Indian IT companies bracing up for one of the worst quarterly results

India's top IT firms are bracing themselves for one of their worst quarterly results in recent memory. Their performance in the typically weak quarter through December is further hurt by the floods in Chennai and a general slowdown in global technology spending, several company executives and analysts said. The setback will have further ramifications for India's $146-billion IT industry. Homegrown giants such as TCS and Infosys may fall short of Nasscom's 12-14% exports growth outlook for FY16. There are worries that the current fiscal year may end as the worst in terms of revenue growth for Indian IT. Executives at the industry lobby group are even contemplating revising their projections for this year, according to people familiar with the discussions. "Our modelling has factored in a certain figure for the likes of TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) - now we have to wait and see how the Q3 numbers turn out before we change our projections," said a Nasscom executive, who declined to be named. At least half-a-dozen analysts and brokerages ET spoke to are of the opinion that India's top five software exporters may post a 1-2% fall in revenue - or at the most record a flat performance - on a sequential basis in the fiscal third quarter ending on December 31.

Infosys at work on GST tech framework

Infosys, which a few months ago won a landmark Rs 1,380-crore contract from the government to develop a state-of-the-art technology platform for the proposed goods and services tax (GST), is going ahead with the project despite the delay in the GST Bill getting passed, according to ministers and executives directly familiar with the matter. On Monday, Prakash Kumar, CEO of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), was in Bengaluru to review the progress of the project, the people mentioned above said. All of them requested anonymity.