The Hindu Business Line : ‘IT exports to touch $80 b in three years’

Hyderabad, May 12 IT exports from India are poised to reach $80 billion within three years effectively doubling from $40 billion achieved in 2007-08. In the process it would create about two million more direct jobs, according to Mr Jainder Singh, Union Secretary, Information Technology and Communication.

The sector also provides two million jobs to IT professionals directly and another 7-8 million people indirectly and contributes about 5 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and 33 per cent of exports. The sector contribution to GDP is set to go up significantly, he said.

While the Indian IT brand is well established, it is faced with the challenge of increasing the employable pool of engineers to sustain the growth, Mr Singh said launching ‘Prepare Future’, a Faculty Updation Programme here.

Mr Singh said of the 4 lakh who graduate out of engineering colleges in the country, about 25 per cent are actually employable.

Thrust on Training

Therefore, the accent is on increasing the employable pool. However, this time, instead of focus on the student and his training, the thrust is on training teachers.

The importance of training can be gauged from the fact that about Rs 4,000 crore would be spent by IT companies on training their employees during the year, he said.

The IT department has chosen the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-Dac), Hyderabad as the nodal centre to design, develop and help train faculty of engineering colleges.

The focus has shifted on to training teachers as the engineering colleges are faced with shortage of trained teaching staff, who require to update skills and brace up with new technologies and curriculum.

The C-DAC will provide both instructor-led training and online modules from Media Lab Asia, IIT-Chennai and IIITs, Dr. Sharat Chandra Babu, Director of C-DAC, said.

The Managing Director of Nvidia India, Mr JA Chowdary, said unlike in the past it was not enough to have some specialisation to secure an IT job.

No one is in without matching the company requirements. This opens up opportunity for specialised training.

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‘IT exports to touch $80 b in three years’