As per an estimate by Electronics and Computer Software Promotion Council (ESC), the sector touched an export figure of Rs 12,500 crore ( $ 3.3 billion) last year compared to Rs 9025 crores ($ 2.54 billion) in 1996-97.

``A noteworthy feature about this year's performance is that the electronics and software sector has withstood tremors of the South-east Asian currency meltdown, recessionary trends in the principal markets and a general slowdown in the Indian industry,'' ESC executive director R H Naqvi said.

Exports of computer software and services alone accounted for Rs 6800 last year thereby registering a growth of almost 65 per cent over the previous year.

The growth of software sector has gone up despite the various disadvantages that the Indian software industry is facing, Naqvi added. He specifically mentioned non-tariffbarriers like visa issuance and work permits for the visiting software professionals in the principal markets of Europe and North America. Naqvi said other major problem areas for the software sector relate to high telecommunication tariff and the dual listing of Indian software companies on overseas exchanges.

An ESC analysis reveals that USA and Canada continue to be the major destinations for computer software exports from India contributing 57 per cent of the market share followed by European Union, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

The leading software exporting companies during the year were Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Infosys Technologies Ltd, Tata Infotech Ltd, Pentafour Software and Exports Ltd, Cognizant Technology and Satyam Computers. Instruments, office equipments, medical equipments, electronic components and toys recorded good growth in the electronics hardware exports.

In value terms, export of electronics hardware showed a downslide of 2.67 per cent. Major items in thesector include computer hardware and peripherals, picture tubes, ferrites, printed circuit boards, automatic test instruments, UPS systems, pagers, video cassette recorders, colour TVs and wall clocks.