Today, the Reserve Bank released the data¹ related to the 2023-24 round of its annual survey on computer software and information technology enabled services (ITES) exports. The survey² collects details on India’s exports of software services {computer services and ITES/business process outsourcing (BPO) services} as per type of activity, on-site/off-site nature of services, country of destination and modes of supply.

For 2023-24 round of the survey, 7,226 software export companies were contacted, of which 2,266 companies, including most of the large companies, responded. The participating companies together accounted for nearly 89 per cent of total software services exports³ (Table 1).

Highlights:

• India’s exports of software services (excluding their sales through overseas commercial presence) increased by 2.8 per cent during 2023-24 to US$ 190.7 billion (Table 2).

• Computer services accounted for over two-thirds of India’s total software services exports during the year; BPO services remained the dominant component of ITES exports (Tables 2 and 3).

• Private limited companies recorded higher growth in export of software services when compared to that by public limited companies (Table 4).

• The United States of America (USA) was the major software exports destination with 54 per cent share, followed by Europe (31 per cent share), where the United Kingdom (UK) was a major destination country (Table 5).

• The US dollar remained the principal invoicing currency for India’s software exports with 72 per cent share, followed by the euro, the rupee and the pound sterling (Table 6).

• Off-site services accounted for 90 per cent of the total export of software services; this share has risen from 80 per cent ten years ago (Table 7).

• In terms of modes of delivery, cross-border supply of software services inched up to 83.5 per cent in 2023-24, whereas the share of overseas commercial presence mode of delivery declined to 7.0 per cent from 7.5 per cent in the previous year and 13.7 per cent in 2013-14 (Table 8).

• Total exports of software services, including services delivered by foreign affiliates of Indian companies, increased to US$ 205.2 billion during 2023-24 (US$ 200.6 billion in the previous year); local software business by such affiliates amounted to US$ 14.5 billion during the year, with the USA and the UK remaining the major destinations (Tables 8, 9 and 10).

Ajit Prasad          
Deputy General Manager
(Communications)    

Press Release: 2024-2025/1339

¹ The previous data release in the series, covering 2022-23 survey round, was published on October 12, 2023, on the RBI website.

² The survey schedule is given in the Annex.

³ Exports of relatively small non-responding companies have been estimated as per the methodology published in the article titled ‘Survey on Computer Software and Information Technology Enabled Services Exports, 2016-17’ on March 2018 issue of the Reserve Bank of India Bulletin.