Discuss this

The much-awaited second meeting of the National Advisory Committee on IT has taken place as scheduled on January 15. All the media hype that preceded it has been in vain. The meeting has concluded without creating any ripples and as is customary for such a session. It has set the date for the next meeting as 14 April.

As usual, it has been learnt that most of the time was taken up for seeking concessions in import duties and excise duties on hardware products and components. Pramod Mahajan, Minister for IT, who chaired the session now has the unenviable task of lobbying with the Finance Minister for these concessions. We have to wait for the budget speech for that.

The key issue of human resources figured prominently in the meeting. Though some of the members, notably, Infosys Chief NR Narayana Murthy suggested greater contribution from the IT industry and the government jointly to tackle the emerging shortage of skilled software professionals, the advisory committee did not pursue the topic seriously. The software industry is not very enthusiastic about a proposal to allocate 20 percent of the Profit Before Tax (PBT) to an education trust to encourage high quality research in IT in Indian institutions. The industry still wants the government to continue funding the higher education sector in a big way.

Global IT majors are showing the way yet again on how to get top quality manpower. John Chambers from the networking major Cisco during his India visit last week has demonstrated the aggressive intentions of developing and grabbing the HR talent. Cisco intends to invest nearly Rs 40 crore to set up 34 academies in partnership with Indian institutions to train over 100,000 professionals in the latest networking technologies. Recent studies indicate that the gap between the cost of hiring IT professional abroad and India have narrowed significantly. India is no longer an attractive destination for cheap human resources in many cutting edge technologies. Foreign companies come here to tap this talent pool at any cost. It is for the nation to ensure that the pool does not dry up.

Infosys chief's suggestions such as providing at least Rs 25,000 per month to researchers in IT against a fifth of that given by government agencies should be taken up seriously by the industry. To encourage high quality research work in IT, Infosys chief has suggested awarding Rs 2 lakh to every published research paper. The nation needs to pay greater attention to improve the quality of research work in IT Indian institutions. Henry S Rowen, one of the co-authors of `The Silicon Valley Edge' has advised Indian universities to strengthen the research function, which he emphasizes will be a key driver of the country's increasing prowess in the IT sector. The role of the cash strapped government is restricted. The industry, which will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the availability of high quality human resources, should take a more active role to make this a reality.