Indian government IT spending will total $7.2 billion in 2015, a 5 per cent increase over 2014, according to a study by research and analysis firm Gartner.
This forecast includes spending by the government sector (comprising state and regional government and central government agencies) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.
“IT services, which include consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will be the largest overall IT government spending category through 2018,” said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner.
“IT services are expected to grow 10.9 per cent in 2014 to reach $1.8 billion in 2015, up from $1.6 billion in 2014 – with the business process outsourcing segment growing 22 per cent during 2014,” Gupta added.
The government’s IT spending is on pace to total $6.6 billion in 2014, it said, adding that internal services (salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organisation) will achieve a growth rate of 9.9 per cent in 2014.
Software spending
The software market will achieve the highest growth rate within spending categories. Government spending on software will total $788 million in 2014, and it will grow to $910 million in 2015.
Software spending 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).
“India has ambitious plans to build several smart cities, and this will create new opportunities,” added Gupta.