India's Software Industry:A Structural Break-Up

We are living in the ere of Information Technology (IT). Computers are the drivers of IT in society. An important element of the computer system is software. It is the fastest growing and most profitable segment of IT industry. In this century of the mind, India, being a strong player in software which is a product of the mind, is being increasingly identified with software. Its size and pattern of growth indicate that the sector has acquired considerable stature and stability, and is going to dominate the Indian economic scene. However, an activity-wise break-up reveals that the sector is still dominated by the services segment, and the share of products and packages is minimal. Even within services, the thrust is on the low-value segment of custom software. By and large, the predominance/insignificance of the various software components continues to remain the same, indicating the lack of structural transformation or attainment of 'maturity' comparable with that of IT-advanced countries. Any growth strategy for the sector has to keep these structural realities in view.