If you aim for the sky, you may reach the treetops - and that may well be true of the Indian IT-BPO industry. The 1999 Nasscom-McKinsey report, which fired India’s IT ambitions then, had fixed a target of $50 billion in IT auto insurance quote and BPO exports by 2008.

Slow but steady

The expectations were set and re-set over the years, through new reports by Nasscom and course corrections were necessitated due to the global economic downturn. It is finally in FY10 that the industry has managed to hit the $50-billion mark.

“In those days, the McKinsey projections were done on a calendar year basis. Hence, the forecast of $50 billion exports was for December 2008. In that sense, we are only a year late, despite the fact that industry has been through a dotcom bust and more recently the global economic crisis. But for the recent downturn, we would have been able to meet the original target,” the Nasscom President, Som Mittal, said.

Mittal recounted that when the industry had first set its sights on the $50-billion export milestone, it was met with disbelief. “We are pleased that we have been able to meet that forecast by FY10,” he said.

Nasscom report

It may be recalled that the 2005 Nasscom report had stated that India can clock export revenues of about $60 billion by 2010. It also said that the export growth can be further accelerated through innovation by industry members.

In FY09, when the global crisis struck, Nasscom said that the IT and BPO exports would hit $60-62 billion mark only in FY11. As it turns out, according to the latest outlook, the IT and BPO export revenue is expected to touch $56-57 billion by FY11