New Delhi: Vishnu Dusad, Managing Director, Nucleus Software and R P Singh, president, Nucleus Software talk to IndianExpress.com on the issue of talent crunch in the IT Industry.
Vishnu: There are two contradictory things, on one hand people are not getting placements in IT industry while on the other hand, recruiters say, they do not get enough suitable people to work. Who has to be blamed for this? Industry has to be blamed for this. It is a very strange situation for the country, which has a population of 115 crore and yet struggles hard to get IT professionals.
Despite a huge population, an Indian company like Infosys has to announce that they are going to set up a shop with 20000 people in China. We could not find even 20,000 people for the Chinese market and that's why they (Infosys) had to take this decision of investing $100 million to setup shop in China.
What is the most challenging aspect of the talent crunch?
Vishnu: We invite 400 thousand students every year to join IT industry courses. But, what we have noticed over the years is that, by and large, freshers coming to take jobs in the companies have zero practical exposure. Also, because of lack of employability in India, in terms of salary, every year the Indian market gives a hike of 20-25%, wherein countries like china gives a maximum of 4 %. Therefore, employability has come as mega challenge.
Vishnu: We (major IT companies) are actually caught up in our quarterly result scenario and focus to that long term thinking has not been sufficient enough like other industries.
Short sightedness seems to be the crux of the problem. Unfortunately, the focus is being tactical, like how to handle Obama's visit, how do we handle couple of $100 million worth of visa increased.
What kind of people do you think best serve the purpose of this industry?
Vishnu: We should hire more committed IT professionals rather than the people who changes the job to get 15-20 percent extra hike in their salary.
How in your opinion can the industry address this issue of short term orientation?
R P Singh: Basic idea is to get the entire IT industry aligned to make sure that we move to the right direction of increasing the employability from 20-25% to 40% in a year and 60-70% in next 2-3 years. Then we can talk about taking these 2 million IT professionals to 20 million.
R P Singh: Major mandate on part of NSBT is the facilitation between IT industry and academia and that is where we have taken multiple steps.
We launched NSBT on January 1, 2010, wherein we started the 1st formal batch on July 1, 2010.
What led you to focus on creating talent related to Banking Technology?
Vishnu: Banking contributes 40% of it towards IT and it's a huge segment. There would be approximately 40% of people working on Banking Technology related activities.
We initiated to focus on banking technology as Nucleus Software is primarily into banking technology.
R P Singh: The first batch of NSBT is called NSBT Certified Software Professionals. We have decided to address 6 main areas wherein we will teach them to how to be a software engineer rather than teaching java and all:
*First thing to be focus on is business application because when you work on business application then first you should learn what business is all about.
*Exposure to products and software, it is important to give the feel of our product.
*Technology; here comes the software languages.
*Tools and Method
*Soft Skills; wherein they will learn time management
*Values and Ethics
What is the duration of course and the annual intake of NSBT?
Vishnu: Presently, we are running a 4 month course. The strength of first batch was 100 people and 2nd batch has strength of 150 people, gradually its increasing.
What kind of response has NSBT received from the Industry, especially the recruitment sector?
Vishnu: So far we are doing it in a very controlled manner; we have got positive response which reassures that the content which we have thought is in line.
The best results can be achieved if we are able to rope in the retired IT professionals in joining these colleges and using their expertise in creating the right kind
of manpower.
Source: Indian Express