Against All Odds

CEO & MD, INFOSYS

Future of Indian IT is bright and promising

As the New Year approaches, the Indian IT industry can look back at the year gone by with pride. In the face of a global economy which has yet to come to terms with the aftermath of the recent financial turmoil, the general sentiment was one of cautious optimism. The macro-economic challenges notwithstanding, the Indian IT industry demonstrated unstinted resilience and sustained growth. In the process, it is estimated to have added 230,000 jobs in FY2012 thus providing employment to about 2.8 million people directly and 8.9 million people indirectly.

Global economic growth dropped to almost 3% in 2012. Businesses and governments alike had to fight hard to survive and thrive in a volatile business environment, even as strong headwinds continued to tear at them. Uncertainty around the health of government finances and the banking industry ate away at growth. Forecasts, predictably, remained muted. However, summarising the events of the year in such austere terms alone is clearly inadequate, particularly for the Indian IT industry.

Amidst all the challenges, 2012 will be remembered for being the year in which the Indian IT-BPO industry crossed the $100 billion revenue mark of which exports accounted for about $69 billion. This success was led by the ability of the IT industry to continually adapt and reinvent itself to the changing business needs of its clients.

At Infosys, our experience was no different. We had to operate in a business environment which was increasingly dynamic and

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