ISAS Briefs

Information technology (IT) industry has been one of India’s greatest success stories since the 1990s. The combined revenues from IT software, IT services and information technology enabled services (ITES) industries in India touched US$47.8 billion in 2006-07; this was 5.4 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in that year. India is the top location in offshoring of service work. Estimates made in 2005 indicated that India accounted for 44 per cent of the total value of outsourcing by IT and ITES industries worldwide.1 For all these, however, the road ahead is not entirely hassle-free for this industry in India. The latest cause of worry has been the appreciation of the Indian Rupee in relation to the US dollar. This reduces India’s IT firms’ export earnings, two-thirds of which are derived from the United States.