The Hindu Business Line : Nasscom calls for `liberation' of institutions

"We should allow some institutes to recruit whoever they want, admit whoever they want and introduce and experiment with new courses as per market demand," says Mr Karnik.

Chennai , July 18

Nasscom, the IT and ITeS industries' apex body, on Tuesday called for the `liberation' of some educational institutions, granting them freedom to experiment with new courses and to pay as much as they want to faculty.

Mr Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, welcoming a gathering at its annual Human Resources Summit in Chennai said, "On an experimental basis, we should allow some institutions to recruit who they want, admit who they want and to pay the faculty market salaries."

Universities, he said, "Are constrained by rules and regulations. They have too many constraints. They must have the freedom to experiment." Tomorrow, the drivers for the industry would be innovation and creativity. "If our universities, which are the hotbed for innovation, are constrained in this manner, I don't understand where we are heading. We need to see how we can liberate the system."

He suggested that on an experimental basis, "We should allow some institutes to recruit whoever they want, admit whoever they want and introduce and experiment with new courses as per market demand."

Currently, he said, "universities cannot introduce a new course without prior permission from the University Grants Commission. Why should a university, if it has the best academic minds, wait for permission from someone in New Delhi to commence a course it deems fit for the students."

He added that without action taken in the near future, the Indian IT industry could face a shortage of 0.5 million professionals by 2010.

Shortage of professionals

"This is not an actual shortage. We would have more engineers than that figure by 2010 but they might no be employable. The industry, academia and government need to work together to prevent this unnatural shortage."

He also urged educationists and policy makers to look up on education as a possible foreign exchange earner.

According to him, "Every year, bright students who don't make it to the best institutes in India, prefer to go abroad for studies. India spends between $2 billion and $3 billion every year on such students. If institutes are able to attract students both Indian and foreign, this could be a big revenue earner." And, he said, since the Indian industry will be the biggest consumers of high quality human resources with the highest qualification, the industry would benefit, as well.

STPI: Awaits Govt response

Later, interacting with the press, Mr Karnik, in response to a query, said, "There is no update from the Government on our proposal to extend the STPI tax exemption benefits to the SEZ scheme too."

For IT companies registered under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme, all tax exemptions come to an end in 2009. The Special Economic Zone scheme allows companies to become eligible for tax exemptions afresh.

Mr Karnik said: "The SEZ scheme is skewed in favour of big companies and real estate developers. If you are a small company with a handful of employees, you should be free to have an office wherever you want, like in the STPI scheme, and still be eligible for tax benefits.

"Without this, not only will a small company find it difficult to transport employees to an SEZ way out of the city, but will also fall prey to builders charging him say, Rs 150 a sq ft instead of the Rs 30 per sq ft that the employer would pay."

At the inaugural, Dr D. Vishwanathan, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University, said, "Anna University is planning to get a consortium of institutes going. This is aimed towards sharing of knowledge within the community and among faculty. The university has also, in collaboration with ELCOT, conducted courses to impart soft skills and communication skills to students of the third and fourth year of the engineering stream."

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