India facing IT manpower crunch: Satyam

Once seen as Mecca of IT, India today is facing shortage of skilled manpower and many feel there's a need for more technical schools.

The world sees India as the Mecca of Information Technology, but the country is today facing a shortage of skilled manpower in the field, a top official of software giant Satyam said here, stressing on the urgent need to set up more technical educational institutions.

“The top four IT companies (Satyam, Infosys, Wipro and TCS) hire most of the talent in the country. There is a serious dearth of skilled manpower for the other hundreds of IT companies,” said Virender Aggarwal, Director and Senior Vice President of Satyam.

Despite being the smallest of India’s Big Four outsourcers, Satyam’s sales have tripled in the last five years, and its workforce has grown too with the company planning to hire another 15,000 this year.

Story continues below this ad

The company was named on Tuesday by Forbes Asia as one of Asia’s best 50 companies based on its long-term profitability, sales and earnings growth, stock price appreciation and projected earnings in the region. The companies selected have a market capitalisation or revenue of at least USD five billion.

Aggarwal, who oversees global operations in Asia Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa and was here for the awards function, said India’s education capacity was not increasing and the Government was not able to increase engineering colleges at the same pace as the burgeoning demand.

“The Government needs to spend lots on education,” he said and noted that this situation with “less manpower resulted in wage hikes making it difficult for both the companies and the end users.”

This is why companies are forced to outsource jobs since salaries sometimes become unaffordable, Aggarwal said.

Story continues below this ad

Satyam, which considers itself a global company, hires foreigners if the cost structure so requires. “There are countries where the locals are cheaper to hire than to bring in someone from India,” he noted.

The company has moved from answering phones for clients to helping them design kitchen appliances and aerospace components, Satyam officials said.

Trying to reduce dependence on the US market, Satyam has been aggressively expanding its presence in the region. The company delivers consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing solutions to clients in over 20 industries.