Monday, November 12, 2001		Article

2,000 crore plan for better IT workforce
V .P. Prabhakar

A national programme for HRD in IT is being launched by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development, for which an investment of Rs 2000 crore till the end of the Tenth Five Year Plan is envisaged.

India today faces the challenge of bridging the gap between demand and supply of IT workers to make the most of the opportunity that the recent advances in information technology have provided to the country. Though right now there is slight slowdown in this field, its importance in the long run will remain and the Centre has set up a task force also to deliberate on the issue. The task force, according to the annual report of the ministry, has concluded that as per the current trends, adequate number of IT professionals would be available in the country, but their quality could be a matter of concern.

While the non-government sector, including the self-financing institutions in formal education, is contributing significantly towards the supply of IT manpower, it is the public institutions with high academic standards that provide the competitive edge. In order to improve the standard in the face of pressure for increase in numbers, there is a need for direct government action.

AThe task force has made several specific recommendations targeting mainly the degree level and beyond. An investment of Rs 2,000 crore is proposed over seven years. In addition, similar investments are expected from the state governments and the industry. The government investment would include government-aided institutions. This is expected to trigger similar investments by self-financing institutions.

This, according to the report of the ministry, could also help resolve a dilemma that a regulatory body faces while monitoring quality in self-financing institutions and poor facilities in government institutions. By enabling the regulatory body to monitor more effectively the quality of education and to ensure better compliance, both from the government-funded and self-funded institutions, there would be real improvement of quality of IT education in the country.

In pursuance of these recommendations, the "national programme for HRD in IT" is being launched. Major part of the Rs 2,000 crore investment will be during the first two to three years. Although a token provision was made in 2000-2001, actual initiatives will be undertaken during 2001-2002.

Various components of this programme include upgrading computing facilities and connectivity, promoting technology-enhanced IT education, faculty development initiatives, curriculum initiatives, modernisation of libraries and the computerisation of support services and promoting interface with the industry. These initiatives will be launched along with efforts for overall institutional development and networking of institutions. There will be major thrust on post- graduate education and research in information technology.

The HRD Ministry also reserves seats in technical courses in engineering and architecture in AICTE- approved institutions for states/UTs that lack proper facilities for technical education. Nomination of candidates against these reserved seats is made by the state governments in accordance with their rules and guidelines laid own by AICTE. In addition, reservation is also made in government-aided institutions in favour of the Ministry of External Affairs for self-financing foreign students, recipients of Indian Council for Cultural Relations scholarships, wards of government employees posted in Indian missions abroad, recipients of Children’s Bravery Awards on Republic Day and for the Central Tibetan Schools Administration. However, there is no reservation in IITs under the scheme. ,

The ministry hopes that with these initiatives, the country would be able to meet the number and quality challenge as far as IT manpower is concerned and that productivity in the software and services sector will be enhanced by moving up the value chain.

IT didn’t come to their rescue
Narayanan Madhavan

NEWSPAPERS in the southern city of Bangalore, India’s answer to Silicon Valley, often carry prominent advertisements to entice talented software engineers, despite a global technology slowdown.

The same papers also routinely carry small news items about farmers committing suicide in the remote nooks of the state of Karnataka, home to Bangalore, where 65 per cent of population of 52 million still depends on agriculture for a living.

Bangalore’s streets lined with cars and glitzy shopping malls, and crowded with young engineers and executives in trendy jeans present a picture of sharp contrast to the haggard farmers in the countryside, dressed in homespun cotton loincloths.

The technology boom has done little or nothing to help modernise the vast reaches of the state, officials and angry farm leaders say.

And both blame the free-market policies of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a key factor in unsettling the farmers’ lives.

"I honestly confess I do not know how to prevent suicides," Karnataka’s Chief Minister S.M. Krishna told Reuters.

"This is a complex social phenomenon."

Krishna set up an expert panel to investigate the suicides in August and gave it a three-month deadline. The state’s burgeoning software industry has not necessarily helped the farmers, even if only by boosting demand for their products, experts say.

"It is difficult to say if the software boom has helped the farmers," one agricultural economist, who asked not to be identified, said. "There is nothing like a one-to-one relation in this."