Government IT spending in India to grow 9.5 per cent in 2017: Gartner

The Indian government – including state, local and the centere - is forecast to spend $7.8 billion on IT in 2017, a 9.5-per cent rise over 2016, according to a study by global technology research and analysis firm Gartner.

This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre systems, devices and telecom services.

The software segment includes enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer resource management, desktop, infrastructure, vertical-specific software and other application tools. The software segment is expected to grow 15.7 per cent in 2017 to reach $1 billion. Desktops will be the fastest-growing segment with 16-per cent growth in this category.

The IT services segment(consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support) is expected to grow 14.6 per cent in 2017 to reach $2 billion, making it the largest segment within the IT spending category.

''Government spending on IT services will total $2,093 million in 2017, a 15 per cent rise from 2016,'' said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. ''The IT services market is led by growth in business process outsourcing.''

Devices spending will grow 12.7 per cent in 2017 to reach $917 million. Devices refers to printers, copiers, multi-functional printers, mobile devices, personal computers and tablets.