The government in India will spend $6.88 billion US Dollars (USD) on IT products and services in 2015, an increase of 5.2 percent over 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices and telecom services. Government comprises state and local governments and national government.

IT services (which includes consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing) is expected to grow 10 percent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion USD – with the business process outsourcing sub-segment growing by 21 percent.

Telecom services will also be a $1.6 billion USD market, with the mobile network services sub-segment recording fastest growth of 3 percent in 2015 to reach$787 million USD.

“Government spending on software will total $869 million USD in 2015, a 10.6 percent increase from 2014,” said Anurag Gupta, research vice president at at Gartner.. “The software market will be led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to a vertical industry). These are stand-alone applications that are not modules or extensions of horizontal applications.”

Internal services will growth 8.8 percent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion USD. Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all company employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.

“The investments in the ‘Digital India’ initiative, led by a focus to allow access of government services on mobile devices (part of the mobile government), expansion on broadband and planning for smart cities, will be a stimulus for Indian governments ICT initiatives,“ said Mr. Gupta.

Further information on government sector IT spending is available in the Gartner report, Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Government and Education Markets, Worldwide, 2013-2019, 2Q15 Update. The forecasts provide total enterprise IT spending, including internal spending and multiple lines of detail for spending on hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications for vertical industries and 43 countries within seven geographies.