the latest unemployment statistics showed the number of women full-time workers to have fallen by 53,000 in the fourth

quarter 2008 compared with a drop of 36,000 for men, officials point to increasing part-time employment among women, and higher male redundancy and unemployment rates, thus it is impossible from the data to draw conclusions on the gender and employment-specific impacts of the recession. The social partners also insist that there is no evidence of a problem, with the federation of small businesses cautioning the Government against premature measures. The Trades Union Congress also concedes that the increased female labour participation compared with previous recessions mean more women than previously would experience the effects of the recession.

Measures that help workers cope with the crisis in the sector would serve social and economic goals. These include adequate, well-designed unemployment benefits and social protection, activation policies and effective public employment services. They would not only support the income of affected workers, but also facilitate transition to new jobs and reduce the risk of long-term unemployment and inactivity. There is also a strong case for launching re-training programmes targeted on finance sector workers, given the likely cut in total employment in the sector. (Impact of the Financial Crisis on Finance Sector Workers, INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE GENEVA.2009,

The global IT industry has matured over the years and has emerged to be a chief contributor to the global economic growth. The global IT sector, constituted by the software and services, Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) and the hardware segments, has been on a gradual growth trajectory with a steady rise in revenues as witnessed in the past few years. 2008 was a strong year as the number of contracts; the total value and the annualized contract values exceeded that of the preceding year. The IT-ITES industry in India has today become a growth engine for the economy, contributing substantially to increases in the GDP, urban employment and exports, to achieve the vision of a powerful and resilient India. While the Indian economy has been impacted by the global slowdown, the IT-ITES industry has displayed resilience and tenacity in countering the unpredictable conditions and reiterating the viability of Indias fundamental value proposition. The main reasons for the successful establishment of software companies in India and its strong performance can be attributed to Cost advantage, Breadth of service offering and innovation, Quality / maturity of process, Ease of scalability. A recent study by Forrester reveals that 43% of Western companies are cutting back their IT spend and nearly 30% are

scrutinizing IT projects for better returns. Some of this can lead to offshoring, but the impact of overall reduction in discretionary IT spends, including offshore work, cannot be denied The slowing U.S. economy has seen 70% of firms negotiating lower rates with suppliers

and nearly 60% cutting back on contractors. With budgets squeezed, just over 40% of companies plan to increase their use of offshore vendors The IT services and outsourcing market is currently undergoing a structural

transformation that will have a profound effect on how IT service providers will have to conduct their business Customers have started to reduce project scope and /or postpone new development. However, they are also trying to move more work to lower cost offsite locations, which could increase IT budgets towards tangible cost saving measures.

The impact is likely to be higher for discretionary outsourcing expenditures rather than for critical, ongoing Application Development and Maintenance(ADM) services. Indian IT companies which are focused more on providing basic ADM services, and with long term outsourcing contracts, could exhibit more stable earnings in this environment. Furthermore, whilst discretionary expenditures are being reduced, ongoing projects will likely continue, at least in the near term, especially those which are in the more advanced stages of progress. With decisions on IT budgets being deferred and sales cycles having elongated from 3-6 months to 6-9 months, companies are seeing a significant drop in client additions. Moreover, the number of targeted large deals has more or less dried up. According to TPI, mega deals have fallen to levels lower than those seen in 2001. A large part of economic growth in India is dependent on the outsourcing or off shoring of key business processes and software development activity by large global corporations and other organizations. Hence, the global slowdown has also affected the business climate within India and the growth rate of the Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sector also experienced the tremors of the global recession. The Indian IT software and services industry which had seen a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 30% projected to grow at 20%. Indian IT sectors derives approximately 61% revenues from the US based clients. The revenue contribution from US clients to the top five Indian IT companies (who account for 46% of the IT industrys revenues) is approximately 58%. Hence, the impact of the slowdown in the US is had a deep impact on the prospects of the Indian IT sector. Moreover, about 41% of the IT industry revenues in India were estimated to be from financial services. Since this sector had been affected most severely during the crisis, the impact on Indian companies catering to this sector had been more acute. The margins are prone to be challenged on account of the slowing growth in the US and European Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI) sectors. Infosys - The revenues from BFSI that were at 37% in June 2003 have stayed more or less unchanged as a percentage of total revenues. In the December 2007 quarter, Infosys got close to 37% of its revenues from BFSI. This slipped to 34% of revenues in the March 2008 quarter. In the quarter ending December 2008, BFSI showed a sequential growth of 4% in volume

 Wipro - Indias third-biggest software exporter, and Cognizant, ranked sixth, have seen revenue from the key Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) vertical rise by about a fifth between Oct-Dec 2007 and July-Sept 2008 April-June 2008, Cognizant recorded the highest growth from financial services vertical among the offshore peers. This was mainly due to the type of financial services clients in the portfolio and the multiple operating levels (table above) Tata Consultancy Services, for example, earned 42% of its revenue in the second quarter of CY 2008 from the BFSI IT industry

(2009 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Limited, Global economic slowdown and its impact on the Indian )

Approximately 61% of the Indian IT sectors revenues are from US clients. If we just take the top five India players who account for 46% of the IT industrys revenues, the revenue contribution from US clients is approximately 58%.The US financial crisis puts a question mark on growth for Indian IT in the short-to-medium-term. At the time of Q1 results, growth numbers were revised down by 2-3%. Companies like TCS and Satyam officially denied any possible impact on growth. Going by Infy numbers, a gloomy forecast was expected. (VCCircle, The US Financial Crisis: Impact On The Indian IT Sector, Manohar M. Atreya, Head - Technology M&A, O3 Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd) By the last quarter of 2008-09 a vicious cycle of weak demand and falling output developed in the Indian economy. A weakening of demand in the US affected our IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector and the loss of opportunities for young persons seeking employment at lucrative salaries abroad. Indias famous IT sector, which earned about $ 50 billion as annual revenue, is expected to fall by 50 per cent of its total revenues. This would reduce the cushion to

set off the deficit in balance of trade and thus enlarge our balance of payments deficit. It has now been estimated that sluggish demand for exports would result in a loss of 10 million jobs in the export sector alone. As a result of recession, unemployment rate in the United States was about 6.5 per cent in 2008.(Datt, 2009) MAINSTREAM, VOL XLVII, NO 15, MARCH 28, 2009 Global Meltdown and its Impact on the Indian Economy