BANGALORE: In yet another warning from Infosys about the economic environment, the company has said clients are asking for slower start and deployment of work.

In a report by Susquehanna Financial Group, Infosys CEO SD Shibulal said the climate has deteriorated in the past 45 days. “While projects are not being cancelled, clients are asking for slower start and deployment times on work that has already been awarded,” Susquehanna analysts James E Friedman and Meghna Ladha said in their report.

The report also quoted Shibulal saying that the market had not hit the bottom yet and things may not get better anytime soon. Infosys, which has come to be seen as the bell-weather in the Indian IT industry, has been flagging caution since the past few weeks.

The company had last week said it could not confirm if it would meet the upper end of its dollar revenue growth guidance given the volatility in the environment and lack of visibility. Infosys has guided for dollar revenue growth between 17-19 % in this financial year and 3-5 % in this the October-December quarter. It has also been warning of an impact on client’s IT budgets for 2012.

Investment and brokerage firm CLSA in a report quoted Infosys co-chairman S Gopalakrishnan as saying that the company was seeing greater instances of delays in project awards and deferment of ramp-ups . The Susquehanna report, however, added that the company’s view should be viewed as cautious and not worse. “INFY has a high ethical compass, and it is quick to acknowledge when things go wrong (” when in doubt, disclose” ).

Hence, its comments should be viewed as cautious, but no worse,” Friedmand and Ladha wrote. According to the report, Infosys is seeing some weakness in the banking vertical, the largest revenue generator for the company and the insurance sector too has been underperfoming .

The $70 billion Indian IT industry is highly susceptible to a slowdown in the US and Europe from where it gets over 80% of its revenues. Industry lobby body Nasscom, however , believes that the industry will be able to clock healthy growth numbers this year.

Nasscom has forecast 16-18 % growth for the industry this year and president Som Mittal said he did expect any impact from the decline in western markets. “Our members say they are not seeing any problems at the company or the client levels. It is also reflected in the hiring numbers and other large trends,” Mittal said.