IT sector may get 'polished talent'

The Centre is considering to start finishing schools for IT graduates to make them more suitable for hiring by the IT industry, said Madhavan Nambiar, additional secretary, department of IT, Government of India. This will help bridge the talent gap between what is available for hiring and what firms need, he added.

Speaking at an HR conference as part of the ongoing Bangalore IT.in 2006, he said, the IT industry had been crying hoarse over the lack of talent for a long time now and this is now being considered as the biggest threat to India's domination as an IT superpower.

The cheap labour may be a given, but the lack of the right talent could derail the applecart. Even as firms today talk of tapping the tier II and tier III cities, the quality of graduates that pass out of the institutions in these places may not meet industry standards, he added.

"There is also a need to build a talent pool of IT professionals for the industry from which it can hire the readily available talent. With the competition for the IT talent now being a zero-sum game, the need to deepen the IT talent has become imperative," according to an HR expert. One firm's gain turns out to be another's loss. Under these circumstances, the need to deepen the talent pool is important.

With many global IT majors looking at Bangalore as their preferred destination, the existing IT firms are looking beyond Bangalore. They are spreading their wings to tier-II and tier-III cities of Karnataka like Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Gulbarga and Bellary.