NEW DELHI: India is poised to become the fastest growing information technology market for the second straight year, and the country’s spending on IT is expected to rise 7.2% to $72.3 billion in 2016, according to research firm Gartner. IT budgets too are growing the fastest in India at 11.7%, compared with the world average of 1%, it said.“India will continue to be the fastest growing IT market for the second year in succession and will continue growing to total $87.67 billion by the end of 2019,” said Aman Munglani, research director at Gartner.Devices including mobile phones and PCs and tablets will account for almost 33% of the overall IT spend in India, while the devices business will grow 9.4% in 2016. Mobile phones will continue to be the single largest technology sub segment in India and the third fastest-growing through 2019, Gartner said.Digital business is driving “significant growth in new and established organisations across the world”, it said.Digital is also a key part of how Indian firms are looking to expand business.In February, the Tata Group appointed former Citigroup executive Deep Thomas as head of its consumer analytics division, and is now looking to put in place chief digital officers at its consumerfacing businesses, ET has previously reported.Similarly, Mahindra Group has appointed Jaspreet Bindra to helm digital innovation and ecommerce, while Larsen & Toubro has hired consultancy McKinsey to chart a digital strategy. IDFC, which was recently awarded a banking licence, had appointed former Airtel executive Sriraman Jagannathan as its chief digital and data officer last year.In IT budget, the retail sector is expected to see the highest growth of 11.3% in 2015, followed by banking and securities at 10.6%, insurance at 10.4%, healthcare providers at 10.3%, utilities at 10.2% and education and transportation at 10.1%.Communications services, the largest segment, is also expected to be the slowest growing with 10% growth during the period, said Gartner. The research firm said bimodal IT and bimodal business — running in two modes simultaneously — is essential to take advantage of digital business, and the approach is resonating with companies.“We run a bi-modal IT model; where one team works on run-the-business and the other on a more transform the business. There is a lot of focus on evaluating newer technologies for their use in the business,” said Kalpana Maniar, president and chief information officer at financial services firm Edelweiss . IT spending is also moving beyond the chief information officer’s control, which necessitates the need to look at new leadership approaches, said Gartner.