• Analysts Discuss the Outlook for the India IT Market During Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2019, November 11-14, in Goa
• According to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc., IT spending in India will total US$94 billion in 2020, up from US$88.5 billion in 2019 (an increase of 6.6%).
2020 will be a rebound year for India’s IT spending as consumers return to purchasing mobile phones after sitting on the sidelines in 2019, said John-David Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner. Additionally, business spending on IT grew 6% in 2019 and is expected to increase 9% in 2020, helping to drive growth across all segments.
Gartner analysts are discussing the macro economic trends affecting the IT spending market in India this week during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, which is taking place in Goa until Thursday.
Strong growth in total software spending will be driven by enterprise application software which is forecast to grow 17% in 2020. The expected increase in overall business spending will help drive 16% growth in enterprise mobile phone spending in 2020, pushing growth in the devices segment to 6.3%.
India IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
| 2019 Spending | 2019 Growth (%) | 2020 Spending | 2020 Growth (%) | |
| Data Center Systems | 3,726 | 2.7 | 3,819 | 2.5 |
| Software | 6,383 | 13.6 | 7,354 | 15.2 |
| Devices | 33,379 | -2.4 | 35,468 | 6.3 |
| IT Services | 15,786 | 12.0 | 17,897 | 13.4 |
| Communications Services | 29,203 | -0.1 | 29,788 | 2.0 |
| Overall IT | 88,476 | 2.0 | 94,326 | 6.6 |
Source: Gartner (November 2019)
Business Resilience and Increased Consumer Spending Fuels IT Growth
“Over half of India’s total IT spending is done by consumers, so it was expected that a dip in consumer spending would have tremendous impact on total IT spending,” said Mr. Lovelock. “Consumer resistance to investing in devices has impacted overall IT spending in the country. In 2019, private consumption slowed despite five back-to-back rate cuts throughout the year. This scenario is expected to change in 2020.”
“However, even within the slow economy, businesses showed resilience and continued to invest in IT,” said Arup Roy, research vice president at Gartner. “In mid-2019, the Indian government introduced corporate tax cuts, along with policies that were aimed at reviving the economy and bolstering consumer spending. As a result, corporate spending in software and services saw an uptick and organizations continued to invest in cloud, analytics, digital and automation.”
“In the next two to three years, IT spending will increase as the economy benefits from the goods and service tax (GST) implemented by the Indian government in 2018, and as policies supporting consumer spending come into practice,” said Mr. Roy.
Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database on which to base its forecasts. The Gartner quarterly IT spending forecast delivers a unique perspective on IT spending across the hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications segments.
About Gartner IT Symposium/ITxpo
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is the world’s most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives, uniting a global community of CIOs with the tools and strategies to help them lead the next generation of IT and achieve business outcomes. More than 20,000 CIOs, senior business and IT executives worldwide will gather for the insights they need to ensure that their IT initiatives are key contributors to, and drivers of, their organization’s success.
Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo include:
