IT spending in India to grow 8% in 2021 amid pandemic

Mumbai, July 14 The information technology (IT) spending in India is expected to reach $92.7 billion in 2021, growing 8 per cent from last year, as many companies still suffer revenue declines and IT spending is accelerating ahead of revenue expectations amid the pandemic, a new Gartner report showed on Wednesday.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.2 trillion in 2021, an increase of 8.6 per cent from 2020.

"The second wave of the pandemic and associated lockdowns have brought a significant sluggishness during most of the second quarter of 2021. However, demand is witnessing a rapid recovery across majority of the sectors," said Naveen Mishra, senior research director at Gartner.

"Pharma, healthcare, financial services, education, online retail and government continue to invest in their digital transformation journey."

In 2021, Indian organisations including SMEs, will be better positioned to invest more into IT, through the next two quarters.

All segments of IT spending are projected to grow in 2021, in India. End user spending are forecasted to spend the highest on devices in 2021, after a 5.9 per cent decline in 2020, the report showed.

"CIOs are looking for partners who can think past the digital sprints of 2020 and be more intentional in their digital transformation efforts in 2021. This means building technologies and services that don't yet exist, and further differentiating their organisation in an already crowded market," said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner.

The IT services segment is forecast to total $1.2 trillion in 2021, an increase of 9.8 per cent from last year.

"As the world continues to open back up, enterprises will invest in tools that support innovation, anywhere operations and employee productivity and trust," said Lovelock.