Indian IT / ITeS industry requires 2 million professionals

BPO and call center
NASSCOM today said the Indian IT ITeS industry would require 1.2-2 million professionals to meet the new demand of the outsourcing industry.

India is currently the world’s largest global sourcing destination with around 3.7 million people directly employed by the IT ITeS industry.

According to the India IT-BPM Industry Talent Demand and Supply Report 2016, there is a need for introducing planned skill sets at an academic level to prepare job ready graduates for the industry, with the talent requirement shifting from ‘academic qualification’ based hiring to ‘skill, knowledge and expertise’ based hiring.

Technology adoption is becoming more pervasive and is leading to rising demand for talent from multiple industries. This has implications for skills required in growing in-demand job roles such as Data Scientists, Automation, Embedded Software Engineers, Digital Transformation, IoT, etc.

While certain traditional skills like Java, Web Development and Database Management remain high in demand, requirement of new digital skills such as mobile, cloud, analytics (Hadoop) and cyber security is increasing.

Sandhya Chintala, executive director IT ITeS Sector Skills Council NASSCOM said: “With disruptions and shifting customer preferences changing technology and skill sets in demand there is a rise in new job roles and occupations; skill sets are rapidly emerging as must haves for current and prospective tech employees.”

India is the world’s largest global sourcing destination at $143 billion revenue — with 56 percent share globally.

The sector comprises 16,000 firms: 1,000+ GIC/MNCs and 4,200+ tech startups, and represents the 3rd largest entrepreneurship hub in the world.

The IT-ITeS Sector Skills Council has completed a mapping of more than 517 job roles in the industry with career paths defined from entry level to department heads / CXOs. The body has created Qualification Packs (QPs) – standards for 74 entry level job roles that define the requisite activities expected to be performed by professionals on the job along with the skills, knowledge and understanding to carry out the role.