Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. There was a time when software engineers were highly respected and in demand, but today even the youth who have studied engineering from institutes like IIT are not getting jobs. An industry body has estimated that India's technology sector will need more than 10 lakh engineers with advanced skills in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other capabilities in the next 2-3 years. But this demand will not be met until the government significantly improves education and training. However, in the meantime it is also being said that this era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can once again bring back the lost status of engineers.

Sector need to reskill itself

Sangita Gupta, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the National Association of Software and Services (NASSCOM), said the sector will need to reskill more than half of its current workforce to take up jobs in areas such as AI, big data analytics and cyber-security. "New college graduates will be able to fill only a quarter of the required advanced technical jobs," she said. "Maintaining the employability of the workforce is a big challenge and will require a fair amount of work. The industry cannot make do with just one-time up-skilling, it has to continue its journey of constantly improving skills amid the rapidly changing digital landscape," Gupta said in an interview on Monday.

What do the figures say?

India's $250 billion tech sector plays a vital role in the economy, employing about 54 lakh people. Tech services account for about 7.5 per cent of the country's over $3 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) are struggling to fill positions due to a wide mismatch between the skills of the workforce and what is required on the job. This puts Indian IT companies at a disadvantage against global rivals such as International Business Machines Corp and Accenture Plc.