Monday, March 10, 2003		Feature

SOFTWARE companies in India hire over 60 per cent of fresh engineering graduates, and this trend may affect the growth of manufacturing sector and also the quality of teaching faculty in the long-term, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B). Students from all branches of engineering are being lured by software firms which offer high wages compared to the old economy sectors, the initial findings of the study, based on placement data available with IIT-B since the early nineties till date.

"The IT job hiring pattern more or less meets the forecast by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) that the industry will have a one million workforce by 2005," the study said.

"We have taken IIT-B as a sample for IITs in general. The trend of majority of graduates moving to IT firms is common even in the Regional Engineering Colleges and other engineering colleges across the country," Anand Patwardhan, Associate Professor, Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT-B, who conducted the study, told PTI here.

He said in the last three years nearly 75 per cent of M-Tech from IIT-B have got IT jobs.

He said if the existing trend continues, local engineering colleges would be the worst affected due to lack of faculty. "Many of them are already struggling to find good teaching staff. It will only worsen". One of the factors IT firms luring the youth is the high wage difference of up to five times than the traditional sector, he said.

Yet, it is not all rosy for the IT industry. Pitfalls like burn out, lack of challenging assignments and retrenchment are some issues the students are concerned before taking up a software job, he added.