Spending on information technology by the telecommunications sector in India is likely to jump 14.5 per cent and total $6.1 billion by 2005 from the current level of $4.1 billion, IT research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

At the same time, the financial services sector is expected to spend $2 billion on IT solutions, up 17.8 per cent from the current level of $1.2 billion.

Gartner said the end-user spending by the manufacturing sector is expected to increase 16.6 per cent from $1.6 billion to $2.5 billion in 2005.

The figures include hardware, software, telecom equipment and services, and IT services, but excludes salary costs.

''While industry leaders in the BFSI (banks, financial services companies and insurance firms) space have vast IT budgets, the total number of companies within the manufacturing industry and their corresponding levels of automation far exceeds that of the BFSI sector,'' said Bob Hayward, senior vice president for Gartner's Asia-Pacific region, in New Delhi.

Hence, as a sector, manufacturing has a higher cumulative spend on IT than financial services and this trend will hold through till 2005. But in the long term, financial services with the fastest growth rate of 17.8 per cent will reflect the thumb rule of increased IT spends by a vertical being directly proportional to the international competitiveness of that sector.

Hayward said India's enterprise application software market was worth $39.4 billion by last year-end, comprising about 6 per cent of the Asia-Pacific market (excluding Japan).

The Indian enterprise application software market grew 2 per cent in 2002, the highest growth recorded within the Asia-Pacific region.

UNI