As nd industries across verticals struggled to cope with the lockdowns, the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services showed remarkable resilience by clocking exports worth ₹84,360 crore by units registered under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) during the three-month lockdown period.
This period also marked two months of the Q1 of FY21, giving a promise that the sector could fare well during the year notwithstanding the concerns expressed in the background of the pandemic.
STPI’s Director-General, Omkar Rai, said that the export figures in the last three months gave hope of meeting targets for FY21.
These exports are exclusively done by the IT-ITES firms registered under the STPI.
Besides, the STPI has either renewed or registered new licences to 253 units during the period.
“These 253 units project a total business (exports) of ₹68,477 crore in the next three to five years,” Rai told BusinessLine in a telephonic conversation.
He said that the industry could quickly shift over 95 per cent of the staff to work from home and gain the confidence of the clients as it could ensure uninterrupted delivery of the services.
Omkar Rai added that the STPI-registered exports stood at ₹4,21,103 crore during 2019-20.
He said the STPI was in the process of setting up over 20 domain-centric Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in various cities to promote tech start-up ecosystem in the country.
Set up on June 5, 1991, the STPI played a key role in promoting the IT industry by providing special incentives to the registered units. It has about 4,000 units the country.
Hiring projections
Asked whether the Covid-19 would impact the hiring by the IT industry, he said the big companies were honouring the offer letters given by them in the colleges. “They plan for the future projects. They have not withdrawn their offer letters,” he said.