The Indian government will spend $6.88 billion on IT products and services in 2015, a 5.2 per cent rise over the previous year, according to a study by Gartner.
This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre, devices, and telecom services. The Government comprises state and local governments and the national government.
“Government spending on software will total $869 million in 2015, a 10.6 per cent increase from 2014,” said Anurag Gupta, research vice-president at Gartner.
“The software market will be led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to a vertical industry). These are standalone applications that are not modules or extensions of horizontal applications.”
IT services (which include consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing, and business process outsourcing) is expected to grow 10 per cent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion — with the business process outsourcing sub-segment growing by 21 per cent.
Telecom services will also be a $1.6-billion market, with the mobile network services sub-segment recording fastest growth of 3 per cent in 2015 to reach $787 million.
Internal services, which refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organisation, will grow 8.8 per cent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement, and maintain information systems.
“The investments in the ‘Digital India’ initiative, led by a focus to allow access to Government services on mobile devices (part of the mobile Government), expansion on broadband and planning for smart cities, will be a stimulus for the Indian Government's ICT initiatives,” said Gupta.