Hyderabad, Dec 28 (PTI) New visa rules by countrieslike the US, UK, and Australia may pose challenge for IndianIT Industry in 2018 even as the sector may reach USD 150billion mark, former Nasscom Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy hassaid."In 2018, we might see some more challenges for the ITindustry. Again on the demand side you might not see any majorchallenges...8 to 10 per cent growth in spite of the industrybase increasing to over USD 150 billion is still possible."However, the new regulatory challenges coming fromnew visa regime with Trump administration and changes to thevisa rules in countries like UK, Australia, Singapore etc willbring down the people's mobility and as a result flexibilityin scaling businesses," Reddy said.According to him, 2017 was an interesting year for theIndian IT industry as the demand for IT and IT-enabledservices continued to grow around 8 to 10 per cent in constantcurrency terms and it is certainly a shade better than ouroriginal estimates earlier in the year.The adoption of new technologies is growing at a pacefaster than what was anticipated by the industry and on thesupply side, there is a serious challenge in reskilling orupskilling employee base in new technologies to meet newcustomer demands, he said."Growth has slowed down because of automation, AI, andmachine learning. We see some signs of protectionism fromcountries around the world; however, we also witnessed anupsurge in the domestic market opportunity for technologysolutions," he said.The Start-up India programme has caught pace, with more than 5,900 start-ups already recognised by DIPP by end of 2017, Reddy added.

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