New Delhi, April 25 -- Auto companies may yet smoothen the bumps for Indian IT services in FY24, a year that has so far been one of the worst in the $253-billion industry's history.

The country's top IT companies are seeing way faster growth from manufacturing and engineering clients than from banks in recent times, and industry experts say much of this underlying growth is coming from automotive firms.

The experts said automotive companies are increasingly reaching out to IT firms as they do not own the software knowhow needed for their biggest transformation in a century, from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles and self-driven, or autonomous, vehicles.

Three analysts Mint spoke with said the contribution of automotive firms t...