Govt. IT spending in India to reach $6.4bn in 2014, says Gartner

BANGALORE, INDIA: Governments in India will spend $6.4 billion on IT products and services in 2014, an increase of 4.3 percent over 2013, according to Gartner, Inc.

This forecast includes spending by government (government is composed of state and regional government and central government agencies) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

"IT services, which includes consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will be the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within the government sector," said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner.

"IT services are expected to grow 3.8 percent in 2013 to reach $1.46 billion in 2014, up from $1.37 billion in 2013 - with the business process outsourcing segment growing 16.3 percent in 2014."

Internal services will achieve a growth rate of 9.4 percent in 2014. Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.

Software will achieve the highest growth rate within spending categories with 10.3 percent in 2014 to reach $758 million in 2014, up from $687 million in 2013, led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to a vertical industry. These are stand-alone applications that are not modules or extensions of horizontal applications).

ICT service providers will benefit by e-Government projects and citizen participation aided by expansion of affordable broadband connectivity and mobile solutions.