A task force was set up by the government of India, in August last year, headed by FC Kohli, former deputy chairman, Tata Consultancy Services, to recommend HR initiatives to maintain and strengthen India's leadership in IT and IT-enabled services in the years ahead. India has already established itself as the 'services-hub of the world' with over 24 per cent share of the global, off-shored IT / IT-enabled services market in 2001, with significant availability of a large base of skilled manpower at relatively lower costs. The objective of the task force was to analyse the present manpower delivery mechanism in terms of quantity, quality as well as skill sets vis-à-vis global IT / ITES requirement and suggest fiscal and administrative measures for skill generation and deployment. The Task Force was also required to suggest measures for optimizing deployment of non-IT professionals in the emerging opportunities.
In order to obtain participation from the industry, the
department of IT organised industry meets at Mumbai, Hyderabad, Banagalore and New Delhi. The key findings and recommendations were finalised by the task force in its meeting on 8th December, 2003, and released on February 10, 2004. The key findings of the task force are: a) The global IT / ITES market in 2002 was US $ 1184 billion and is estimated to grow to US $ 1322 billion US $ in 2003. It is estimated that this market would grow to US $ 2497 billion in 2009, registering a CAGR of 11 per cent between 2003 and 2009. b) India is expected to achieve a domestic and global market of US $ 62 billion in IT / ITES by 2009 from US $ 12 billion in 2003. c). The growth in IT and ITES market in India will translate into manpower requirement of 0.48 million for IT export services and 1 million for ITES export services by 2009. Thus IT and ITES manpower requirement is likely to grow from 0.7 million in 2003 to 2.2 million in 2009. This includes manpower requirement for domestic / captive IT services. d). According to current trends, the manpower gap for IT and ITES for 2009 is estimated to be 0.5 million. e). Estimates suggest that India could be one of few countries in the future with surplus manpower availability and these could be effectively trained and deployed to meet the requirements of the IT / ITES industry. f). Considering the growth potential of over 25 per cent per annum ITES / IT could become a significant contributor to the economic growth of the country. The share of revenue from off shore services to overall GDP could grow from 1.9 per cent in 2002 to ~6.6 per cent in 2009. g). A significant portion of graduates (~35 per cent) opt out of the work force due to various social and economic pressures while another large chunk (~58 per cent) gets absorbed into non-IT sectors. These non-IT personnel represent a significant source of manpower to meet specific requirement of ITES / IT industry. h). Movement of ITES industry to non metros, is inevitable due to considerations of manpower availability and real estate costs. The development of telecom, power and human resources infrastructure in these cities will play a major role in future for this movement. i). The overall strategy to meet the human resources requirement rests on ability to inculcate the right skills, establishing a standard to certify the quality of skills provided and attracting people to get them certified to meet these requirements. A common database of skill sets required and available for ITES / IT industry would also guide efforts on the scale and direction of the human resource development efforts. j). India's ability to become global R&D units will depend on adequate availability of high skilled human resources which in turn requires changes in education system as well as infrastructure and faculty availability. Since IT has applications in all sectors of economy, a National Technology Plan needs to be evolved involving all major Ministries and Departments along with industry and academia. This will guide the scale and direction of human resource development efforts in the country. k). The ITES / IT industry is extremely dynamic in nature, requiring continuous review and revision of specific actions. A dedicated team from government, academia and industry must be appointed to conduct specific reviews every 2-3 years. Recommendations: The task force recommends: - Attracting resources into IT / ITES
- Educating/developing requisite skills.
- Certifying skill levels of resources
- Deploying trained/certified resources
- Monitoring and guiding efforts related to IT/ITES and R&D
The Task force has recommended changes in the policy, delivery institutions, regulatory mechanisms and fiscal incentives. These recommendations while intended at driving the growth of the overseas market will also have a salutary ripple effect on other parts | 
