Shadow of ITeS contraction over small, medium units: CRISIL SME Tracker

CRISIL Research expects India’s information technology-enabled services (ITeS) exports to contract for the first time in over a decade this fiscal year, shrinking 1-5 per cent year-on-year in constant currency dollar terms to about $36 billion.

Exports constitute more than 85 per cent of the industry’s revenue. And given the Covid-19-induced economic slowdown across the world — especially in the US and EU, which account for about 80 per cent of total export revenue — exports are at risk.

The impact of the pandemic on high-value knowledge services, especially in the cloud and analytics sub-segment, is expected to be lower, which will cushion the overall decline. However, the traditional voice segment — where small and medium enterprises (SMEs) accounting for over 40 per cent of industry revenue are concentrated — is set to witness a severe volume contraction.