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Bharat Kumar

"The numbers released by the Commerce Department in the US would take time before they were translated into increased opportunities for Indian software companies. There is always a lag time in these cases."

Chennai , Sept. 11

TECHNOLOGY spending has recently spurted in the US, but opinion back home is mixed as to whether the Indian software industry is enjoying the resultant benefits.

According to the US Department of Commerce, spending in "information processing equipment and software" showed the fastest annual growth - of 7.5 per cent - since 2000, to $427.1 billion in the second quarter ending June 2003 compared with $397.1 billion the same quarter in the previous year.

Interestingly, quarterly investments in the said category touched $406.9 billion, $406.3 billion and $411.8 billion, before it rose to $427.1 billion.

Investments in only software rose 5.52 per cent to $191 billion in the quarter ended June 2003 as compared to $181 billion in the same period in the previous year.

Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chief Financial Officer and Head, Finance and Administration, Infosys Technologies, told Business Line, "A large part of this could have come from government spending on technology. Homeland security and defence are seeing a lot of technology spending."

He added that such spending did not necessarily benefit the Indian software industry.

According to Mr S. Mahalingam, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Consultancy Services, "things are definitely improving."

Answering a specific question, he agreed that there were certainly more requests for proposals (RFPs) from clients in the last six months than there had been earlier.

However, he felt that the numbers released by the Commerce Department in the US would take time before they were translated into increased opportunities for Indian software companies.

"There is always a lag time in these cases."

Highly placed industry sources indicate that while the technology-buying environment is turning positive, the Indian software industry is yet to see an actual spurt in technology spending in the US.

"We are yet to receive any such signals from chief information officers," sources said.

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