New Delhi: India’s second largest software exporter Wipro Technologies has brushed aside slowdown fears saying the industry is doing fine.
“Industry is doing fine. There is a global slowdown. But there is no slowdown in India so far. If there is a global slowdown, you can’t be that naive to say, there won’t be any impact,” Chairman Wipro Azim Premji said.
Premji’s exuberance comes amid fears that IT exports revenue could go down to 21-24% from the earlier 30-32%.
On Sunday, Infosys Technologies Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani had said IT services growth would slow down due to the ongoing financial turmoil.
But the IT industry feels they would be in a position to take advantage of the next growth cycle. “Industry is resilient enough to deal with the challenges” is the unanimous opinion of experts.
“There is a global scenario, which is unprecedented and it would have an impact on everyone. But the IT industry has demonstrated time and again that it is resilient enough to deal with these challenges.
“We had a similar situation earlier in 2001, but we were able to not only get out of that but also take advantage of the situation. I am sure, companies are following the right strategies to wait for the situation to subside and then take advantage of the next cycle of growth,” he added but declined any comment on specific numbers.
Nasscom had initially projected a 21-24% growth for the current financial year, but the software body has now stated that the industry may see slower growth rates during the second half (against the year-ago period) in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Nasscom will complete the “review process” of the FY’09 export growth targets, sometime next month.
Wipro is next only to Infosys in terms of export revenue. Satyam and Infosys have already revised their dollar forecast for the year downward due to the slowdown on account of rupee depreciation and volume reduction.
The optimism is also reflected in the hiring plans of IT majors. Infosys plans to hire 25,000 employees in the current financial year, while Tata Consultancy Services has plans to hire 30,000-35,000 people, and Wipro and Satyam Computer Services intend hiring 14,000 to 18,000 IT professionals, respectively.