Improve infrastructure to meet manpower needs of IT sector
Manish Kumar Singal

INFORMATION Technology, one of the leading sectors in terms of growth and employment-generation, has got a new thrust again after witnessing a slump in the past two years.

Says Prof. K.K. Aggarwal, the Vice-Chancellor of Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIU), "The IT industry is moving ahead with renewed vigour and the demand for IT professionals is increasing." He adds a word of caution, "Students should, however, not hinge their future plans should entirely on it."

Information technology deals with technologies that help produce, manipulate, store, communicate, or disseminate information and computer hardware and software are its integral components.

"The projected growth of Indian software and service exports in 2004-05 is expected to be 26 to28 per cent. IT services, products and technology services are expected to grow at 17 per cent while the ITES-BPO sector is expected to show 54 per cent growth," adds Prof. Aggarwal.

As per the NASSCOM-McKinsey report, this sector alone is likely to provide one million jobs over the next eight years. The report has projected an export of software, software services and IT-enabled services worth $50 billion and domestic consumption to the tune of $37 billion by 2008.

To achieve these growth targets, there would be a requirement of an estimated 2.2 million IT personnel, including 1.1 million high-level professionals with B.Tech/MCA or additional qualifications.

Since nearly 3,40,000 IT professionals are already employed in the software sector, technical institutes and colleges will have to train an additional 7,60,000 highly qualified IT personnel over the next 8 years.

An IT professional from an average institute gets Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 per month as a start and there is a salary hike of 20 per cent to 50 per cent every six months.

Prof Aggarwal feels that to meet the future manpower needs of the IT sector, the infrastructure needs to be improved. At present, a good number of institutions have poor laboratory facilities, shortage of faculty, inadequate number of books etc. The quality of technical education in a large number of institutions is poor.

Owing to recent concerns in the USA over growing unemployment and outsourcing of jobs to Indians and others, many software giants are setting up shop in our country.

"Owing to the pressure on America’s IT industry not to procure manpower from overseas, several US companies are setting up base in India, mainly in Bangalore, which is considered the IT hub," adds Prof. Aggarwal.

Says the Director, Amity Institute of Information Technology, Prof. Rajesh Sahay, "In the near future, there will be enormous opportunities in the ITES, engineering design, HR services, GIS and animation sectors." "The IT industry needs to work with academic institutions to develop software methodologies. For this purpose, the government must continue to provide an industry-friendly regulatory fiscal environment and improve infrastructure," he adds.

There are around 1200 engineering colleges in the country, out of which about 1000 have B.Tech in Computer Science, Electronics and/or Information Technology. Some of the good institutes offering IT education are the IITs, NITs, Central Universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, some deemed universities like BITS and ISM, various state varsities like the GGSIP University and Panjab University and certain private universities.