Indian software exports cross $40b mark

---

NEW DELHI, July 10 (AFP): Indian software exports grew 29 per cent to cross the 40-billion-dollar mark in the fiscal year just ended despite global economic turmoil, the outsourcing industry's top body said.

"I would request you to focus not just on the number but on the maturity and resilience the industry has shown," Som Mittal, the president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies told reporters yesterday.

"Never have there been so many uncertainties in the overall world."

IT export growth for the fiscal year ended March 31 was down four per cent from the previous fiscal year, with earnings sharply reduced after the rupee gained more than 12 per cent against the dollar in 2007, the body has said.

"After what hit us last year-and I would say hit-we were very susceptible to the currency," said Mittal, saying last year's slowdown was a wake-up call to the industry.

"If the rupee would always depreciate, we would always make money. But we don't know which way the rupee will go. We need to weed out inefficiencies."

The United States is the biggest market for Indian software and service exports, which are forecast by the industry group NASSCOM to hit 60 billion dollars by 2010.