The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) had set a 30 percent growth target for software exports during the last fiscal year.

"Despite the challenges, such as a continued technology slowdown in the global market and the appreciation of the rupee, the industry has been able to maintain its growth momentum," Nasscom chief Som Mittal said.

The rupee has appreciated more than two percent against the US dollar in the past year. Last week, it closed at a two-year high of 46.90 to the US currency due to surging inflows from non-resident Indians and exporters.

Mittal said the growth in software exports, mainly to the United States and European markets, was mainly driven by call centre and business process outsourcing.

"We have seen this year too that the IT-enabled services and the business process outsourcing sector have continued their momentum, growing more than twice the industry average and capturing a quarter of India's IT software and services exports," Mittal told reporters.

"With the fundamental and value-proposition of India as an IT destination being robust, we are optimistic about maintaining the growth trajectory," Mittal said.

India's software industry has witnessed export growth of more than 50 percent during the nineties but it fell sharply due to the slowdown in global technology spending.

Nasscom said software and allied service exports would log revenues of more than 12 billion dollars in the current fiscal year to March 2004.

India has the largest pool of English-speaking IT professionals after the United States. This army, willing to work for one-eighth of the salaries of their counterparts in the United States and Europe, has fuelled the software boom in India.

At the same time, industry officials have warned that India's competitive advantage of being able to provide cheap labour to the software industry will come under serious threat in two years as its currency appreciates and salary costs rise.

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