IT companies in India – A window to the past, present and the future

The information technology industry is growing in various parts of the world and India is no exception. The south Asian giant has witnessed a massive transformation in this particular segment. The IT industry is one of the largest private sectors in the country at this stage, consisting of two major components, including software and hardware development.

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Having started its journey in 1968, the Indian IT industry faced quite a few challenges in the earlier stages. Soon, the TATA formed TCS to offer software development service amidst a weak economy. It was a time when the local markets hadn’t hit the straps and the policies were unfriendly for the private businesses. However, things changed in 1970, as the economy started to improve, although bank finance was still not available for the exporters.

This is when Santa Cruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) was incorporated in Mumbai. Soon after, the government policies too started to change and the import tariffs for hardware and software decreased to 60 per cent. At that juncture, over 80 per cent of the India’s software exports were from SEEPZ.

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With Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the helm (1998-2004), the development of Information Technology was appointed among Indian economy’s top five priorities. Simultaneously, Indian National Task Force was also established on the Information Technology and Software Development. As a result, Software Technology Parks of India were created in different cities by the Department of Electronics.

The Indian IT industry witnessed a boom from 1999-2000, growing by over $5.7 billion with an annual growth of 50 per cent since 1991. Today, the scenario has completely changed, as India is regarded as home to some of the biggest IT and Software industries, including International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Wipro, and Hewlett Packard (HP), among others.

India consists of over 75 per cent of the global talent within the IT industry and accounts for over 67 per cent of the global outsourcing market. There are over 1,000 global delivery centers in over 80 countries across the world that have been setup by Indian IT and ITeS companies. These companies are attracting huge investments from major countries across the globe.

The Digital India campaign has further boosted the IT industry with an expected investment of over $20 billion to improve the infrastructure across the country, while also promoting online payments and e-governance. Other than this, Startup India campaign has also supported technology startups, paving the way for further transformation of this sector.

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The industry leaders expect a great transformation ahead for the Indian IT industry, with a number of startups coming on board and the government looking to tap the potential of the existing firms by incorporating new policies and initiatives. The advent of new technologies, like Artificial Intelligence can further open the doors of software companies to innovate and replace the traditional methods with more comprehensive options.

The future of the Indian IT industry is quite encouraging and much will depend on the supply-demand chain. At this juncture, things seem to be heading in the right direction, but the sector will need to stay ahead with uncertainties growing amidst the global pandemic.