The India Software Market is expected to achieve a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 13.5% by the end of year 2018 to reach USD 5.6 billion, as per ( International Data Corporation) IDC's latest Asia Pacific, excluding Japan (APeJ) Semiannual Software Tracker, 2H 2017.

India is currently amongst the top 3 Software Markets in the APeJ region, and with an estimated CAGR of 16.6% for 2017-2022, would also account for the highest growth rate amongst the APeJ countries for the above-mentioned forecast period.

"Digital Transformation initiatives in Indian enterprises are fueling the growth story across a number of industry verticals and customer segments. One of the major areas that have received thrust because of these initiatives is modernization of core applications – this has boosted the India Software market and is expected to continue driving the market for the next 3-5 years," said Ranganath Sadasiva , Director Enterprise Solution, IDC India .

IDC classifies the Software market into three primary categories: Applications, Application Development and Deployment (AD&D), and System Infrastructure (SI) Software. Applications contributed the bulk of the spending with a 58.0% share, followed by AD&D and SI software with shares of 23.5% and 18.6%, respectively, in 2H 2017 (June – Dec 2017).

For the forecast period, 2017-2022, IDC predicts the following five fastest growing Software categories: Collaborative Applications, Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) Applications, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications, Security Software, and Data Access, Analysis, and Delivery Software ( please refer table below ).

"Going ahead, Indian enterprises would lay strong emphasis on collaboration and digitization of business processes. These would render tremendous business potential for Collaborative Applications, ERM, and CRM in the next 3-5 years. Simultaneously, organizations would also increasingly invest in Business Analytics (DAAD) software to enable businesses with actionable insights. All these technology initiatives would involve Security Software investments at the core in the future," said Sandeep Kumar Sharma , Associate Research Manager, Software and Services, IDC India