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The information technology industry, which has emerged as the number one in market capitalisation, will continue to remain buoyant with India's software exports growing by 55 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year.

Software exports generated revenue of Rs 35.2 billion in the first quarter (April-June 1999) against Rs 22.7 billion in the same period last year, a survey done by the National Association of Software and Service Companies said today.

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''Software exports from India continue to grow in the same dynamic manner, as before,'' NASSCOM President Dewang Mehta has said.

He attributed the continued growth in software exports to the growing respect for Indian expertise, creation of brand equity and strides made by the Indian software industry into e-commerce and IT-enabled services.

The contribution of Y2K solution projects in software exports is almost 20 per cent of the total software exports in Q1. ''Since 1996, Indian software export industry has executed over $2 billion of Y2K software solutions for the overseas market,'' the survey said.

Thanks to a robust bottom line of the Indian software companies that have generated bulk of their revenue from exports, the market capitalisation of this sector has reached the top among all other segments of the Indian economy.

As on August 18, the aggregate market cap of the IT sector was Rs 7.907 trillion, out placing personal care and refinery segments from the top slots.

''It is more than 15 per cent of the total market cap at the Indian stock exchanges,'' Mehta said.

With a view to protecting the investors' interest, NASSCOM is working with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and is in the process of nucleating a rating agency for the software industry.

Mehta said prospects for the software exports continue to remain positive. ''The total software exports in 1999-2000 may touch Rs 167 billion ($3.9 billion),'' he said.

One of the main strategies for the software industry this year would be to move up the value chain and sow seeds of e-commerce; Web based technologies and interactive integration. The strategy would involve more acquisitions of overseas companies by the Indian software houses.

Referring to Y2K problem, the NASSCOM survey has found increasing compliance. ''In the last 10 months, there has been extraordinary effort put in by the government and industry to reach higher levels of Y2K date compliance in the country,'' Mehta said.

He said India is in a better position to make the transition into 2000 than was the case just a few months ago.

He said many international agencies have not properly evaluated India for Y2K preparedness mainly because of lack of information. ''Indian government has also not done enough to educate the world on its Y2K preparedness,'' Mehta felt.

UNI

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