The Hindu Business Line : Nasscom moots special education zones

With the prospect of shortage of about 5,00,000 techies by 2010 looming large over the IT sector in India, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), has mooted the creation of special education zones.

These special education zones would be free from bureaucratic hassles and have the flexibility to design courseware that suit the current day business and be market driven.

In addition, finishing schools, now making early inroads, could potentially add about 30-40 per cent to the available talent pool, if those who have not been picked up by the companies are groomed to meet industry requirements.

India contributes about 3 million graduates and 4 lakh engineers a year but a big chunk of them are not employable.

The President of Nasscom, Mr Kiran Karnik, said: "We need some innovation and tinkering of the current education framework. Two issues, one that enables private entrepreneurs to grow in the education sector and the second that provides for a four-month training to engineering graduates, could make a world of difference to the technology sector."

Overcoming attrition

A mapping of the sector has revealed India is on course to achieving about $75 billion from IT by 2010, of this $60 billion would be export earnings and the rest from the domestic market. But the sector is faced with concerns of high attrition levels, estimated at 18-20 per cent in IT and 40-plus per cent in ITES. Attrition is a symptom and the solution lies in finding a solution to the talent pool.

"If we are able to bridge this gap of talent, we could easily add in excess of $6 billion in exports. Though it would not be easy to foresee that the entire shortage would be bridged, a significant part is likely as a series of measures have been initiated with the industry and academia, including partnerships with RECs, IIT-Chennai and others," he said.

Speaking at the Indian School of Business, Mr Karnik said of the total available pool of engineering professionals, barely 20 per cent is employable. The effort now is to train and convert about 20 per cent more with short duration courses that would significantly boost manpower. Similar initiatives are planned for other graduates for ITES careers.

Typically, IT firms offer jobs in the third and fourth year itself to engineering students. This has lead to shortage of students keen to pursue higher education. This development curbs innovation.

ISB TECH CENTRE

The Indian School of Business has created a Centre for IT and Networking Economy (CITNE) with a mandate to groom technology managers and design courses for middle level IT managers and research programmes.

Other initiatives include, the IS Residency for Research, working with the policymakers on new regulations and with Nasscom to drive the domestic market growth.

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