India’s software services exports up by 14% last fiscal: RBI

The Dollar Business Bureau India’s exports in computer services and ITES/BPO services have registered a growth in FY2013-14, says the annual survey report of the Reserve Bank of India released on Monday. According to the RBI annual survey report on ‘Computer Software and Information Technology Enabled Services Exports: 2013-14’, the exports of the computer services and ITES services registered a growth of 14.6% in dollar terms, over the exports during previous financial year. Out of the $71.4 billion(bn) software services exports during FY2013-14, the exports of computer services (included IT services and Software product development) alone stood at $52.6 bn, registering 73.6% of the total share of software services exports during the year, which is more than that of $45 bn(71.9% share) during the previous year. Whereas, the exports of BPO Services which also included engineering services, stood at $18.9 bn sharing 26.4% of the total software services exports during FY2013-14 against $17.6 bn (28.1% share) during FY2012-13. Coming to the organization-wise share in the total software services exports during FY2013-14, the public limited companies with $45.46 bn exports and 63.6% share, dominated the private limited companies that accounted for $25.71 bn exports with 36% of the total exports share. However, the exports share of the public limited companies in FY2013-14 decreased by 1.0%( 64.6% from 63.6%) compared to FY2012-13, due to 0.7% rise(from 35.3% to 36%) of the private limited companies’ share in FY2013-14 compared to FY2012-13. Among the export destinations, the USA & Canada stood top by accounting for $44.8 bn (62.7% share) exports followed by Europe-$17.4 bn(24.4% share), Asia-$4.1 bn(5.1% share),among others. While the USA & Canada share of Indian software exports in FY2013-14 decreased by 1.4% year-on-year, Europe’s share increased by 4.2% in FY2013-14 compared to the FY2012-13. Meanwhile, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) recent estimates, the IT exports (including software services and products) would be 13% during FY2014-15 and is expected to be around 12-14% in FY2015-16. In the current year, engineering design and product development stood as the fastest growing segment, driven by value-added solutions from existing players and newer global in-house centres being established in India. However, the NASSCOM report says that the domestic IT-BPM sector will surpass IT exports in the future and its growth is expected to be around 15%-17% in FY2015-16, above the current fiscal. In this regard, the Indian government’s push for technology adoption and boost for e-commerce sector is going to make this possible, says the NASSCOM report.  

This article was published on February 18, 2015.