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Calcutta, Feb. 4: The government is expected to raise its spending on IT products and services by 10.5 per cent to Rs 36,800 crore in 2013 against 33,300 crore in 2012, Gartner today said.
According to the research firm, the government will focus its spending on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software and external IT services and telecommunications.
Telecommunications, wh-ich comprises networking equipment and services, is expected to remain the largest spending category during the year. This vertical is likely to contribute Rs 11,800 crore in 2013, rising 6.8 per cent from Rs 11,100 crore in 2012 on the back of a growth in enterprise network equipment.
Software is expected to register the highest growth rate amongst IT spending categories, increasing 18 per cent in 2013, led by investments in desktop and infrastructure software.
The industry will also benefit from government projects such as the Unique ID (UID) project, which will create an online database with biometric and identity details of Indian residents. The launch of the National Optical Fibre Network and the computerisation of commercial taxes in states are likely to further aid the growth of the industry.
“The government is starting to leverage unique identification to authenticate citizens for transferring welfare benefits directly to the recipients bank accounts, in the form of cash transfers, thereby creating a new system for welfare benefits,” said Anurag Gupta, research director at Gartner.
“India goes to the polls in 2014. And the government of India will aim to expand the UID operational infrastructure by speed tracking financial inclusion. This will allow easy access to banking for poor and encouraging micro ATMs,” he said.
According to Gupta, the government has decided to invest more than Rs 20,000 crore in expanding broadband penetration.
The chip making project, digitisation of academic databases across all educational institutions, vehicle registrations, driving license databases among others will be the major focus areas.
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