Is the IT Industry screwing other sectors in India?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do some heavy gray cell squeezing with a couple of friends of mine. One of my friend is a director of a Soft Skills company and the other a Data Architect. The General Manager of firm (Soft Skills) was also present. Their question? IT Industry is draining out skills from other industrial sectors and this is causing a huge strain for resources in other sectors. The sustainability of the growth that IT has had has no guarantee and parent with dreamz are sending their children in flocks to Computer Science engineering. Other Engineering graduates are pouring into IT without sticking to work with the branch they have chosen. What is the role of these people who enter the industry without much knowledge of computer science 5 years down the lane? What if they are not able to sustain the constant adapatibility that IT seems to enforce on technical people. Should they become managers? What if so many people are not required because the industry crashes?

This was a really different topic simply because somebody was talking about the labor crunch in other industries rather than within the IT industry for a change. I smelt some long term strategic thinking that these people are looking at and hurriedly joined the conversation.

The discussion was revolving around different questions. First, whats the future of the "common people" who enter the industry simply because that is were the jobs are for now and that is the industry where money is?

I explained to them that since IT in India has primarily been a services focussed, recurring work(BPO), maintenance activities have been the major source of the so called boom of the IT industry and it doesnt need "trained computer science engineering" labor for more than 60% of the work the industry does which is why we can see so many non CS engineering people entering and being successful in the industry. What is rather required is an analytical mind and this is generally present in most of the graduates since they have done "engineering". This has been the idea behind the industry recruiting engineering graduates in droves.

However there is a certain percentage of work that is primarily involving computer science engineering, cutting edge technology and understanding of computer science as a field.

India is loosing the edge that it has traditionally maintained in terms of low cost labor to countries like china. So the primary chunk of the work that the Indian IT has been doing all these years is at threat to be shifted to the low cost centres. And one can actually see this happening already. What has happened in these years is that Indian companies have breached traditional barriers in type of quality of work and have started to do engineering work involving architecture, design, Total IT outsourcing which has been already done by the Biggies like the Big Blue, Accenture and EDS etc. On the other hand they themselves as a business are opening shop on the low cost centres which is a very strategic and sustainable thing to do. Indian IT has also breached traditional barriers in KPO and have been actively involved in it. Consulting which was previously left to the biggies is part of the portfolio for most companies now.

The Indian IT industry has given a generation of people lots of money and the most important thing to notice is the amount of money the generation is spending. This ensures distribution of the money. Traditionally businessman honest and otherwise have been the sole owners of cars, houses and the other luxuries and IT has broken that mould and therefore has given the opportunity to millions of households to actually see money. Though this seems like a rosy scenario, I am well aware of the imbalance it has created in the society. The industry has suddenly thrust a layer of people way up and the rest of them are still down there. Though it is agreeable that it is simply impossible to bring all sections up at the same time, the difference is very huge in this case.

So much growth thrust upon a country which wasnt ready and was still in the category of "developing" nations has led to chaos in terms of infrastructure, societal imbalance, higher prices for day to day items which still increases the imbalance and huge division with poor people left where they are and the increase in prices leaving them even poorer.

Though this seems like a good viewpoint, I observed that today because of the spending that this industry has induced, industries like infrastructure, research, telecom to grow. It has given the government money to spend. Millions of Software Professional pay hefty taxes that augument the governments ability to put in schemes that were previously deemed unviable. Roads in a span of 2 years have grown at 200% more than the roads that were laid since independence. India is growing at a rapid pace. Entrepreneurs are growing by the day, all having the ability as well as the money to start new businesses and be successful. The IT industry is training people at the college levels. IT Companies as part of CSR's are heavily pouring in money that is helping people. Previously this use to be a privilege of business tycoons. Now IT companies have the muscle to do this. Media is growing at an incredible pace. Look at the news channels! They are bringing in transparency in the democracy. Right to Information Act 2005 allows people to get things done transparently. Mobilizing people against injustice is part of the media culture that we are building. IT is bringing in transparency in the processes of the government and we are leading it. Government employees are becoming more conscious of the possibility of getting punished for accepting bribes.

All said done, we cannot change things in a day, month, year or 2 years. It may take a decade, but it will happen. Common man will be empowered.1995 Nokia or Ford would have thought twice to invest in india, today Ford is pouring in an additional 500m$ to the Indian facilty. We are enabling other sectors to grow.

The argument that only IT enabling sectors are growing is a valid point. IT people have more money so they buy cars and therefore car companies are here is a common arguement. However telecommunication and the media revolution we are observing is definitely not attributable only to IT. Every villager has a mobile phone. Telecommunication has empowered the common man across the board.

This was a digression from the initial question, what happens to the average joe entering the industry after 5 years. The answer is simple, what happens to an average joe when her goes to any industry? He adapts he survives. He doesnt, he is thrown out. This is not attributable to a specific industry. If you are truly technology centric, you will learn to adapt to the quick changes that this field is throwing up. There will be skill sets that average joe already has that is requred for the next 20 years and he may get to have his place or he will get to understand his strength in people management and probably become a manager who understands the industry and knows to manage people. It depends on individual interest.

I honestly consider bringing in people who have done their under graduation (B.Sc/BCom) into this industry as sick. Till now the industry has stuck to a minimum Engineering or a post graduation. The possibility of a lucrative job dangling in front of you after your under graduation might take you off track given the environment we live in. And this industry will do better if it doesnt do it. Persuading thousands of young minds to choose quick money over education is really sick. I would rather appreciate if the industry allows higher eduction as a mandatory requirement even if it is done being part of their rolls.

In conclusion there is no right answer. This is one of those gray areas only time can tell. But till then life goes on, thousands queuing up with dreamz in their eyes and uncertainty in yet another generations minds.