IT exports from India cross a trillion rupees during 2005-06

Information Technology (IT) exports from India have crossed a landmark one trillion rupees during the year 2005-06.

Disclosing this to reporters, Director of Software Technology Parks of India, Bangalore, B V Naidu said the country’s IT exports soared from Rs 780 billion during 2004-05 to a little over Rs one trillion during the year 2005-06, registering a growth rate of 30 per cent.

Karnataka has retained its pre-eminent position in Information Technology (IT) exports by posting a revenue of Rs 401 billion during the year by accounting for more than 40 per cent share in the country’s total IT exports. Karnataka’s IT exports stood at Rs 293 billion the previous year.

Out of the Rs 401 billion worth of IT exports from Karnataka, as much as Rs 376 billion came from software exports while the remaining Rs 24.8 billion were accounted for by hardware exports, Naidu said.

The US continued to be a major export destination for Indian IT accounting for 61 per cent of the total exports followed by Europe with 24 per cent, Japan six per cent, Asia six per cent and the rest of the world three per cent.

Karnataka’s Secretary to the Department of IT M K Shankarlinge Gowda said IT worth Rs 366 billion was exported from Bangalore alone in Karnataka. The secondary cities like Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli had together chipped in with Rs 10 billion.

With the addition of 201 new IT companies during the year 2005-06, the combined strength of IT companies in Karnataka had crossed 1,600. With the booming IT industry hoping to sustain its current growth rate even during 2006-07, IT exports from Karnataka are expected to cross the Rs 500 billion mark by March 31, 2007, he said.

Out of the one million IT professionals in India, Bangalore alone employs more than 300,000 presently. A little over 40,000 employees were recruited during 2005-06. He said the IT industry is expected to hire 70,000 people during 2006-07.

Quoting from the McKinsey report on India’s IT industry, Gowda said Karnataka is projected to achieve IT exports worth $ 20 billion by 2010 with about 500,000 employees in the industry.