The IT services industry is expected to sustain its 6-8 per cent (in rupee terms) growth in fiscal 2026, amid continuing macroeconomic headwinds and emerging uncertainties in the key markets of the US and Europe, stated a report by Crisil Ratings. The revenue growth, it added, will be supported by currency depreciation benefits of around 2 per cent.
This will be the third consecutive fiscal of mid-single-digit growth for the Indian IT services sector. Nevertheless, operating profitability remains healthy, led by modest employee addition amid low attrition.
Crisil Ratings analysed the top 24 Indian IT services providers that account for around 55 per cent of the industry revenue of approximately Rs 15 lakh crore to release the findings.
Nearly, two-third of these revenues are contributed by banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI; revenue share of ~30 per cent), retail (~15 per cent), manufacturing (10 per cent) and healthcare (10 per cent) while technology and services, communications and media form the bulk of remaining.
In fiscal 2025, Crisil said, revenue from the BFSI and retail segments made marginal recovery, growing by around 2 per cent (on constant currency terms), while manufacturing and healthcare growth remained sluggish at 3-4 per cent amid macro challenges.
Anuj Sethi, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings, said, “After a modest recovery this fiscal, growth in BFSI and the retail segments, will remain subdued at 3-5 per cent in fiscal 2026 amid slowing economic growth and cautionary discretionary spends. Manufacturing and healthcare segments will also remain at low single digits due to policy uncertainties. Further, IT spends will remain focused on efficiency gains, consolidation and optimising costs, in the near term.”
Notwithstanding, IT services companies are expected to record healthy deal wins with increasing focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (Gen AI) aspects across all segments. While AI adoption is still evolving, players are now bundling AI-based offerings with their traditional services making it more efficient for the end users.
The segment players are responding to the modest growth outlook by rationalizing costs primarily through controlled headcount additions (net of attritions), which after dipping in fiscal 2024 saw a negligible 1 per cent growth in the first nine months of this fiscal.
Aditya Jhaver, Director, Crisil Ratings, said, “We expect domestic IT services providers to remain cautious on fresh hiring in fiscal 2026 and maintain focus on employee utilisation, estimated at ~85 per cent. With attrition remaining stable at ~13 per cent and flexibility of optimizing the onshore / offshore mix amid criticality of the services offered, operating margin will sustain at a healthy 22-23 per cent.”
That said, the segment players will continue to eye acquisitions, especially small and mid-sized opportunities that could enhance their product baskets and digital capabilities. Nevertheless, reliance on debt will be limited given expectations of stable cash generation, strong balance sheets and sizeable cash surpluses which will lend stability to credit profiles.
Crisil maintained that the sector shall remain vulnerable to the increasing number of global capability centers being set up in India. Also, a sharper than expected slowdown in economic growth in key markets could pose further downside risks to the growth estimates.
Consequently, Crisil concluded, the debt-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) and interest coverage ratios are expected to be healthy at 0.7-0.8 times and 15-16 times, respectively, during fiscals 2025-2026, in line with the levels seen in fiscal 2024.