Nilekani sees opportunity in crisis

17 February 2009

India's information technology industry is reeling under the global downturn and it is difficult to predict how long the crisis will last, according to Infosys Technologies co-chairman Nandan M Nilekani.

Delivering his keynote lecture at the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, he said the IT sector was not seeing the job buoyancy that it witnessed in previous years.

"The Indian IT industry has grown from $50 million in 1991 to $40 billion today. In the last three-four years ... the compounded growth rate was 30 per cent and more; and now it is reduced to 20 per cent due to the economic slowdown," he said.

"We can still come out of the slump, as the need for technology and innovative solutions to tackle complex problems has assumed greater importance and urgency," he added.

Delivering the Dr V K R V Rao Memorial Lecture on "India at the crossroads: the choices before us" to celebrate Founders' Day at the institute, Nilekani said one of the challenges was to invest in human capital so as to leverage the country's "demographic dividend" of a large population.

One way to look at it is to aim at creating 270 million jobs by 2035. Otherwise there would be a large number of unemployed youngsters, leading to tension, he said.