Coming out of the shadow of a global slowdown, Indian information technology (IT) service providers are preparing themselves for the road ahead by reviewing strategies of the past years and taking note of recent advancements.

India's second largest IT company, Infosys Technologies, for instance, has narrowed on the new areas to drive its growth. Emerging markets is clearly one. It has identified seven themes that include technologies like cloud computing; smart organisations that drive efficiency by using collaboration; specific industry verticals like health care and banking; and sustainability.

"We have been working on some of these aspects over the last two years and we are seeing better clarity now. These are large teams in which we have invested large amounts," Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys, told Business Standard here at the Nasscom Leadership Forum today.

Despite this, he remains cautious. "While we are watchful, I feel the worst is behind us. As an industry, our model is established today. Our market shares are good. Investment in technology will continue to grow globally by 4-5 per cent. From an Infosys point of view, our endeavour has been to be part of that growth and match the industry growth, and we will continue to drive that," he added.

The industry has begun investing heavily in manpower development, with an average training period of three to four months for fresh recruits and additional training over the employee cycle. Companies are also set to hire again in 2010. Direct employment by the country's IT industry is expected to be 2.3 million by March 31, with 90,000 jobs added during the current financial year.

But, they also feel just adding to headcount is no longer enough. Growing this way (termed linear) could pose formidable challenges over the next few years. Hence, HCL, TCS, IBM, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, Genpact, and NIIT are among those who had implemented a host of non-linear initiatives like the reuse of assets and codes, the creation of templates and intellectual property (IPs) and the use of platform BPOs.

The good news, meanwhile, is that with business picking up, bigger deals are back, too. Salil Parekh, CEO (financial services), Capgemini, said it was beginning to look at winning some large client deals.