The cities are choked, schools obsolete and IT industry short of 500,000 staffers. But armed with a prediction that software is the economy’s new growth engine, IT honchos on Monday pitched for 12 new townships on the lines of Gurgaon or Pune, and custom-made Special Education Zones to churn out 500,000 call centre staff.IT Enabled Services (ITES) and BPO will be a $60 billion industry by 2010, contribute 7 per cent of the GDP and create 8-9 million jobs, says the third Nasscom-McKinsey Report released on Monday.The report says the IT headcount will top targets set by the top four government-sponsored schemes to generate employment. It will also be the world’s biggest export grosser by 2010 and create a fresh tier of multi-billion dollar companies in India.‘‘India can add $15-20 billion to its export revenues from IT. For this, companies need to innovate, but also, they need the best infrastructure possible,’’ said Satyam chairman and Nasscom Vice-Chairman Ramalinga Raju .But for any of this to come true, a complete overhaul of the way India lives and teaches is necessary. To start with, 10 to 12 new townships on the outskirts of big cities are needed, as well as a series of custom-made education ‘‘SEZs’’ and tremendous investments in transportation, sanitation, power as well as water. ‘‘There is a lot of competitive pressure and to challenge it, India will need to focus on more than cost arbitrage — on quality and quantity in short. To do so, the right soft and hard infrastructure are essential,’’ said TCS CEO and Nasscom chairman S Ramadorai, .‘‘The cities cannot add another 1-2 million employees. To get to $60 billion, another five integrated townships with residential and class A office space, malls and educational institutions are needed. Plus, 5 to 7 new Punes, including real estate to house and seat workers,’’ said Jayant Sinha, partner at McKinsey and Co.India provides 28 per cent, or a majority, of the global labour employed by IT exporters, but to maintain this, the higher education system will need an overhaul too.The current education system will leave short 500,000 people by 2010: that’s 150,000 less people for the ITES and 350,000 in BPOs, says the study. ‘‘To get the growth numbers, government will need to give industry and academia a degree of influence over the curriculum. There is need to go beyond the present curriculum and open up entirely new education zones,’’ said Nasscom president Kiran Karnik.
