The growth rate of exports from India's IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) is expected to jump from the present 30 percent to about 45 percent by 2008-09 with the value exceeding 50 billion US dollars, a new Indian industry study states.

"India will soon be poised to capture a 6 percent share of the global market in services and IT software by 2008-09 as against its present share of 3 percent," according to the study "India's Cutting Edge in Services" conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

India's software and services exports reached 17.2 billion US dollars during 2004-05 with an annual growth rate of over 30 percent.

Releasing the study Sunday, ASSOCHAM President Mahendra K. Sanghi said indications are that in the "next few years, the annual growth rate of IT and ITES services will be over 45 percent."

From a relatively low share of 10.02 percent in 1995-96, exports of software services occupied 48.9 percent of India's total services exports in 2003-04.

The trend highlighted India's growing competitive advantage in production and exports of such services to developed economies like the EU by 2020. It is estimated that by 2020 India will have a surplus of 47 million professionals in services and IT while most of the developed countries are expected to face a problem in finding people in the working age group due to the decline in the young population in these countries.

Besides IT and ITES, the study highlights that there is tremendous scope to be explored through diversification into areas such as consultancy, research and development, healthcare, entertainment services, ship repair services, satellite mapping services, accounting services and hospitality services.

Source: Xinhua