The Hindu Business Line : Invest in education, says Infosys chief

Chennai, Sept. 12 There is a need to continuously invest in education and educational reforms to ensure that there is no supply constraint (of employees) for the IT industry, according to Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies.

“We are going through a slow period right now. But we will come back to a situation of supply constraint environment again as the GDP growth go back to 8-9 per cent,” he said participating in a panel discussion at Connect 2009, the ICT event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with the Tamil Nadu Government.

Bridging the gap

In the long term there is a need to look at what kind of education is required because the IT industry spends large sums of money bridging the gap between what the academic institutions are able to provide and what the industry needs. This is a significant expense for the industry and whatever can be done to reduce this can be invested back into the business for growth, said Mr Gopalakrishnan, who is also the Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region.

Mr Gopalakrishnan said an informal survey of new employees at Infosys found that 40 per cent of the employees last year had one or both parents who had not completed high school education. So that the notion that jobs created by the IT industry is for the middle class or upper middle class is no longer true. The company has recruited from villages, rural areas and lower middle classes.

The IT industry today employs around 2 million people. Even if the growth is about 10 per cent (expectation is that it will be more than 10 per cent) at least another two lakh jobs would be added every year.

Expansion problems

Mr Gopalakrishnan, said that while the Government is pushing software companies to expand into tier II and III cities, there is no infrastructure support. He said that cost of land is a problem, apart from issues of clear property title, air connectivity and telecom connectivity. Telecom connectivity is not just about mobile density but the growth of broadband connectivity in rural and semi rural areas. For the growth of healthcare and education in towns development of broadband plays a crucial role.

Ms Chitra Ramakrishnan, Deputy Managing Director, National Stock Exchange, said that the last-mile connectivity should be cost efficient as well as dependable — so that the person connecting from 1,500th location in the country has the same advantage of a person connecting from the 25th.

More Stories on : Education | Human Resources

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
$10-b solar power project set to shine on Gujarat

Commerce Minister, CII team for Sweden

‘Capital gains’ for tax payers from hike in cost inflation index

ICRA sets up cell in Chennai to rate small, medium units

Invest in education, says Infosys chief

National Management Convention to focus on ‘creating value’

Weekly news round-up