Govt aims for 200,000 IT professionals

NEW DELHIi: India aims to raise the annual output of IT professionals to more than 200,000 by 2007, the government said on Wednesday. Indi...

NEW DELHIi: India aims to raise the annual output of IT professionals to more than 200,000 by 2007, the government said on Wednesday. India8217;s graduate educational institutions currently turnout around 178,000 engineers a year including all disciplines. Of these, information-technology disciplines are said to account for around 92,000.

quot;This is expected to raise the output of IT professionalsto over 200,000 by the year 2007,quot; Mahajan said in a statement.

There are some differences in approach between thegovernment and the private industry association on the issue.

The National Association of Software and Service Companiessaid last week it would unveil soon a plan to ramp up the annual output of IT professionals to 500,000 by 2006.

The ministry8217;s numbers refer only to institutionsrecognised, run or supervised by the government while several private sector companies run institutes that directly feed industry demand.

Brokerage Indosuez W.I. Carr said in a study this monththat India is likely to face a medium-term shortage of skilled professionals as technology colleges are unable to cope with soaring demand.

It forecast annual demand for Indian software professionalsto rise to more than 228,000 in 2003/04 April-March from 94,350 in 1999/2000, showing a compounded annual growth rate of 24 percent.

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It said the supply of professionals is seen growing muchmore slowly to around 137,500 from around 90,600 over the period.

Government officials say they want to take steps to ensurequality of education is not compromised in efforts to boost the annual output of professionals.

The crunch for professionals grew this year with the UnitedStates deciding to raise its global quota of work permit visas for skilled professionals to 195,000 every year for the next three years from 115,000.