Manpower intake to remain stable for next 2-3 years: Nasscom

Even with a shift in technology coupled with increased automation and demand for higher productivity from customers, manpower intake will be stable for next 2-3 years, B V R Mohan Reddy, chairman of IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said here on Friday.

Reddy also stated that due to a combination of these reasons Nasscom believes there is some shift in growth in manpower, and though the revenue of the IT industry is set to grow, manpower intake will be "fairly stable". The hiring numbers for FY16 is almost the same as FY15.

 

Nasscom had stated that the hiring number for FY16 will be between 230,000 and 250,000 engineers, which is almost similar to last year's 230,000.

"The revenue will go up and at 12-14 per cent growth we are talking about net addition of $20 billion to the industry at this point of time. Productivity gains will happen not only to the net addition of $20 billion but also to the current $148 billion revenue. Next 2-3 years, I think revenue will keep growing but I think in terms of intake it will be fairly stable," said Reddy who was in town for felicitating projects in the field of technology with Shri Dewang Mehta IT Awards 2015, organised by Gujarat Technological University (GTU) along with Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust.

 

In the wake of marquee IT firms posting significant growth in their first quarter financial results, the industry body will continue to study couple of more quarters before revising its growth estimates in the sector.

"Nasscom does not revise the growth numbers in the middle of the year. We are going to do a review back again around November. If we believe there any changes then we will come out with numbers then. But our official numbers come out only in February where we project what the numbers are for the current financial year and what we think the numbers for next financial year will be. While there is definitely great news coming out from some of the biggies especially in the recent past. But we will wait for couple of more quarters to go by if we want to revise those estimates," Reddy said.

 

Talking about the US visa and totalisation agreement issues, Reddy said that Nasscom along with certain lobbying groups were making strong representations.

"The Obama administration is saying that they will take a holistic view which means that there are issues which are much larger than what we are seeking at this point in time. We have also gone back with a number of representations in terms of some of the challenges some of our companies are facing. In the recent past, we also have very strong lobbying groups which are working for us at the capital. We are not anticipating anything quickly to happen at this juncture but it will take some time," Reddy added.

Moreover, the industry body is set to come out with a research that will highlight how the IT industry from India helped creating
more amount of jobs in the US. "We have also got a report which is ready for launch on how the IT industry from India helped creating more amount of jobs in the US. That report will be launched sometime in September. We are doing our best in terms of talking to the US govt on the visa as well as on the totalisation treaty," he said.

Meanwhile, when asked if iSPIRT's initiatives towards promoting start-ups acted as any competition to Nasscom's, Reddy said, "There is need for more initiatives of this nature to come up because there is need for more number of start-up. All of us will work towards promoting the start-up industry."