The Hindu Business Line : Nasscom keen to hone skill-sets for jobs — Industry-academia meet focusses on employability

EVEN as India has set a target of $22.3 billion from export of IT and ITES in the current fiscal, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has focused on the imperative of bridging the gap between the demand and the availability of qualified human resources required by the IT and ITES sector.

Addressing a news conference here today, Mr Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom, said export earnings of the IT and ITES sector were expected to go up from $17.3 billion in 2004-05 to $22.3 billion in 2005-06.

However, to meet long-term export targets, it would be necessary to address issues concerning adequate availability of appropriately qualified human resources and the faculty required to train human resources. In fact, the problem in this regard was so acute that the employment selection ratio in the industry was barely 8-9 per cent at present.

Mr Karnik said Nasscom had partnered with AICTE and ITC Infotech with a view to focusing on employability. A meeting comprising representatives of industry and academia was held here today to focus on the issue. Besides industry leaders, representatives of several local colleges attended the meeting.

Referring to the ITES/BPO industry in the country, Mr Karnik said the industry had matured and vendors were looking at opportunities for moving up the value chain. The sequence of the movement would be from BPOs to knowledge process outsourcing and beyond. Among the segments that offered great scope were engineering services, banking & finance and research & development. However, the availability of qualified human resources and faculty to provide training were areas of concern. In this regard, Mr Karnik cited the example of China which had taken several initiatives in the sphere of IT education and said the Chinese example was worthy of emulation.

Mr Karnik said that Tier I cities contribute around 90 per cent of the country's IT exports. The time had come for Tier II cities to play a significant role in this regard. It would be a question of time before corporates themselves see value in setting up operations in Tier II cities."

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