The government in India is forecast to spend $7.8 billion US dollars (USD) on IT in 2017, 7.5 percent increase from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. This is down from Gartner’s previous projection for 9.5 percent growth this year.

“The 2 percent revision in our outlook is primarily due to the effects of demonetization and a drop in industrial production,” said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. “However, spending plans like affordable housing scheme, and increased loans to small and medium enterprises by the government are likely to have a positive effect on IT spending in the next few quarters.”

IT services (which includes consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support) is expected to grow 10.8 percent in 2017 to reach $2 billion USD, making it the largest IT spending category.

The software segment includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), desktop, infrastructure, vertical specific software and other application tools. The software segment is expected to grow 10.8 percent in 2017 to reach $1.1 billion USD. ERP/SCM/CRM will be the fastest growing segment with 14.5 percent growth in this category.

Devices (which includes printers/copiers/MFPs, mobile devices, PCs and tablets) is expected to grow 10.4 percent in 2017 to reach $1.1 billion USD,

Gartner clients can learn more in the report: Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Government and Education Markets, Worldwide, 2015-2021, 1Q17 Update.

The forecasts provide total enterprise IT spending, including internal spending and multiple lines of detail for spending on hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications for vertical industries and 43 countries within seven geographies.