People again

The issue of shortage of people have come up again in the IT industry. According to industry experts, this issue is likely to dominate the discussions at the IT National Advisory Council meeting scheduled on 15 January in New Delhi. Industry leaders are expected to raise the manpower shortage issue with Pramod Mahajan, Minister for IT in a big way at the meeting.

Manpower issue is likely to be a talking point for some more time in India. There are indications that India is moving from human resource surplus situation to scarcity. For the last five years, NASSCOM, the software industry association, has been highlighting this issue. But the industry and the government have stirred themselves into action only when confronted with actual shortage. The phenomenal growth rates achieved by the software export segment in the 1990s have been primarily due to the immediate availability of skilled professionals in the country. 

Things have begun to change in the last few years. The availability of vast IT talent pool has attracted global software majors to set up development centers in India itself. Indian companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Cognizant, HCL Technologies, etc too have made their mark in the global software services market on the strength of India's software skills. Now we have reached a stage where the demand has started to overtake the supply. The supply of human resources of top caliber has not kept pace with the demand. The government continues to be the prime supplier of higher education services and dwindling resources have stood in the way of increasing manpower supplies. Even if physical resources can be augmented, the government and the industry is faced with the shortage of skilled trainers to train the students in latest IT technologies. 

The problem has to be tackled at two levels. First, the accreditation and regulatory agencies at the central level have to revamp their processes and procedures to allow immediate increase of seats in IT-related courses in existing and new engineering institutions. Some state governments too have a big role in speeding up the regulatory procedures to allow smooth entry of private institutions to provide the much-needed engineering education services. 

In 2000, the governments of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have reacted quickly to the emerging needs and doubled the intake into IT courses. In Kerala, the proposal to start 26 engineering colleges, mostly in the private sector, has been stalled by the state government on ideological grounds, thus depriving thousands of Keralites to grab a share of the software pie from their own soil. Thousands of Keralites are forced to spend a lot more to acquire the requisite qualifications from other states. State governments have to be more proactive in increasing the human resource pool. 

The industry too can contribute to tackle the problem. The industry should lend the services of its people to reduce the shortage of trainers. And the software industry should heed the advice of Infosys chief NR Naryana Murthy who has called for significant financial contribution by the industry to increase the availability of skilled people. Together, the industry and governments can tackle the issue quickly.