The National Association of Software Companies (NASSCOM), headquartered in New Delhi,  reported Thursday that India's software and services exports grew 34.5% during the fiscal year (starting in June)  2004-2005, reaching revenues of $17.2 billion.

India's IT exports are "driven by outsourcing projects, despite the campaign by the US during the presidential elections against outsourcing," the group reported. It said that outsourcing accounts for 68% of the Indian exports, and that India won 44% of the global outsourcing projects in 2004-05.

S Ramadorai and Kiran Karnik, Chairman and President of NASSCOM, respectively, expressed their confidence in the Indian software and services industry achieving the $50 billion export target in 2008-09. "The industry also scaled record levels of employment in FY 04-05, with the employee base crossing the 1 million mark,' Ramadorai said. "The industry is in a strong position to leverage the global software opportunity and establish India as the premier IT destination in the world. To sustain our competitive advantage, the industry must engage closely with academia to create the right talent pool, collaborate with the hardware industry in microelectronics and embedded software, maximize employment opportunities and elevate service excellence through R&D and quality-benchmarked delivery."