Growth in the Indian IT industry are set  by 2.3 per cent to USD 194 billion in FY2020-21 and the exports will go up by 1.9 per cent to USD 150 billion, industry lobby Nasscom said on Monday.

The industry remained a net hirer in the fiscal year, which saw a major hit across the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.38 lakh new jobs added to take overall employment to 44.7 lakh, it said.

"We have emerged more resilient and more relevant from the crisis. We have been the bellwether to lead the fight against COVID," the body''s president Debjani Ghosh said.

She said the industry has become the first sector to get better from the pandemic-induced crisis and hit growth in spite of headwinds like a 3.2 per cent dip in technology spends across the world on a 3.5 per cent contraction in the world GDP.

The overall contract pipeline is over USD 15 billion, if one were to go by the numbers disclosed by listed companies, the body said.

On the outlook, 71 per cent of the 100 industry chief executives said global tech spends will be better in 2021.