IT firms line up for $6 Billion government projects

At a time when Indian IT firms face stiff setbacks from the U.S. and Europe, India turns to be a safe zone for them as various government departments are looking to spend $6 billion in 30 projects called 'mission mode projects' and more projects are likely to come as the federal and state governments embrace e-governance and look to digitize everything from land records to tax filing

Big IT players like TCS, Wipro and HCL have already won significant government business in recent months. According to industry officials, the government contracts are ranging from as small as Rs.100 crore to multiples of Rs.1,000 crore.

Moreover, India's second largest IT firm Infosys has recently bid for a railway project related to creating a Locomotive Management System and ERP implementation, a project to create a billing system for BSNL and another contract from the defense forces.

Meanwhile experts are concerned about the time duration of the government projects. "In the government projects, there's a start date but no end date," said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Vice President and Head of government industry solutions unit of TCS.

Nasscom's Vice-President Rajdeep Sahrawat illustrated the time taken by the government to approve projects by citing the example of the Passport Seva project to digitize passport records, which took the ministry of external affairs almost three years to conclude. TCS eventually won the Rs 1,000-crore project.