ABSTRACT
India, home to one-sixth of the world’s population, has recently been in the midst of an economic transformation – its GDP growth rate surged by 120 per cent over the years 2002 to 2006. India is now the fourth largest and second fastest growing economy in the world, while the Airbus Global Market Forecast (2004–2023) claimed that both China and India are set to become the world’s largest consumer markets within the next 25 years with a combined purchasing power five times greater than that of the US today. Its information technology sector is the engine that is driving its economic boom. Tripathi (2006) pointed out that the revenue from the IT sector grew from US$5 billion in 1997–1998 (1.2 per cent of GDP) to over US$28 billion by 2004–2005 (4.1 per cent of GDP) and is expected to reach 7 per cent of GDP in 2008 when IT exports are expected to produce 35 per cent of India’s total exports.
