The Challenges of Indian IT

The entire Indian education system itself, not just IT, needs to become more practice-oriented

The Indian IT industry is currently in a highly developed stage. The IT service industry is less prone to industry sector-specific spikes or valleys, both at the global as well as domestic level. This is so because the IT service industry is firmly integrated with the technology backbone of all major industries. In good times, technology is leveraged to fuel faster growth while in bad times it is used for better cost optimization.

Within global IT landscape, Indian IT service industry has a huge head-start. So while some of the newer entrants like China, East Europe are trying to play catch-up game, the value proposition of Indian IT has now gone beyond the cost arbitrage. I don’t see any geography posing a significant competitive threat to Indian IT industry in foreseeable future. To some degree, the word ‘Indian’ itself is losing relevance, it’s the global delivery model that most of us run anyways.

How Engineers Can Be Better Equipped

Obviously, the entire Indian education system itself, not just IT, needs to become more practice-oriented. The second thing, software professionals need to know how the technology they are developing applies to industry.

On the softer skill side, we need more and more exposure to english language skills as well as cultural integration with our market places. Also, because ours is a knowledge industry, it’s human interaction intensive. Therefore, it is no more about high IQ and technical knowledge, there is a need to focus on EQ aspects of professionals. Obviously, it is not something which can be taught in conventional academic curriculums. Perhaps, the western world (particularly US) has done a better job on the overall development of students, there are opportunities to pick up and implement similar educational methodologies in our country.

Key Trends in HR

Everybody understands that it is important to make the workplace more likeable for employees, and have employees favorably aligned with the company. But, the question is how you do it. That is where the bramhastra resides. So, to begin with, the organization has to focus internally, and then externally. The ‘execution’ of the intent to take care of the employees is the key, and that is where the data driven approach comes in—be it how you conduct appraisals, how you build fairness, how you connect with employees, and how you encourage employees to bring life to work. It’s really no longer about what all HR initiatives a particular organization takes to take care of employees, it is more about why and how you execute on your initiatives. And that’s where the science comes in. A mature organization is one that manages to blend head and heart seamlessly when it comes to connection with employees.