With global business seeing a slowdown, Wipro Infotech, the India and West Asia arm of the $7-billion software major Wipro, is looking at the lucrative space of Indian government IT services in the current financial year.

While the vertical is valued at close to $3 billion, Wipro Infotech is?vying for deals worth $1.5 billion, company officials told FE.

The IT services firm is already engaged in implementing end-to-end projects for the government, including setting up?infrastructure, application, and analytics for various ministries and departments. For instance, in the last six months, it has rolled out third phase of an analytics?project for the Financial Intelligence Unit of the ministry of finance. The unit tracks money transfers and money laundering across the country. It also alerts agencies like CBI and RBI about any suspicious transactions. It is also in the process of rolling out a R100 crore crime and criminal tracking system for Maharashtra Police, after implementing it in Karnataka.

According to company officials, more such deals are on the anvil, particularly with large scope for digitisation in various departments and regulatory authorities. Under the R23,000-crore National e-governance Plan, the ministry has laid out 27 mission mode projects, which include automation of land records, driving licences and passports. Nasscom has projected the business opportunity in e-governance over next three years to be worth around $10 billion.

?There is a lot of IT work that will happen in the government space. Various regulatory boards like SEBI and IRDA, and departments like transport and excise are looking for IT partners. The probable implementation of Goods and Services Tax could also create large opportunities,? said Anand Sankaran, senior VP and business head, India, Middle East, Africa and infrastructure services, Wipro.

?This fiscal, out of a $3 billion market, we are looking at?an addressable size of $1.5 billion. We are looking at projects that are more transformational and not just vanilla outsourcing,? said Sankaran.

Governance projects typically span over three years, and are?in the range of R100 crore to R1,000 crore.?In February, Wipro Infotech had?completed one of India’s biggest e-governance projects ? digitising the operations of the Employees? State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). The firm had bagged the R1,182-crore multi-year project ?Panchdeep? in March 2009, staving off bids from TCS and Infosys.

Even though decision making has been slow?in this vertical in the past, Wipro?expects growth in its India market this financial year to be backed primarily by?such projects. Telecom, its other big?domestic business, is not?likely to pick up anytime soon.

?Government and telecom together contribute over 45% of our India business. We are not expecting any major spendings in telecom. IT product dealing with the government has also been going slow due to delayed decision making at the Centre. But things are looking up for services. We are looking at growing India services business by at least 30% in FY13, backed by the government, and aided by BFSI, and manufacturing,? said Sankaran.

Wipro computes revenue contribution by India and West Asia in one bracket, unlike its peers, thus, hindering a direct comparison of the domestic market?s value. For FY12, combined revenue from India and West Asia stood at at 9.3% of its total revenue generation. Cross town rival Infosys got a meagre 2.2% of its business from India. TCS India business constituted 8.6% of revenues, after having declined from 9.2% in the previous year.