Task Force on HRD had indicated a shortage of 2,35,000 skilled manpower in IT, 2,62,000 for ITES, which could increase manifold in 2012 unless special efforts were made to this effect. NASSCOM McKinsey Report had also indicated a need for additional 500,000 suitable graduates in the next five years beyond the current supply trends to enable the industry to reach Offshore IT and Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) exports of US$ 60 billion by 2010. Added to this, no special efforts have been made to meet the shortages of manpower in the IT sector to realize a target of US$ 200 billion software export by 2010 as suggested by the President APJ Abdul Kalam.

Department of Information Technology (DIT), which is the nodal wing of the Government of India, has not taken adequate steps in consultation with the Ministry of Human Resource Development in this regard, sources in the Government revealed. In this connection, it is germane to the scenario that NASSCOM McKinsey Report 2005 had envisaged that addressable market for global off-shoring was estimated to be about US$ 300 billion between IT and BPO sectors. According to a competent source in the Government, only around 10 per cent of addressable market for global off-shoring has been realized so far, thus leaving ample room for the future growth. The addressable market for the global BPO industry has been equally sizable and could expand more than ten times from the current size of over US$ 11 billion to at least US$ 120-150 billion.

Although DIT has been working in unison with the Ministry of HRD and NASSCOM to exploit the untapped potential to meet the estimated shortfall of manpower in IT and ITES sector, it is learnt from official sources, the steps taken so far are not commensurate as envisaged in the two reports.. Initiatives to generate manpower are in key verticals like Bioinformatics, VLSI Design and Information Security. Besides, NASSCOM has launched the pilot phase of NAC Programme, NASSCOM's Assessment of Competence to help the IT and BPO industry. Added to this, DOEACC is implementing ITES/BPO course to enhance skills of youth for employment and self-employment in ITES/BPO sector in North East, Srinagar and Jammu region. DIT has also been supporting various R&D Projects in IT. Also many ITES and BPO companies are taking initiatives on their own to train manpower to meet their requirements.

In addition, to meet the challenges of the growing skilled manpower demand of IT/ITES sector, over the coming years, the Government has constituted a Working Group under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Higher Education with members from NASSCOM, academia, industry, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and other Government Departments. This Group is intended to address various issues relating to expansion of higher education system to meet the skilled manpower demands of IT/ITES sector. This will help the Government initiate further necessary measures in this regard.

However, the initiatives so far taken are not adequate. The issue needs a concerted focused attention of all concerned to meet effectively the future demands for skilled manpower in IT/ITES sector lest India should be left behind other competing companies. The matter is pressing and urgent and an integrated well coordinated approach by DIT needs to be provided on a war footing, before it is too late.#