The Hindu Business Line : AP registers IT exports worth Rs 26,100 cr

Even as large financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers in the US fell like nine pins adding further to the slowdown, the IT and ITES industry in Andhra Pradesh is not all that depressed.

While acknowledging the fact that the there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, the Hyderabad Software Exporters’ Association (HYSEA) has said that the companies could handle the market changes in the medium term.

‘Uncertainty’

“Lack of stability in large financial institutions around the world and lack of predictability on currency movements have led to the uncertainty. The industry has no clue on what to expect next and to know when the bad news will be fully out,” Mr M. Narsimha Rao, President of HYSEA, told Business Line.

“These two factors have made it very difficult to predict the outlook in the short run. But we can achieve a growth rate of 20 per cent this financial year, keeping in view the steady growth in demand for IT solutions,” Mr Narsimha Rao, who is also Vice-President and Head (Hyderabad Centre) of Infosys, said.

Andhra Pradesh registered IT exports worth Rs 26,100 crore, with the US taking a lion’s share, last year. This very reason makes the companies wary of the turmoil in the US economy. “Events of that magnitude would certainly have a bearing on the IT industry here,” he added.

De-risking strategy

Pointing out that exports were the main stay, he felt that events of this magnitude (in the US) would have an impact on India in the short-term. He, however, said that the industry was in the process of de-risking by entering new geographies and developing new verticals.

The real impact, however, could be seen in the next few weeks when companies came out with second quarter results, he added.

Mr Harit Shah, an IT and telecom analyst with Angel Broking, felt that there were some lessons the Indian IT industry should learn to get out of the blues.

High-end services

“They should move faster into higher-end services like consulting and package implementation and build an end-to-end suite of services to survive in such a turbulent economic environment,” he observed.

Mr Ajit Kumar, Director (Projects) of ValueLabs, a development and testing company, said the present crisis had its roots in the sub-prime problem and a decade of financial excesses committed in the US financial system.

“We have started tapping West Asian, European and Commonwealth of Independent States. We are also planning to enter into the areas of packaged IT solutions and Remote Infrastructure Management,” he added.

More Stories on : Performance | Software | Andhra Pradesh

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