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Govt IT spending to rise 10.5% in 2013: GartnerBANGALORE, Feb 04, 2013 (Mint - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Indian government's spending on information technology (IT) products and services in 2013 will expand by 10.5% from last year to Rs 36,800 crore and the telecommunications sector will benefit the most from this increase, researcher Gartner Inc. predicted in a report on Monday. The forecast comes at a time when the government is expected to pare spending on defence, rural development and road transport in the national budget for the fiscal year 2013-14. Gartner said the IT industry will indirectly benefit from state-funded projects such as providing a unique identity number to all residents as spending on these is likely to increase. With general elections slated for 2014, the government will speed up projects that facilitate financial inclusion such as easier access to banking services to the poor and small automated teller machines, according to Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner. Telecommunications will remain the largest spending segment and is expected to grow an annual 6.8% to Rs11,800 crore in 2013, with most of the spending coming from enterprise network equipment, the technology researcher said. "To expand the benefits of IT, the government of India aims to invest more than Rs20,000 crore in expanding broadband penetration," Gartner said. "The electronic chip-making project, digitization of academic databases across all educational institutions, vehicle registrations, driving licence databases, etc., will be the major focus areas." Software sales are expected to rise an annual 18%, Gartner predicted. The report includes government organization spending on internal and external IT, hardware and software. ___ (c)2013 the Mint (New Delhi) Visit the Mint (New Delhi) at www.livemint.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |