IT’s shining: Sees $62-b revenue in 5 yrs

India’s revenues from the it and it-enabled services is expected to jump to $62 billion by 2009 from $12 billion in 2003, translating i...

India’s revenues from the it and it-enabled services is expected to jump to $62 billion by 2009 from $12 billion in 2003, translating into a projected manpower requirement of 1.48 million for both it and iteS exports, according to a high-powered taskforce, headed by IT expert F. C. Kohli, on human resource development in it.

The taskforce said it and iteS manpower requirement is likely to grow to 2.2 million by 2009 from 0.7 million in 2003, if the manpower requirement for domestic and captive it services is also included. “Considering the current trends, the manpower gap for it and iteS for the year 2009 is estimated to be 0.5 million,” Pramod Bhasin, co-chairman of the taskforce said releasing the recommendations here.

The recommendations have been accepted by the government and an action plan has also been drawn by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) to facilitate the implementations.

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“We have accepted the recommendations of the task force and we will form inter-departmental groups to carry forward some of the suggestions while seeking executive orders and enabling legislations to implement the suggestions”, Pankaj Agarwal, joint secretary, DIT said.

The report also stated that considering the growth potential of over 25 per cent per annum, iteS and it could become a major contributor of the country. “The share of revenues from offshore services to overall gdp could grow to 6.6 per cent in 2009 from 1.9 per cent in 2002.

The report said the global it and iteS market is estimated to grow to $2,497 billion in 2009, from an estimated $1,322 billion in 2003, registering a compounded annual growth rate of 11 per cent. “As significant portion of graduates (35 per cent) opt out of workforce participation due to various social and economic pressures, while another large chunk of 58 per cent get absorbed into non it sector,” it said, adding that these non-it personnel represent a significant source of manpower to meet specific requirement of iteS and it industry.

The report stated that movement of iteS industry to tier ii and tier iii cities is inevitable due to manpower and real estate cost considerations. The development of telecom, power and human resource infrastructure in these cities to play a major role for this movement. The taskforce recommendations are on the strategic lines of attracting resources into it and iteS sector, educating and developing requisite skills, certifying skill level of resources, deploying trend and certified resources as well as monitoring and guiding efforts related to it and iteS and research and development.