The Hindu Business Line : `India can meet IT manpower demand'

EVER since reports poured in about millions of jobs moving to India in the next 5-10 years, coupled with the now famous forecast of McKinsey on the need to create 2.2 million jobs in the IT industry by 2008, questions are raised whether the country would be able to generate such a large scale workforce.

But data compiled by Business Line show that India would be able to meet the demand for IT workforce quite comfortably.

According to Human Resources Development Ministry, there are 1,058 engineering colleges in the country today (excluding IITs), which produce 2.71 lakh engineers annually. In addition this, there are 1,231 diploma engineering colleges which churn out 2,20,947 engineers and 797 institutes providing MCA degree to 37,005 people. Then there are six IITs.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) says that in 2000-01, there were 2,01,246 engineering graduates in the country, of which 82,107 were armed with a four-year degree and 1,19,139 were diploma holders. In 2002-03, the total number of engineers stood at 2,59,130, comprising 1,28,877 B-Tech graduates and 1,30,252 diploma holders, which registered a growth of about 29 per cent in engineering pool.

The association estimates that the number of engineering graduates in 2003-04 would be 2,94,251 and grow to 3,27,013 in the next year. By 2005-06, India would have 3,68,672 engineers, it says.

The number of IT professionals (those who have studied computer science, electronics or telecom) stood at 94,498 in 2000-01 and 1,26,644 in 2002-03. This is projected to go up to 1,58,176 by 2005-06.

Since many of these graduates would find jobs abroad, it is estimated that only 90,152 engineers would be available for the domestic industry in 2005-06. In 2002-03, 71,961 people opted to work with the Indian companies, while in 2000-01; this number was 74,364, according to Nasscom.

However, some non-IT engineers too enter the infotech sector. Their number in 2000-01 was 32,025 and 39,746 in 2002-03. It is estimated that 63,149 non-IT professionals would take up jobs with the IT industry by 2005-06. Then there are graduates of other disciplines entering the IT industry, whose numbers are estimated at 34,926 in 2002-03 and 47,061 in 2005-06.

By 2005-06, Indian educational institutions would produce 2,00,362 as compared to 1,46,633 in 2002-03 and 1,32,986 in 2000-01. If one adds up the annual workforce from 2000-01 to 2005-06, it stands at 9,83,130, which is not far from the 1.1 million jobs predicted in the IT industry (excluding the IT-enabled services, which would account for another 1.1 million). Annually, over 1.54 million graduates pass out of India's colleges, of this about 4.55 lakh are students of science.

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