Government's technology spend in 2015 will jump 5.7 per cent to $6.8 billion

Mumbai: Global consultancy firm Gartner on May 7 estimated that the government's technology spend in 2015 will jump 5.7 per cent to USD 6.8 billion on the back of IT services growth. The forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centers, devices and telecom services by both local and national governments, it said.

The estimate comes in the wake of the high-decibel 'Digital India' and 'Smart Cities' initiatives announced by the government, which have stoked interest of country-based IT companies that garner large chunks of revenues from outside the country. "IT services are expected to grow 10.5 per cent in 2015 to reach USD 1.7 billion, with the business process outsourcing segment growing 21.2 per cent," its vice-president for research Anurag Gupta said.

The IT services segment, which includes consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will continue to grow till 2019, he added. Internal IT spending, which covers salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff, will grow 8.8 per cent to USD 1.6 billion in 2015, Gartner predicted.

Software spending would be up 10.2 per cent to USD 860 million, led by vertical-specific stand-alone applications, it added. "Various governments and providers will target India's smart cities initiative in the next few years, with an emphasis on citizen engagement... we also expect developments in integrating services through Aadhaar cards and mobile technologies for various e-government initiatives," Gupta said.