If it was retrenchment
and pink slips a few summers ago after the tech bubble
burst and 9/11 attacks impacting investments and
recruitment in the technology sector, it is a different
story now.
Companies are hiring
rapidly to induct more techies and fight higher levels
of attrition. Trends indicate that IT is back as a
career destination with a bang.
According
to National Association of Software and Services
Companies (Nasscom),"The Indian ICT industry, after
a three-year lull is back on track, and hiring rapidly.
The global economic downturn, which lasted over three
years and brought in its wake pink slips, benching and
retrenchment, appears like a thing of the past. Indian
IT services companies, which were impacted by this
slowdown and put a cap on their hiring to cut costs and
maintain momentum, are getting back into the swing of
things and its beginning to look like business as
usual."
India faces a shortage of
people for high-end industrial work that is based on
research and development, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik
said. “We have around 5,000 PhDs in the country (who
pass out annually). We all know that India has a
competitive edge and companies cannot find the numbers
we have in other places, but that has dwindled in
high-end areas,” Karnik told reporters on the
sidelines of the Nasscom Quality summit.
He said about 3.5 lakh
engineering students graduate annually, “but a fewer
number of people pursue masters or doctorates, and only
about 5,000 students are in PhD”. Only about seven to
eight people of every 100 were employable in the BPO
industry and “the industry can hire the best seven or
eight, but when the industry needs to expand in the long
run, they would find it difficult,” he said.
In an effort to address
these concerns, he said, Nasscom had begun talks at the
University level to improve the syllabus and quality of
faculty, by adopting the models of Indian Institute of
Information Technology at Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Karnik also said that Nasscom plans to introduce by this
year-end a common certification in terms of skills and
knowledge, that matches industry requirement, for
youngsters aspiring to enter the booming business
process outsourcing industry. Karnik said the
certification would be planned in consultation with the
industry. “We are working with the industry. The first
part would be ready in the next few months, by the end
of this year,” he said.
India's IT prowess and
its burgeoning pool of scientific talent are two of most
effective tools for development, says one of the
country's top science officials.
"There is a big pull
on science and technology manpower in our country with
our industry becoming more innovative - whether in
automobiles, pharmaceuticals or other sectors,"
said R.A. Mashelkar, director general of the Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
"With around 100
companies like GE, IBM and Microsoft having set up
research and development operations in India, there is a
major change in science and technology manpower
approach," Mashelkar told reporters.
"For the first time
we are seeing a huge demand for science and technology
manpower.
While India is eyeing IT
as the biggest engine of growth, Mashelkar said:
"IT not as in information technology alone but
Indian Talent will in the future help the country win
the position of prestige.
India's software exports
are on track to grow by 30 per cent in the year to March
2005, despite attempts in the key US Market to
discourage outsourcing and protect jobs, the industry's
head said.
India's information
technology (IT) sector and business process outsourcing
(BPO) industries, which offer back office and call
centre services, logged exports worth $12.5 billion in
the 2003-2004 fiscal year.
Nearly 25 per cent of the
exports that involved 800,000 workers come from the top
three companies in the sector -- Tata Consultancy
Services Ltd, Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd.
"We made a
projection of 30 to 32 per cent (growth) for the fiscal
year combining IT and BPO. We are comfortable with
that," Kiran Karnik, President of the National
Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM),
told reporters.
If you thought
outsourcing was all about data entry and back office
work then you are sure to have a shock to see Iayaraja
Marimuthu designing a program for the wedding, scheduled
for October, of Ann and John, a Texas couple proclaiming
their joy in being "together for life." It
will take Marimuthu less than an hour to give an
artistic touch to the wedding invitation.
Outsourcing is fast
moving from just software codes and call centres to a
vast category stretching from copy editing to financial
analysis to tax preparation. Outsourcing is fast
changing the office atmosphere and staff chemistry in
the US. Jobs such as personal assistants, secretaries,
typists may soon fade into history and people will be
able to move up the value chain to take up more creative
and specialised works.
As low-end jobs flee the
US, the job data is painting a very dull picture
affecting other economic indicators as well. OfficeTiger
is one of the pioneer firms to lead the flow of
white-collar jobs out of the US. It has hired 2,000
Indians and is not limiting them to just BPO contract
workers. "We're allowing employees to delve deeper,
to learn more, to push the boundaries of what had been
standard work," says OfficeTiger's American
co-founder, Joe Sigelman.
NASSCOM
KICKS OFF IT WORKFORCE PROGRAMME
The Financial Express The Hindu The Hindu Business Line
The Asian Age
In a
bid to meet the projected demand of 2.1 million
information technology (IT) professionals by 2009,
Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services
Companies) has launched an IT workforce initiative,
which would focus on the creation of human resources.
President,
Nasscom, Kiran Karnik, said: “The IT software and
services industry has grown rapidly over the last
decade. The revenue from this industry, which was $30
billion during 2003-04, is expected to increase to $50
billion in 2009.
However,
to meet this target the software and services industry
will have to grow to 2.1 million persons by 2009 from
the 8,00,000 persons at present. “Estimates however,
suggest that we will have only 1.5 million skilled IT
manpower by 2009, leaving a gap of almost 22 per cent.
Availability
of human resources will, therefore, decide the growth
trajectory of the IT industry,” he said.
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