Nasscom ends yearly guidance

Mumbai: IT industry body Nasscom said it has done away with annual guidance even as it sounded cautiously optimistic about industry prospects this year. It said Indian IT-BPM (business process management) sectors have beaten growth expectations in 2018-19.

Addressing the media here, Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said the sector has grown 9.2 per cent in 2018-19, exceeding a forecast of 7-9 per cent.

This growth has come about as companies in the $155-billion sector has started to embrace digital transformation and increase the use of automation and bots. Digital grew 30 per cent on a yearly basis and has raked in estimated revenues of $33 billion.

The growth was aided by the highest tech spending in the last five years.

However, fear is that global macroeconomic factors such as a no-deal Brexit, US-China trade wars and increased government uncertainties around regulation will pose risk for the sector.

On doing away with guidance, Rishad Premji, chairman, Nasscom and chief strategy officer, Wipro, said this would be the new norm as the past is very different from the future.