IT industry may face shortage of manpower

IT industry may face shortage of manpower
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, JULY 2: India's software industry may soon face an acute of shortage workforce crisis if government and the industry do not take immediate steps to stop the continuous outflow of skilled professional to foreign countries.

With software professionals hitting the trail westwards, the situation is all the more difficult. What's more, Germany's offer to absorb Indian IT professionals offers a new destination for them after United States, Singapore and UK.

Though there are no statistics available about the number of IT professionals taking up jobs abroad or migrating, their number is considerable.

Says S Jaykrishnan, Secretary, to the Ministry of Information and Technology, "No data is maintained by the government in respect of IT professionals who have migrated from India".

Andhra Pradesh, which has an annual turn-out of 40,000 software professionals, one of the highest in the country, accounts for about 23 per cent of software professionals in the US.

In West Bengal, the rate of such professionals going abroad from the state is about 50 per cent with about 10 per cent getting employed there.

Dewang Mehta, President of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) says, roughly out of the 85,000 good quality software programmes in the country, 20 per cent of them directly go abroad on their own, while another 20 per cent are sent by Indian companies.

Nevertheless, there is no exodus of IT professionals from India, thinks Krishnan. Various measures have been taken from time to time for creating better employment opportunities in the country.

Mehta says that "while there is no immediate shortage of skilled knowledge workers for the IT software and dotcom industry in India for at least the next two or three years, the domestic job market can become very tight if immediate steps are not taken."

"There are about one lakh professionals working in the country on various projects including exports. Large number of multinational companies operating in the area of IT have set up their software development and R&D facilities in India resulting in retaining of IT professions", says Jaykrishnan.

According to NASSCOM's survey, there are 3,40,000 software professionals employed in the country as on March 31, 2000 in the Indian software and services industry.

"There were about 1,60,000 professionals employed in 1996-97 and thus an additional 1,80,000 software professionals have joined the industry in the last three years", says Mehta noting that steps are required to further improve quality of software professionals.

PTI report from Calcutta says that in West Bengal, the strength of the creamy layer of such professionals appointed in big companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), CTS and Price Waterhouse Coopers is about 4000. Over 10,000 others are trained in various institutes like NIIT, APTECH, Arena and Globsyn, West Bengal Electronics.

Atul Nishar, Chaiman, APTECH Limitd and Hexaware Infosystem Limited, says that government estimates indicate that the Indian computer industry will face a shortfall of 1.8 million professionals by 2008.

The Indian software industry has consistently recorded impressive growth rates and handsome earnings of net foreign exchange regardless of the slowing down of the economy or political instability in the recent past or other hardships, Nishar notes but cautions that "the domestic market must grow at a much more rapid pace than in the past" to sustain the growth.

Krishnan says one of the key issues in achieving and sustaining this level of growth in IT industry is the availability of high quality IT professionals in adequate numbers.

"Operation Knowledge is planned as a major initiative by the Government to strengthen all aspects of IT education in India, in formal as well as informal sectors", he says noting it will address IT education issues at all levels -- in schools, colleges, polytechnics/IITs, engineering and research institutions.

"As a first step, however, this proposal aims at launching a major programme for strengthening IT education at engineering and equivalent level. This level is a direct feeder of manpower to industry and will make an immediate impact by enhancing value chain and productivity in the industry", says Jaykrishnan.

Many states have drawn up comprehensive IT plans and have come out with IT policies which will help in creating a conducive environment for high growth of high-tech industries.

The industry is also experiencing an interesting trend reflecting reverse brain drain with several senior software professionals, who had left the country now returning to set up their own companies here.

"While it was just two per cent of them coming back in 1991, it is now 8 to 10 per cent", says Mehta.

In Hyderabad, about 100 companies have been set up by those software professionals who have returned here after making a mark in the US, Secretary of the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA) A Malikarjun Rao says.

Also the entry of multinational IT companies with lucrative pay packages to engineers has affected the retention capacity of domestic companies, says Rao noting that "we are at a disadvantage here as MNCs are offering hefty salaries and allowances which we can hardly afford".

But with the Indian IT industry approaching nine US billion dollars, with software accounting for 60 per cent of the total IT industry, a boom in the industry is resulting in upgradation of IT infrastructure in the country, particularly communication infrastructure, bandwidth both international and domestic, says Jaykrishnan.

Also, the National Task Force has set a target of 50 million dollars for software exports and 10 billion dollars for hardware exports from the country by the year 2008, he says.

The Institute of Computer Professionals of India is being set up along the lines of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, which will create 25,000 software professionals in the next three years, says Mehta.

Conceding that there is an urgent need to improve the quality of IT education, the secretary says regular upgradation of IT infrastructure, availability of faculty and sustaining quality of education are issues that need to be tackled.

And with most of the institutes, particularly in the government sector, not able to find investments required to keep pace with fast changes in technology, a mechanism should be evolved so that we have a regular system of upgrading at least one-fourth of this infrastructure on an annual basis, says Jaykrishnan.

Mehta further suggests that we should have an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in every state as also upgradation of regional engineering colleges.