MUMBAI, Apr 9: Terming the current slowdown in the IT services sector as a “passing phase”, Mastek’s founder and ex-chairman Ashank Desai said the sector is poised to grow over two-fold by 2025 from the present USD 155 billion.
“The IT industry is on the right path. The present slump is a passing phase, caused by global uncertainty and protectionism in the US and European countries,” Desai, who was also earlier the chairman of industry lobby Nasscom, said here over the weekend.
Asked about the curbs for IT professionals in obtaining H1B work visas, he said, “I am not worried.”
He said IT services is a non-linear business and has the scope of adding many jobs, even as the IT companies are awaiting clarity.
US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ programme and his government’s proposed policies on H-1B visas targeting IT workers have spooked domestic IT majors, who net over 65 per cent of their income from the US alone.
Desai, who is the non-executive director of Mastek, said after all the global IT industry is nearly worth USD 2 trillion, and India has reached only USD 155 billion last decade and has the potential to grow two-fold by 2025.
“We have a long way to go, and are moving in the right direction,” he said.
In February, Nasscom had deferred its growth guidance for fiscal 2018 by a quarter in an unprecedented move due to global macroeconomic uncertainties.
It also lowered the IT export growth target to 8-10 per cent for fiscal 2017 from 10-12 per cent earlier.
For fiscal 2017, the IT exports are expected to reach USD 118 billion, Nasscom said.
The industry currently employs over 3.86 million people, a growth of 5 per cent and addition of 1.7 lakh people over 2015-16, Nasscom Chairman C P Gurnani recently indicated. (PTI)
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