The software market in India is estimated to be $5.3 billion (Rs 35,401 crore) in 2016, a 12.8 per cent growth from this year, as boom in e-commerce and cloud technology sectors are expected to boost the demand, said technology research firm Gartner.

Consumer-centric companies are increasing their spending on digital technology to expand their market presence, which is the main driver of the software market demand, it said.

“Branded companies that sell to consumer markets are more rapidly purchasing and adopting digital applications to expand their digital footprint and strengthen their competitive positioning. Increasingly, Indian enterprises will be evaluating emerging technology solutions on innovation and business impact rather than cost and ease of deployment,” said Bhavish Sood, research director at Gartner.

Recently, IT majors such as Microsoft and NTT Technologies have launched their data centres in India and many more are keen to follow suit. Microsoft has been specially eyeing small and medium category businesses for its data centres in India.

Apart from e-commerce, the Union government’s push for the Digital India project will also create demand for the domestic software market, the research firm said.

“It is also evident that the Indian government is serious about leveraging information technology for effective governance.The Digital India initiative, MyGov citizen portal, the Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) programme for start-ups, and the smart cities initiative are some examples,” Sood added.