A report by renowned market research agency Gartner Inc. has predicted that government spending on IT in India will reach $6.4 billion US Dollars (USD) in 2013, a 7 percent increase over 2012. This forecast includes spending by government on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

The report quoted Anurag Gupta, research director, Gartner as saying that IT services, which include consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will be the largest overall spending category till 2017, within the government sector. He was also quoted as saying that IT services spending is expected to grow by 7.7 percent in 2013 to reach $1.4 billion USD in 2013, up from $1.3 billion in 2012, with the business process outsourcing segment growing by 15.3 percent.

The report also said that software will achieve a growth rate of 10.5 percent in 2013 to reach $709 million USD in 2013, up from $642 million in 2012, led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to an industry. These will be stand-alone applications and not modules or extensions of existing applications.

The report said that many large ICT companies in India are now increasingly looking inwards and targeting the Indian government ICT (information and communications technology) market. The ICT industry will benefit from various eGovernment projects, which are part of the National eGovernance Plan, with investments in 31 Mission Mode Projects like Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI). UIDAI aims to work with various partners in setting up infrastructure for authenticating and confirming digital identities for several purposes such as for Aadhaar enabled payment systems.

Gupta was also quoted as saying that GI Cloud developed by the Indian government along with wide proliferation of affordable broadband connectivity is expected to provide further opportunities in eGovernance and mobility solutions. Alongside central government projects such as excise, income tax, and post office, state governments will also undertake initiatives in municipalities, land records and other joint initiatives like digital court rooms and common service centres.