Indian IT industry has big hopes from new govt.

The result of 15th Lok Sabha election has brought some rays of hope among IT companies, with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) set to retain the power. The software services and outsourcing industry want new government to bring this industry out of the clutches of credit crunch by increasing the investment and stimulating growth.

The result has come at a time when the Obama administration has planned to increase the tax amount for those U.S. firms who outsource their jobs to India, hurting Indian IT.

The meltdown has forced Indian companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL, Patni and Cognizant to raise their share in the domestic markets valued at Rs 58,000 crore. Their earnings from domestic market have been less than 10 percent.

The role of government becomes more important as technology usage has played an important role in helping National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and other government initiatives to reach to the base level without any difficulty.

S Ramadorai, Managing Director, TCS says, "Given the proven benefits of technology usage in programs like NREGA to speed up development and enable efficient public administration as well as deliver government services to the citizens' doorsteps, the new government should embark on a $5-10 billion investment programme in e-governance initiatives.''

IT industry, which generates the highest number of jobs every year, expects new government to increase the budget to improve job skills and education in the country. Avinash Vashistha, CEO, Tholons says, "Drawing examples from China, the new government should invest significantly in education and training. SMEs are going to drive the next-gen growth of the country, therefore the government should give them better growth incentives.''

Apart from all this, the industry has forwarded its list of demand including the extension of Software Technology Park (STP) scheme and SEZ initiatives. Ashok Soota, Chairman, MindTree says, "The government should extend STPI tax benefit by another five years, thereby removing the uncertainty of getting it extended year by year. Overall, IT industry wants govt. to put economy on high growth."