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IT still popular

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DQW Bureau
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The just concluded admission process of the nearly 200 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu offer hope to the IT industry. The process started amidst the none-too-happy scenario facing the software industry. The layoffs and news about the return of hundreds of H1-B visa holders, who are primarily software, programmers had added to the gloom. And many people had predicted that students would prefer the new emerging areas such as bio-informatics and biotechnology.

However, students in Tamil Nadu have kept their faith in the IT industry's future prospects. The demand for the 40,000-odd IT related seats in 194 engineering colleges have been high. Of course, there is some change in the choice of disciplines. Till last year, the highest demand was for courses with the IT tag offered by the engineering colleges. This year, according to available data, students have opted first for Electronics and Communication courses first. Pure Computer Science course was next in demand followed by IT courses. Students who could not get any of these three disciplines have opted for the next best option of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Many students this newspaper spoke to maintained that the IT industry offers good career prospects in the long term. They termed the recent developments such as slow down and layoffs a short term phenomenon. They contended that IT as a discipline will continue to have a key role in the national and global economy for many more years to come.

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No wonder there is still a mad rush to set up engineering colleges, offering primarily IT related courses, in the state. In the early 1980s, there were less than a dozen engineering colleges in the state, run mostly by the government. Today there are 194. There are some 40 colleges in and around Chennai. Philanthropic, industrial, religious, community and caste-related organizations have taken the lead in setting up engineering colleges in all parts of the state.

The latest to join the bandwagon is a leading action hero in Tamil films, Vijayakanth, who is setting up an engineering college in his parent's memory. Last week, HCL Group Chairman Shiv Nadar had announced the launch of an engineering college by a trust headed by him. In fact, Nadar had pledged a million shares of HCL Technologies, from his personal holdings, to the trust to provide attractive compensation packages to the faculty.

Thanks to the efforts of these organizations and individuals, Tamil Nadu has taken a lead over Karnataka in the engineering education sector. Earlier, Karnataka was the hottest destination for engineering education, due to the presence of colleges which charged a hefty capitation fees. Tamil Nadu has streamlined the engineering education with a common entrance exam, a centralized, transparent admission process and differential pricing for the educational services provided by these colleges after fulfilling minimum qualification criteria. Competition and choice have really helped the consumers (students) of engineering education services in the state. And the returns, confirmed by the emergence of a booming software industry, has been worth the collective efforts of the society.

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