INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

INDIA IBM'S FASTEST GROWING MARKET

  IBM India, which is set to host Sam Palmisano, its global chairman in Bangalore between June 6-7, has posted a 61% increase in domestic revenues for the first quarter (Jan-March) of this year as against a year ago. This makes India the fastest growing market for IBM globally. The BRIC countries in Q1 grew 18% for the Big Blue. The highest growth, was, of course, by India, followed by Russia (48%), China (15%) & Brazil (1%).

The 61% rise figure does not refer to its software exports from the country, but only to its domestic revenues. IBM's domestic revenues grew by 55% in 2005 and 45% in 2004. IBM in India does not disclose the rupee/dollar revenue figure citing company policy. According to estimates by an industry publication, the domestic business of IBM in India in 2004-05 was around Rs 2320 crore. The company offers a range of servers, services, external storage devices and has also been very successful in bagging large outsourcing contracts from local companies like Bharti Airtel.

IBM Global Services India MD Mr Shanker Annaswamy, while declining to reveal figures, said its operations in India have more than quadrupled in the last five years. IBM, at the end of last calendar, had over 38,000 employees in India. In 2005, it increased staff in delivery centres by about 15,000. IBM, is the biggest MNC in India in terms of employees. The company in 2002 had only 3000 people.