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'IT exports to touch $80 Bn in three years'
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 15 May 2008, 02:04 IST
Hyderabad: India's IT exports are poised to touch $80 billion within three years doubling from $40 billion achieved in 2007-08. It would also create about two million more direct jobs in the process, according to Jainder Singh, Union Secretary, Information Technology and Communication.
Besides, the sector provides two million jobs to IT professionals directly and another 7-8 million people indirectly and contributes about 5 percent of the country?s gross domestic product, and 33 percent of exports. The sector contribution to GDP is set to go up significantly, he said.
While the Indian IT brand is well established, it faces the challenge of increasing the employable pool of engineers to sustain the growth, Singh said launching ?Prepare Future?, a Faculty Updation Programme.
Singh said of the 4 lakh who graduate out of engineering colleges in the country, about 25 percent are actually employable.
Therefore, the accent is on increasing the employable pool. However, this time, instead of focus on the student and his training, the thrust is on training teachers. The importance of training can be gauged from the fact that about Rs 4,000 crore would be spent by IT companies on training their employees during the year, he said. The IT department has chosen the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-Dac), Hyderabad as the nodal center to design, develop and help train faculty of engineering colleges.
The focus has shifted on to training teachers as the engineering colleges are faced with shortage of trained teaching staff, who require to update skills and brace up with new technologies and curriculum.