(Reuters) - The chairman of Infosys Technologies, India's No. 2 software-services exporter, said a recovery from the global financial crisis may be slow and weak, and early signs of an emergence from the worldwide recession cannot be taken for granted.
Infosys, an industry bellwether which counts Goldman Sachs, BT Group and BP among its clients, in April forecast a better-than-expected 16-18 percent rise in revenue for the year ending March 2011, pointing to a recovery for the sector.
The outlook for India's $60 billion outsourcing sector, which was hard hit by worldwide financial turmoil as clients cut down on spending, has improved as the global economy recovers, deal flow rises and fees stabilise.
Still, N.R. Narayana Murthy, who founded Infosys with six other engineers in 1981 with an initial investment of $250, struck a cautious note at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in the south Indian city of Bangalore.
"I look ahead with guarded optimism," Murthy said.
A debt crisis in the euro zone and a sliding euro are worries for India's export-driven IT sector, which counts Europe as its second-biggest market after the United States.
