Tech industry in India hits $254 bn in revenue in FY24, adds 60K employees

The technology industry in India reached $253.9 billion in revenue with an addition of $9.3 billion incremental revenue in FY2024 (estimated), growing at 3.8 per cent from FY23, a Nasscom report said on Friday.

The technology industry added 60,000 net employees in FY2024 (estimated), with a total headcount of 5.43 million.

However, the focus on digital skills continued to remain strong with AI, Cloud, data and cybersecurity emerging as top in-demand skills for the industry, the report noted.

The Indian tech services export revenue (excluding hardware) is expected to touch $199 billion in reported currency, a growth of 3.3 per cent compared to FY2023.

“We do see FY2025 as the year of capability building as the new normal. Navigating the current challenges will require the industry to focus on 4Rs — Reshape – accelerate transition to AI-first companies; reskill – make talent the biggest competitive advantage; rewire growth and raise IP creation and R&D investments,” said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom.

The engineering research and development (ER&D) sector alone contributed 48 per cent to the total export revenue addition in FY2024.

Global Capability Centres or GCCs continue to invest in India, expanding their service portfolios at the same time new GCCs are setting up operations.

The industry saw an addition of 53 new GCCs in 2023, the report said.

“While headwinds like global economic slowdown, inflation, recessionary fears and geopolitical conflicts continue to pose challenges, we are confident that the industry will bounce back,” said Rajesh Nambiar, Chairperson, Nasscom.

With digital tech spending expected to grow in 2024, “We will also witness emergence of alternative demand source, customer retention, faster go-to-market strategies in newer markets for enterprises,” Nambiar added.

With continued investments by the government and enterprises in emerging technologies, India’s domestic sector emerged as the great propeller. Focus on application development, automation, verticalised products, software-as-a-service (SaaS), data migration for AI and Cloud enterprise spending are some of the notable drivers to this growth, the report showed.

“The industry is committing 60-100 hours per year per employee on upskilling,” the findings showed.