IT industry can play a key role in raising services exports to $1 trillion a year, says Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal has assured leaders of India’s top IT companies that the Modi Govt will give full support to the sector to accelerate growth and help India’s services exports soar to $1 trillion in a decade.

Minister said India was on track to achieve its merchandise exports target of $400 billion this year, while services exports were likely to be about $240 billion to $250 billion, which is much lower, but can grow rapidly to catch up with merchandise exports.

“When I look at the trajectory of these – I personally believe this is going to be a race to the top. We can converge $1 trillion. That should be the ambition, mission. You have a little bit of catching up to do. I’ll be delighted if you cross $1 trillion faster than them,” the minister told IT industry leaders.

Piyush Goyal welcomed the IT industry’s proposal to start IT hubs in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, which would create numerous jobs and help develop the regions. He said the IT industry should identify the towns, and the Centre would assist them in providing all the necessary infrastructure and facilities.

He said the IT industry can make a big contribution to services exports by focusing on new technology and products that can make India a bigger global players in the sector.

In the virtual meeting over the weekend, the minister told leaders of the IT industry that they should focus on high-tech products, for which the Central government would provide any assistance needed by the industry.

He lauded the IT industry’s proposal to create IT hubs in tier-2 and tier-3 towns across the country and said the Central government would go all out to help the industry get top-class facilities.

He said the IT industry had grown spectacularly on its own and many of the top companies grew at a time when India did not focus on creating a favourable ecosystem for startups. Shri Goyal said the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will provide any assistance needed by the IT industry to help it grow rapidly and contribute to India’s export of services.

The virtual meeting was attended by Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, Tech Mahindra CEO & MD C.P. Gurnani; Srikanth Velamakanni, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence technology startup Fractal Analytics; Mphasis CEO Nitin Rakesh; Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji; Genpact CEO N.V. Tyagrajan; WNS Global Services Group CEO Keshav R Murugesh; Mastek CEO Hiral Chandrana; Krishnan Ramanujam, President and Head of Business & Technology Services at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

IT industry leaders said the sector had seen strong growth last year, and in the past week, strong earnings reported by companies has set a positive tone for the years ahead