Monday, December 2, 2002		Feature

Gates visit raises hopes
Shibani Dasgupta

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates with Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan

THERE is an air of cautious optimism in the realm of information technology, two years after the dotcom bust followed by 9/11. The announcement by Microsoft honcho Bill Gates that his company will invest $ 400 million (Rs 2000 crore) in India over the next three years has been applauded. Going by the indications in Bangalore where IT is the lingua franca after Kannada, new openings, online jobs, new training centres linked with universities abroad will beckon the trained would-be-professionals.

The investment would be made in education, industry, partnerships, technology innovation and in the expansion of Microsoft’s India Development Centre. The offer has come at a time when India needs to brace itself to tough competition from the IT sector in China that is coming up in a big way. Says Information Technology secretary Rajiv Rattan Shah: Do not underestimate the Chinese. They are going to move into software and they are ruthless. They are so ruthless that they will not mind sacrificing the hardships of one generation to the next. Shah has also spoken of the government’s move to put in place a nationwide supercomputing grid, of its efforts to persuade banks and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to consider intellectual capital as a collateral, and on the need to ramp up India’s technological ambitions quickly.

The ground situation in Karnataka and Hyderabad hold promise. There have been encouraging investments in this sector as was witnessed in the recent fifth annual edition of India’s largest technological jamboree. Also, poll on job confidence conducted by Jobstreet.com gave similar indications. Termed as Jobstreet.com Employee Confidence Index, the survey sought to measure the jobseekers’ confidence level through a questionnaire. The poll revealed that the confidence level in securing new jobs is gradually swelling amongst professionals across different sectors. It indicated that the impact of the downturn is gradually petering off. The survey further illustrated that the confidence level had risen to its high level in September 2002 and was expected to continue its rise in the entire period spanning 2002.

According to Website companies’ experts, growth expectations projected by various sectors are definitely more positive. At a time when the USA is uncertain about its economic outlook, India seems to have overall marched ahead in the first three quarters of 2002.

In terms of overall job growth registered by individual sectors, the survey points out that the highest growth rate in the third quarter of 2002 was shown by the call centre sector, which grew by 7.69 per cent in terms of jobs available. The second highest sector in terms of growth of jobs available is the healthcare and medical industry, which grew by 5.56 per cent. According to the survey, the third highest in terms of growth was banking and financial services, which stood at 5.38 per cent, while software sector managed to register a 1.81 per cent increase in hiring during the third quarter.

The sector that has taken a major beating in hiring activity is the telecom industry, which recorded a steep reduction at 14.05 per cent in number of jobs in the third quarter as compared to the second quarter. Other major sectors, which slowed down in the quarter, were consumer goods, biotechnology, pharmacology and manufacturing sectors.

The IT secretary has said he has urged strongly that Reserve Bank of India recognise IT as the most vibrant field in the Indian economy. They have to recognise that exports of software will hit $50 billion a year by 2008 from $10 billion today, the sector will grow to 33 per cent of GDP from 7 per cent and create four million new jobs in the next four years. If the banks think that they are not going to be part of this growth, they must also see that they are hurting themselves. NPA