The Hindu Business Line : ‘IT, retail sectors emerging as two largest employers’

Hyderabad, May 6 Information technology with about 5 million jobs and retail sector with about 2.5 million in the next five years have the potential to be two major job creators in the country, according to the Chairman of Nasscom, Dr Ganesh Natarajan.

“If one brings in the 4X factor, that is every job in the main sector creates four more in-related services business, these sectors have immense potential over the next five years,” Dr Natarajan said.

Speaking at the ReTechCon, the annual Retail Technology Conclave here, he said that the IT sector now employs about 2 million people directly and another 8 million indirectly and is projected to create about 5 million jobs over the next five years.

“These projections may be difficult to believe. If one goes back 20 years, it would have been difficult to envision that we would achieve $100 million in exports then. But today, IT sector is a $63-billion industry in India. If trends are anything to go by, we will continue to grow at about 25-30 per cent a year,” he said.

Emerging retail

Likewise, the retail sector is seen to be emerging as next major employer in the country, and significantly its impact is likely to cover a wider geographical footprint unlike IT sector, wherein about 95 per cent of the current jobs are accounted by the top 10 cities.

Markets such as India, China and Vietnam are seen to be driving the next wave of retail growth. Interestingly, unlike in the past, we have interesting case studies of retail industry success for other markets to emulate, he said.

Technology is set to play a significant role as a predominantly unorganised retail seeks way to be part of the organised business. It is estimated that there are over 10 million kirana shops in the country and all of them, in fact, need some sort of automation/IT to stay competitive. The technology industry is innovating to offer them services and bring them on to the organised sector.

“This calls for innovation, IT services and delivery. These could be either through Software-as-a-Service or through hosted platforms. Nasscom is delighted to be part of the retail sector growth and expects to work closely with the retail industry,” he said.

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