The rapid expansion of the IT industry has been a key feature of economic development worldwide. The IT industry has become a main source for export earnings and also a key driver in the transformation of the domestic economy and its international interface in several Asian economies. In the past decades, East Asian countries have been successful in capturing a large share of the global sourcing of IT hardware, and India has emerged as a major center for offshoring of IT services.

These sectors, however, continue to face multiple challenges such as the need to respond quickly to changes in technology and demand. This is illustrated by the fact that the IT industry in India went through a radical transformation in the 1990s and the 2000s and is poised to be reshaped again in the 2010s. The deceleration in global demand for IT following the global financial crisis in September 2008 and the subsequent economic recovery phase underscored the opportunities and challenges which the global IT industry will have to deal with in the 2010s.

This global context and its implications for India are examined in an in-depth study entitled “IT Industry in Transformation: Opportunities and Challenges for India” authored by Raja M. Mitra.

The study compares developments in the 2000s and to what is likely to happen in the 2010-2020 period. It contains analysis of the global economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009 as well as long term IT-BPO industry transformation issues as manifested in the revenue earnings, industry linkages, human resource, finance, and industrial organization and innovation developments. It highlights opportunities as well as factors constraining growth and provides growth scenarios for exports and the domestic market for the 2010s. Furthermore, it points to key corporate strategy and public policy imperatives and lessons in enabling continued growth of the IT-BPO industry and the offshoring business in India and internationally.

This study identifies three major growth scenarios for the IT products and services industry and the BPO sector in India for the 2010-2020 period.