India IT Ambition: Customer-Centric Innovation

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) India is ready to scale up to a USD 750 billion IT industry, driven by artificial intelligence (AI), innovation and companies that deeply understand customer needs, CP Gurnani, former CEO of Tech Mahindra, said on Wednesday.

According to the NITI Aayog, the Indian technology services industry is estimated to grow from USD 265 billion this year to USD 750-850 billion by 2035.

After stepping down in December 2023, Gurnani founded AIONOS with the vision of building a next-generation services company powered by AI and platform-based models.

He believes India's IT industry can grow from USD 275-300 billion at present to USD 750 billion by 2035 but only through innovation, deep customer understanding, and outcome-driven business models.


"India is ready for scale up. India is ready for USD 750 billion IT industry. Clearly, the answer lies in innovation. The answer lies in understanding what the customer wants," he said at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

He emphasised that the future of B2B services is not about headcount or billable hours, but about impact and results.

Citing the rise of Swiggy and Zepto, he highlighted how customer-first innovation and tech-driven execution are creating high-growth businesses.

AI should be used as a tool to enable hyper-personalization, efficiency, resilience, and data monetization, he added.