Despite the financial sector meltdown and the accompanying global recession, electronics and software exports from India rose 30 per cent in the first six months of the current financial year.

The industry did business of $25 billion from April to September, involving $2 billion in the electronics hardware and $23.65 billion in software services segment, says D K Sareen, executive director of India's largest electronics and IT trade facilitation organiosation, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC).

''We have already achieved 45 per cent of the total target of $58 billion in the first six months," Sareen said. "Let us see how we fare in the coming months. The first six months recorded a growth rate of 30 per cent.''

So, could  fears of an adverse impact on the prospects for software exports from India end up being unfounded? Sareen said that the last financial quarter was very crucial as there is a spill-off effect of the global meltdown on the Indian export sector.

"We need to wait and watch to what extent we will be impacted. We will take a relook at the growth targets of 2009-10 and might revise it based on the figures we get at the end of the current financial year,'' he told newspersons on the sidelines of a curtain raiser press conference on India Soft 2009 here yesterday.

India's share of exports to the US is 62 per cent while that to Japan is just three per cent. This revealed the need for the software industry to urgently tap the new and emerging markets.

Of the total exports of $43 billion, exports to Latin America stood at $150 million, while that to Africa was at $335 million. E-commerce, e-governance, IT training, banking and financial services, software networking are some of the areas that would interest countries such as Latin America and Africa and India should tap these markets, he said.

''The software market in South Africa is estimated to be around $12 billion and we want to tap this potential market. At present, we export 0.7 per cent of it only and want to increase it,'' said DK Sareen.

India's electronics and computer software services industry  was Rs249,800 crore ($ 57.76 billion) during 2006-07. 

The share of electronics hardware industry is estimated at Rs66,000 crore ($15.26 billion) and that of computer / services sector at Rs183,800 crore ($42.50 billion).

In percentage share terms, production of electronics hardware accounts for a share of 26.42 per cent and software / services accounts for 73.58 per cent. 

Production of electronics and computer software services sector during the year 2006-07 registered a growth of 30.65 per cent (33.73 per cent in dollar terms) over the year 2005-06 when the total production of electronics computer software services was estimated to be Rs.191,200 crores $43.18 billion.