The IT/ITES sector continues to face the meltdown blues nationwide, with layoffs and pink slips becoming the norm of the day. But there is some good news for professionals from this sector, in the state.

The Gujarat Electronics and Software Industries Association (GESIA), which has a membership of over 175 IT/ITES companies, will organise a job fair in Ahmedabad for the IT/ITES sector on the 27th and 28th of this month.

Nirav Shah, the president of GESIA said: “About 20-25 member companies will participate in the event, and we hope to recruit about 2,000-2,500 IT professionals in these two days.”

Shah added that the timing of the fair has been chosen to provide equal opportunity to fresh graduates as most of the final-year results will be out by then.

Explaining the reason for the surge in the state’s IT sector, Nirav said: “The IT/ITES sector in Gujarat is largely driven by the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With the big players in the market, both in India and abroad, being badly hit by the crisis, the SME segment has been provided with an opportunity to fill up the vacuum and take up outsourcing work from their counterparts in the western world.”

It’s a win-win situation for the IT/ITES SMEs, he added.

GESIA officials further said that 60 per cent of the total NRI population is from Gujarat, and this connection is also boosting the IT business in these difficult times.

Nirav Shah expressed hope that IT exports from Gujarat will grow by at least 15 per cent this fiscal, “which is almost double the national growth rate of 8 per cent predicted by NASSCOM for 2009-10.”.

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