IT in India, Where we stand, Why we stand

IT industry started in India in the 1970s with Bombay being the place of origin, however, as time passed and the industry established roots in India, Bangalore became the hub of IT.

The major companies driving the IT revolution were Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Mindtree, Mphasis.

All predominantly provided IT services

India has seen major growth and investment in the IT sector in the last few years. 

In the financial year 2018, the IT-BPM services sector had an export value of more than three times the export value of software products and engineering services. The sector has been generating big figures domestically as well. The direct employment generated from the IT-BPM industry in the country was more than three million in financial year 2016.[https://www.statista.com/]

The global sourcing market in India continues to grow at a higher pace compared to the IT-BPM industry. The global IT & ITeS market (excluding hardware) reached US$ 1.2 trillion in 2016-17, while the global sourcing market increased by 1.7 times to reach US$ 173-178 billion. India remained the world’s top sourcing destination in 2016-17 with a share of 55 per cent. Indian IT & ITeS companies have set up over 1,000 global delivery centres in over 200 cities around the world.[https://www.ibef.org/archives/detail/b3ZlcnZpZXcmMzc2NTMmODk=]

We are still way behind in the global competitiveness index with a rank of 68. 

As India races into the future riding on the starboard IT Industry, it is important to understand where we stand globally and where we are headed.

If we analyse India's IT industry it is predominantly services and BPM based.

while we do grow at a good rate and shares of IT industry in the progress graphs of india are dominant, we stand at the edge of getting stereotyped as services only.

There are around 5 million software engineers in india, a number comparable to USA.

With the increasing number of engineers in India the labor costs for IT are very low. People are willing to join jobs in BPM and services for lesser salaries.

Though there are many places we lack, I am going to discuss the lack of creativity and willingness among the youth of India and how it is affecting the competitiveness of the industry.

There are many startups with innovative ideas in India, but the most successful ones are not the ones related to IT. They are related to services. Ola, Paytm, Flipkart, DElhivery. Now these are not even IT services. If India is moving towards being a major IT player innovation in IT is definitely needed.

5 out of 10 most successful(by market capital) startups of Japan are IT innovation related.

While the BPM and ITES companies provide the safety net of employment generation for the people as well as the government, in the long run if we are to become a major player in the global field, we need to rethink our approach in information technology.

No doubt the indian curriculum at its current state provides no fodder for creativity. It is mostly rote learning based. Recently some insititutions have taken steps to chnage this however, as we move forward the system catches up. Creative fields are still seen as non paying sectors and IT employees are seen as people who earn a lot, however, most people barely make enough. The social stigma attached in taking or not taking up certain jobs in India is also a major influencer of employment. The starting salary for freshers in service companies has failed to increase in proportion to the inflations. It has more or less remained stagnant since the last 4-5 years. Yet students are willing to take up the jobs. The government, the people, the students need to do more to stop the skilled labour from taking menial jobs. 

The quality of education largely goes unchecked at the UG level of tier 2 and tier 3 colleges. This causes in increase in number of students who take up engineering, however, in terms of knowledge they may not be at par with the standards. Now this leads them to happily taking up any job they are offered, the job which otherwise should have been done by other graduates is now being fulfilled by engineers. If given a chance to select between AC and fan in a hot afternoon, why wouldn't one go for an AC? This leads to a situation where the other graduates are either left unemployed or more and more students eventually decide to go for engineering, with a very less diverse youth in the nation, collective creativity takes a hit.

This doesn't mean there is dearth of talent in India, the world leader for Alphabet is an Indian, who completed primary education in India.

The CEO of Microsoft is an Indian, who completed his primary education in India.

The world's two best tech giants are headed by Indians, this, brings forward another important point, talent moving out of India. Imagine if these two people stayed in India, starting their own ventures or using their skills to plunge India forward, well, a more realistic scenario is the world never knowing of them had they stayed here.

A large number of IT educated youth prefer working offshore. Their reason is valid, in India its -"your mess for less". The standard salary is very less compared to the global standards for the same work, especially in the IT.

There are many steps taken by the government to support the IT sector. There are plans of developing more towns as IT hubs and decentralize the IT crowd from the major IT cities of Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. rebranding of BPO to BPM was one such step to change the outlook of people towards the IT services industry. More steps to support innovation among youth in terms of IT is needed if we truly want to stand as a major IT player globally.