The Hindu Business Line : A joint effort

With the employed manpower base swelling past the 1-million mark in 2005 and projected to touch 2.5 million in terms of direct recruitment, as the sector grows to $60 billion in exports by 2009, the industry is expected to face a manpower crunch, according to a Nasscom-McKinsey study. Besides areas such as animation and semiconductors, even the mainstream technology sector faces a talent shortfall.

Large technology players and industry bodies such as the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association, semiconductor industry players and various State Governments are collaborating to bridge the gap and scale up output of trained manpower.

Dr Biswadip Mitra, Managing Director of Texas Instruments India, says "from a semiconductor industry perspective, we are working towards a situation where we will have access to about 10,000 engineers per year from 2010 and there will be about 1,000 teachers to address this growing segment, while also helping industry to fine-tune the curriculum."

Says Dr Ganta Subba Rao, Chief Information Officer of the Andhra Pradesh Government, "It is heartening to note that all the 1,066 women students trained under the Jawahar Knowledge Centres have received job offers, with over 866 opting to accept them and the rest choosing to pursue higher studies.

This reflects what an industry-academia alliance can do. The challenge is to broaden their role through more partnerships."

According to Dr Anand Anandakumar, Managing Director of Magma, an electronic design automation (EDA) company, EDA companies are playing a big role in upgrading manpower skills in universities through their education programmes.

"Since it is difficult for educational institutions to invest in the tools and hardware required for EDA training, Magma and other companies such as Cadence and Synopsis have partnered with universities and engineering colleges and provided software and tools.

This will ensure that thousands get trained every year on these tools and in turn they will play a big role in helping grow the semiconductor industry. The talent thus created is available for the industry to tap into," he says.

During the recent Animation India 2006, the President of Nasscom, Kiran Karnik, said "if at all there is one roadblock for the growth of the animation and gaming industry, it is the ability of industry to provide employable engineering talent."

For instance, in the animation sector alone, about 10,000 people are required per annum, and barely 3,000 people are available.

Demand-supply issues are hampering growth. There is lack of skilled professionals as also specialised training institutions for animation and gaming, says Karnik.

To enrich the human resource pool, Oracle India has granted software worth Rs 500 crore. Forming part of the Oracle Academy Initiative, this provides access to training tools and faculty.

According to Krishan Dhawan, Managing Director of Oracle India, "this effort will complement the large Oracle ecosystem that has over 300,000 developers in India.

The company has so far granted about $250 million worth of software and supports some 17,300 students and expects to further expand this role."

In the case of Andhra Pradesh, it has trained its attention initially on addressing the IT-Enabled Services segment and also conducts a Graduate Employability Test.

t is also partnering with the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and 40 other companies to provide `finishing school' touches.

One other way companies such as Infosys, Satyam and Accenture have adopted is to set up learning centres that will provide initial training as also help in constant skill upgradation.

Given the large numbers of recruits from campuses, this is seen as one swift way to groom talent and ensure a steady supply of skilled manpower.

vrishi@thehindu.co.in

Picture by Shaju John

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