 23 percent to European countries. Tata

Consulting Services, Wipro, Pentafour, Infosys, NIIT, Satyam and HCL Technologies

were the top exporters.

The solutions for

Y2K revenues generated business worth $ 560 million and accounted for

20 percent of exports.

There has been a global

slowdown in spending for Y2K software solutions. This will not adversely

affect the industry's export as many companies have started focusing on

new emerging areas like e-commerce and euro.