IT spending in India is forecast to total $101.8 billion in 2022, an increase of 7% from 2021, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.
“The digital transformation trajectory that began as a pandemic response is here to stay for the next few years,” said Arup Roy, research vice president at Gartner. “India has experienced one of the fastest recoveries despite being one of the worst hit regions in the second wave of the pandemic in early 2021. In 2022, CIOs in India will build on renewed interest in technology from the business to gain funding for new IT projects.”
Indian CIOs are likely to increase their spending towards projects that drive innovation and modernizing legacy systems. Hiring a workforce that can deliver on these needs will also be a key priority. Next year, Indian CIOs are prioritizing a move away from rigid and monolithic ways of doing business to a more composable business and IT architecture where they will be able to better respond to disruptions.
In 2022, all segments of IT spending in India are expected to grow, with software emerging as the highest growing segment. Spending on software is forecast to total $10.5 billion in 2022, up 14.4% from 2021 (see Table 1). While experiencing a slower growth rate than 2021, spending on software in 2022 is forecast be nearly double of what it was pre-pandemic.
Table 1. India IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
| 2020 Spending | 2020 Growth (%) | 2021 Spending | 2021 Growth (%) | 2022 Spending | 2022 Growth (%) | |
| Communication Services | 22,999 | 11 | 24,000 | 4.4 | 24,551 | 2.3 |
| Data Center Systems | 2,614 | -11.3 | 2,764 | 5.7 | 2,859 | 3.4 |
| Devices | 36,014 | -5.8 | 41,040 | 14 | 44,132 | 7.5 |
| IT Services | 16,352 | 3 | 18,119 | 10.8 | 19,768 | 9.1 |
| Software | 7,852 | 17 | 9,188 | 17 | 10,507 | 14.4 |
| Overall IT | 85,831 | 1.5 | 95,110 | 10.8 | 101,817 | 7 |
Source: Gartner (December 2021)
As hybrid work adoption increases in the country, there will be an uptick in spending on devices in 2022, reaching $44 billion, an increase of 7.5% from 2021. “The growth in devices is a combination of two components – hybrid work and pent-up demand from 2020 for device upgrades,” said Roy. “Spending on devices will make up 43% of total IT spending next year.”
