Research firm Gartner says IT spending in Indian banking and securities firms is expected to grow by 11.7% to reach $9.1 billion this year. This is largely driven by investments in digital payments infrastructure, the firm says. It added that the current transition of the Indian society into a cashless one is creating opportunities of technology investments in the digital payments infrastructure. Indian banks are getting back on track after slower IT spending in the last two quarters, which was prompted by demonetization, says Gartner principal research analyst Moutusi Sau. She also said more investments will flow into newer concepts like artificial intelligence and blockchain as banks focus on digital transformation. Several top banks in India are investing heavily into contactless payment, which uses near field communication (NFC) mechanisms, and this too is propelling many investments into devices, says she. Gartner also said India IT spending is projected to total $87.1 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.2% from 2017 estimated spending of $79.7 billion. Enterprise software and IT services continue to exhibit strong growth, with devices segment continuing to drive the majority of overall IT spending in India. Software spending is projected to grow 17.9 percent in 2017, and it will grow another 15.3 percent in 2018 to reach $5.7 billion. IT services spending is on pace to grow 15.7% in 2017 to reach $12.6 billion, and increase 13.8% in 2018 to reach $14.3 billion, Gartner said.
