Bangalore: The Indian IT-ITES industry revenues will reach $50 billion mark in FY 07-08. This was revealed in the annual survey on the performance of the Indian software and services sector (excluding hardware) and outlook for FY 2007-08 by industry body NASSCOM. The IT-ITES sector recorded an overall growth of 30.7 percent during FY 06-07 as against a projected growth of 27 percent, clocking revenues of $39.6 billion. The software and services exports segment grew by 33 percent to register revenues of USD 31.4 billion while the domestic segment grew by 23 percent to register revenues of $8.2 billion in FY 06-07 up from $6.7 million.

Within the export segment, IT services exports have grown by 35.5 percent to clock revenues of $18 billion; while ITES-BPO exports up by 33.5 percent registering revenues of $8.4 billion. Engineering services and products exports clocked revenues of $4.9 billion, growing at 23 percent. Speaking on the industry's performance, Lakshmi Narayanan, Chairman, NASSCOM and Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said, "The growth has been made possible due to the outstanding performance of newer service lines viz. engineering services and infrastructure management." Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM stated that going ahead, gaming and entertainment will form the new thrust areas in the services segment.
On the threat to India as the preferred off shoring destination, he stated, "There are certain short to medium term challenges that need to be addressed swiftly. These include rupee appreciation, suitability of available talent, infrastructure development and sustenance of a positive policy/regulatory environment. These require timely, consistent and continued effort from all stakeholders including industry, government, academia and NASSCOM".

TCS maintained its position as the leading exporter followed by Infosys and Wipro respectively, as per NASSSCOM's list of top 20 software and services exporters in FY 2006-07.

He also added that the industry provides employment to about 7.5 million people; while direct employees constitute 1.6million, indirect employment attributed to IT-ITES was estimated to be 4x, translating to nearly 6 million additional jobs.

For a fast growing industry, Karnik agreed that tackling the e-waste issue, and more importantly ?going green? would be the areas of that various individual companies would need to address.

Six key focus areas for sustained leadership, as defined by the report are:
* Enhance the talent pool advantage by focusing on soft skill development
* Rapid growth in key business infrastructure strengthening plan for emerging cities and aim for proactive regulatory reform to facilitate business in India
* Operational excellence to be driven amongst industry players to ensure world leading benchmarks in performance in India based delivery model
* Catalyzing domestic market development
* Emphasis on quality and information security
* Fostering an ecosystem to breed innovation