There are two views that there is a global economic slowdown. What, however,
is still being debated is what and how much will the impact of this global
slowdown on India be? And one of the topmost apprehensions on the common man's
mind is if there will be significant IT job cuts? A common man's apprehensions
could have a direct bearing on the Indian IT sector. For instance, IT stocks may
continue to be adversely affected if the common man loses confidence on the
money making capabilities of Indian software and services companies. Or young
students may start looking for career options other than IT.
Remember, India has to hire almost 400,000 professionals this year. While
there is no available data on uptake of IT courses in the last six months, I am
aware of a couple of engineering colleges that are now wondering if they should
cut down the number of seats for IT courses. My response to them was very
simple. The huge Indian domestic market will now drive IT in India, and not
exports. And therefore, the growing domestic market will also drive employment
opportunities.
Just look at some of the recent DQTOP20 2008 survey findings to get an idea
about the potential of the domestic market jumped to 34 percent growth in FY 08
to attain Rs 99,018 crore. The domestic market growth overtook exports for the
first time in a decade; the domestic outsourcing market grew by over 65 percent;
almost 82 lakh PCs were sold including 20 lakh notebooks; and hardware,
including PCs, servers, peripherals, networking and storage products worth Rs
49,589 crore and IT services and software worth Rs 38,935 crore were to sold to
users in India. The spread of IT to smaller towns and cities of India has taken
off in a big way. Is this not going to create IT jobs, even if within India?
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| Ibrahim ahmad |
Further, if one is to believe experts that slowdown in the US and Europe will
shortly result in more work being outsourced to countries like India, the last
thing we want is shortage of skilled people. At a time when everything else
about India, including physical infrastructure, government incentives, and
policies for IT promotion, law and order, rents and salaries, seems to be going
against India, availability of quality workforce is perhaps the only remaining
USP. In fact, this is the time to create an environment that encourages more
people to take up IT as a profession.
(ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in)
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