n October 2006, Ram Shriram, a founding board member of Google Inc. said that the company faced a challenge of finding candidates with the right skill sets in India, when compared to other parts of the world. He cited the shortage of web development skills, web design technology professionals, and the need for more talented middle-level managers.
Analysts pointed out that these remarks were a further indication of the impending talent shortage in the Indian IT sector. NASSCOM had estimated that, by 2010, India could face a shortfall of 500,000 IT professionals. It was believed that this could seriously threaten India’s position as a leading provider of IT and ITES services.
According to NASSCOM, every year over 3 million people (graduates and post graduates) are added to the workforce in India. Of these, only 25 percent of technical graduates and 10-15 percent of other graduates are considered employable by the growing IT and ITES sectors.
Even after employing these graduates, most companies have to spend considerable amount of time and resources on their training so as to develop the skills required by the industry. Indian IT majors like Infosys, TCS and Wipro, and even global entities like IBM and Cognizant have invested heavily in training their new recruits.
With the talent shortage resulting in increasing salaries and high attrition rates, some experts cautioned that India could lose its competitive advantage in the IT sector. This could lead to a situation where multinational companies might start scouting for alternative locations if India was unable to meet their growth demands due to shortage of quality manpower.
In order to address the problem, many IT companies have partnered with engineering colleges and universities. Infosys had launched a program ‘Campus Connect’ to align the education being given at various engineering colleges, with the requirements of the industry. Wipro had started a program called the Wipro Academy of Software Excellence, in association with BITS (Pilani) to prepare fresh graduates for careers in software programming and provide them with the necessary skills.
Many domestic IT companies have also started recruiting graduates and post graduates from other countries. TCS planned to recruit around 4,000 foreign nationals in the US, China, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Satyam expected to recruit engineering graduates from Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. Infosys offered internship programs for foreign students and also recruited graduates from the US and UK.
However, some experts opined that it remained to be seen if these efforts by individual companies could significantly redress the looming talent shortage in India.
Analysts pointed out that these remarks were a further indication of the impending talent shortage in the Indian IT sector. NASSCOM had estimated that, by 2010, India could face a shortfall of 500,000 IT professionals. It was believed that this could seriously threaten India’s position as a leading provider of IT and ITES services.
According to NASSCOM, every year over 3 million people (graduates and post graduates) are added to the workforce in India. Of these, only 25 percent of technical graduates and 10-15 percent of other graduates are considered employable by the growing IT and ITES sectors.
Even after employing these graduates, most companies have to spend considerable amount of time and resources on their training so as to develop the skills required by the industry. Indian IT majors like Infosys, TCS and Wipro, and even global entities like IBM and Cognizant have invested heavily in training their new recruits.
With the talent shortage resulting in increasing salaries and high attrition rates, some experts cautioned that India could lose its competitive advantage in the IT sector. This could lead to a situation where multinational companies might start scouting for alternative locations if India was unable to meet their growth demands due to shortage of quality manpower.
In order to address the problem, many IT companies have partnered with engineering colleges and universities. Infosys had launched a program ‘Campus Connect’ to align the education being given at various engineering colleges, with the requirements of the industry. Wipro had started a program called the Wipro Academy of Software Excellence, in association with BITS (Pilani) to prepare fresh graduates for careers in software programming and provide them with the necessary skills.
Many domestic IT companies have also started recruiting graduates and post graduates from other countries. TCS planned to recruit around 4,000 foreign nationals in the US, China, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Satyam expected to recruit engineering graduates from Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. Infosys offered internship programs for foreign students and also recruited graduates from the US and UK.
However, some experts opined that it remained to be seen if these efforts by individual companies could significantly redress the looming talent shortage in India.