A Coming Shortage of Tech Workers?

The task at hand for India's educational institutes is now to both match the demand for computer science and engineering graduates of the future, and to train the existing talent pool to keep up with the ever-changing technological developments. While prestigious institutes like the IITs provide the cr me de la cr me of the Indian technological work force, facilities like India's RECs provide a large bulk of the technical expertise to power the IT innovation needs of the future. Based on NASSCOM projections of the India IT work force, there is an expected growth of three times the number of experts needed from 2002 to 2008 (see Table 17-4).

Table 17-4. NASSCOM Projections on the Requirement of IT Work Force in India

Y EAR	IT W ORK F ORCE
2001	90,000
2002	115,000
2003	150,000
2004	195,000
2005	250,000
2006	300,000
2007	340,000
2008	370,000
Source: NASSCOM , www.nasscom.org/it_industry/indic_statistics.asp.

Here, India's strength lies in its overall output of engineers , combined with the rigorous selection process for student acceptance into the IITs. The average intake of all IITs combined as of October 1, 2001, was a total of 6,469 students, as compared with that of all degree, diploma, and master's in computer applications approved RECs (a total of 3,086 institutes) with a combined intake of 529,671 students per year. ^[19]

Table 17-5. Number of Technical Institutes and Annual Intake of Students per Institute

I NSTITUTE T YPE	N UMBER OF I NSTITUTES	A NNUAL I NTAKE OF S TUDENTS
IITs	6	6,469
RECs (degree engineering)	1058	271,719
RECs (diploma engineering)	1231	220,947
RECs (masters in computer applications)	797	37,005