IT spending in India expected to cross $100 bn in 2022: Gartner

IT spending in India is expected to touch $101.8 billion in 2022, up 7 per cent from this year, according to research firm Gartner.

India's information technology (IT) spending across areas like communication services, data centre systems, IT services and software is expected to grow 10.8 per cent to $95.1 billion in 2021 from $85.8 billion in the preceding year.

Gartner Research vice-president Arup Roy said, "The digital transformation trajectory that began as a pandemic response is here to stay for the next few years.

"India has experienced one of the fastest recoveries despite being one of the worst-hit regions in the second wave of the pandemic in early 2021."

He added that in 2022, CIOs in India will build on renewed interest in technology from the business to gain funding for new IT projects.

As per Gartner, Indian CIOs (chief information officers) are likely to increase their spending towards projects that drive innovation and modernising legacy systems.

Hiring a workforce that can deliver on these needs will also be a key priority.

Next year, Indian CIOs are prioritising a move away from rigid and monolithic ways of doing business to a more composable business and IT architecture where they will be able to better respond to disruptions.

In 2022, all segments of IT spending in India are expected to grow, with software emerging as the highest growing segment.

Spending on software is forecast to total $10.5 billion in 2022, up 14.4 per cent from 2021 ($9.1 billion).

While experiencing a slower growth rate than 2021, spending on software in 2022 is forecast to be nearly double of what it was pre-pandemic.

IT services are expected to log a 9.1 per cent increase to $19.7 billion in 2022 from $18.1 billion in 2021.

As hybrid work adoption increases in the country, there will be an uptick in spending on devices in 2022, reaching $44 billion, an increase of 7.5 per cent from 2021 ($41 billion).

"The growth in devices is a combination of two components — hybrid work and pent-up demand from 2020 for device upgrades.

"Spending on devices will make up 43 per cent of the total IT spending next year," Roy said.

Spending on communication services is expected to rise 2.3 per cent to $24.5 billion in 2022 from $24 billion in 2021, while that on data centre systems is forecast to grow 3.4 per cent to $2.8 billion in 2022 from $2.7 billion in 2021, according to Gartner.