Chennai: The Information Technology enabled Services (IT and IteS) industry would face a shortage of five lakh professionals by the year 2010, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said on Tuesday.
Inaugurating NASSCOM's annual Human Resources Summit, the industry body's president Kiran Karnik said that although there were lakhs of engineering graduates passing out every year, the industry was not getting "right type of people for right jobs".
The IT and ITeS firms required not only people who had technical skills but also soft skills, he said adding that the educational institutions were now producing "unusable material".
Though the country had embarked upon economic reforms, thought was not given to "drastic educational reforms", leading to the present situation, he said.
The universities should be removed from "all clutches" and be given full autonomy in framing curriculum, he further said.
"It is ridiculous that the universities should get the permission of University Grants Commission in New Delhi to start new courses. This attitude should be removed," Karnik said.
Innovation and creativity should be the key for the research and development. "Liberate the universities and give them freedom and autonomy," he added.
He said the education sector itself has a lot of potential in bringing in valuable foreign exchange.
"Centres of excellence should be created in several parts of the country, where the students from abroad could pursue education. This would bring in lot of foreign exchange," he said.
C Chandramouli, Tamil Nadu Government IT secretary, also present at the occasion, said that the state would soon come out with a new IT and ITeS policy. "The industry should give inputs to the government for incorporation in the new policy," he said.
Expressing concern over the non-availability of quality teachers in the universities and colleges, he said the best of the students went to serve the industry.
Comments
0 comment