Industry body Nasscom has done away with annual guidance even as the Indian IT and BPM sector beat growth expectations in 2018-19.
Nasscom said it remained cautiously optimistic about industry prospects this year as it continues to transition. Addressing media, Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said that the sector has grown 9.2 per cent in 2018-19, against a forecast of 7-9 per cent. This growth has come about as companies in the $155 billion sector has started to embrace digital transformation and the use of automation, bots start to increase. Digital grew 30 per cent on a yearly basis and is now estimated to have raked in revenues of $33 billion. The growth was aided by some tailwinds in the form of what Ghosh calls the highest tech spending in the last 5 years. However, global macroeconomic factors such as a no deal Brexit, US China trade wars and increased government uncertainties around regulation continue to weigh in.
This has impacted the forecast estimates which Nasscom used to give religiously and which was a kind of benchmark for the companies. On doing away with guidance, Rishad Premji , chairman Nasscom and Wipro chief strategy officer said this would be the new norm as the past is very different from the future. We are looking at a whole new set of indicators as we have to look at the future through a new lens, said Ghosh. Guidance based on past performance and the history.. industry very different from the past..we are developing new metrics that will allow us to do a fair assessment of the industry, she added.
Nasscom also said that around 15 per cent of the total IT workforce have been reskilled in new technologies. It also said that 170,000 new tech talent were added in the year. It was business as usual, strong execution and some of the negatives didn't kick in, said Keshav Murugesh, vice chairman Nasscom and Chief Executive Officer WNS.