Healthcare seen as growth driver for IT: Nasscom

US government's mandate to maintain all medical records electronically is expected to stimulate spending of  $ 20 billion

 

While Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan predicted recovery of IT sector in the foruth quarter of this year, NASSCOM president Som Mittal has advanced his predictions to the third quarter. "The industry has already started showing some positive outlook. The growth will be driven by power, media, utilities and especially health care," he said, at the Emerge Out Conclave organized by NASSCOM in Chennai on Wednesday.

 

"Customers are not questioning the competitiveness of the Indian IT industry and are ready to invest in IT in the long term," he pointed out. According to him, untapped verticals are capable of tripling the IT sector growth rate.

 

Cognizant technologies president and MD R Chandrasekharan narrowed the definition of untapped verticals to the healthcare sector. "Healthcare, a recession proof sector, is a growth opportunity, particularly for Indian SMEs," he said. "It will be driven by increased usage of the web for data warehousing and customer portals by health service providers."

 

In modern healthcare systems, 14% of the total investment goes towards administration, which includes billing, transcription and remote diagnostics. "Indian IT companies are already adapting themselves to remote medical diagnostics, drug research and clinical trial," Chandrasekaran said.

 

"The US government's mandate that all medical records be maintained electronically is expected to stimulate spending of US $ 20 billion in the US alone," he said. "Similarly, UK and Canada are planning to spend US $30 billion each."