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Ambar Singh Roy

Kolkata, July 23 Home-based businesses (HBBs) in India are on track to spend $8.4 billion on their ICT (information, communication and technology) infrastructure in 2008. This would represent a rise of 19 per cent over similar spend in 2007, according to a recent study conducted by the New York-headquartered Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

The study states that there are around 16.8 million such businesses in India and they constitute about 8 per cent of the 202.9 million households in the country. Nearly one-eighth of these are PC-penetrated and are set to spend around $8.4 billion on their ICT infrastructure.

The AMI Partners’ study has defined HBBs as income-generating entities based at home and led by individuals who are self-employed. It excludes individuals who are engaged with other organisations and have a formal work-at-home arrangement with their respective employer or do after-hours work at home.

The study has concluded that, for every dollar spent by HBBs in India on ICT, 67 per cent is spent on telecom services and 22 per cent on computing. The high spending on telecom services indicates that HBBs in India rely on data and voice services to a large extent to conduct their businesses.

Although IT comprises a much lesser proportion of the IT/telecom spending pie, it is set to grow at a faster rate within HBBs as they strive to reach levels of technological superiority commensurate with very small businesses, or companies that engage up to four employees.

The ultimate objective of most HBBs is to graduate to the level of very small businesses, a desire that has been expressed by owners of several HBBs, according to the study.

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