New Delhi Government of India spending on information technology is expected to grow by 12.1% to $9.5 billion in 2022, which is more than the 5% growth globally according to Gartner, Inc. The research firm estimates that government IT spends up to $565.7 billion globally for the year. ,
“Unlike spending around the world, all sectors will experience growth in India in 2022,” Gartner principal analyst Apeksha Kaushik said in an interview. Global geopolitical tensions and the impending slowdown in the US are not expected to have much impact on India, he added. While software spending by the central government will grow at a record pace of 28% at the fastest pace globally and in 2022, $ 2 billion mark, with IT services expected to grow by 13.4 percent to reach $2.4 billion.
“Now, more than ever, governments are undertaking innovative activities using technology to streamline digital services, advance automation processes, develop citizen experiences, and build data fabrics,” Kaushik said.
He said investment would continue in line with stimulus measures and increase in the annual IT budget and this momentum is likely to continue at both the national and state levels.
“With increased adoption of hybrid work, spending on devices such as laptops, notebooks and printers in education, health care and other government departments will increase.”
Kaushik said payments as a use is also gaining momentum, so anything as a service (XaaS) is expected to emerge as an area for investment in government organizations.
“Pandemic is the XaaS model for rapid adoption of cloud solutions in the public sector and accelerated legacy modernization and new service implementation. 54% of government CIOs (Chief Information Officers) indicated that they expect to allocate additional funding to cloud platforms in 2022, while 35% will reduce investments in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies.
Gartner said that by 2026, most government agencies’ new IT investments will be in XaaS solutions. Kaushik said that with the launch of telecom services, especially 5G, it is expected to address some of the challenges related to digital inclusion. Jayant Kolla, technical analyst and co-founder of Convergence Catalyst, said that the central and state governments are increasingly realizing the potential of data-driven innovation. “They are investing both money and energy to build public infrastructure and increase spending to drive economic growth.”
Neil Ratan, former digital government leader at PwC Global Network, said government CIOs could spend more on health, agriculture and education this year.
The key technologies that government CIOs in India will prioritize their spending on are digital workplace and business continuity solutions, business intelligence and data analytics, responsible AI and blockchain, improved data privacy and data sharing tools, the Gartner report said.