How India’s tech talent is shaping the future of global IT-based industries

India is a cornerstone in the world tech ecosystem. From startups like Flipkart, Paytm and Ola to global tech companies like Microsoft and NetApp, India’s tech talent is making its mark in the global ecosystem.  As per the Indian IT industry apex body NASSCOM’s study, India’s tech industry tech talent pool in 2021 stood at a staggering 3.8 million. The future of India's tech talent continues to look bright as it is set to grow and flourish with around 2.14 million annual STEM graduates entering the industry each year, second only to China.

Many industry-first tech products are being built across sectors by the Indian tech workforce. For instance, in the recent 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Retail Core Banking, three out of the four leading companies providing banking software across the world are Indian. To understand what sets India’s tech talent apart from the rest globally, we need to understand India’s tech ecosystem.

Evolution of India’s tech ecosystem

India is considered to be the world’s largest sourcing destination for the IT sector, accounting for approximately 55 percent of the global service sourcing market in 2019-20, as indicated by the expanding number of H-1B visas issued by the US to attract Indian tech talent.

The country is also home to the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem and has over 61,400 startups, as per the Economic Survey 2021-22. From its first unicorn in 2011 to crossing 100 unicorns, India is the only country worldwide to achieve this milestone after the US and China. Some of the factors that contribute to the growth of startups in India include the favorable regulatory environment provided by the Central and State governments that prioritise innovation, an ecosystem that is nurtured by the corporates through funding and partnerships, as well as the availability of talent and access to capital. In 2021 alone, Indian startups put together raised a record $74 billion from global private equity and venture capital firms — all of which is driven on the back of the startup growth achieved by techies.

Strengths of Indian tech talent

India is a large customer base for several global B2C companies, which requires companies to build products that at any given point in time can support a large user base. The proliferation of the internet and mobile phones have now enabled global businesses to grow their user base exponentially to encompass Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities and rural areas. The digital ecosystem has also evolved to address the needs of emerging demographics with the content being available in vernacular languages. This makes India a consumer base that global companies need to consider for their growth. This diversity and ever-growing user base also mean that the tech products need to be built to scale up efficiently and fast.

Developing products at scale comes with its own challenges and companies need to hire and train their talent for building and operating distributed systems, a skill in high demand nowadays. A distributed system is a computing environment wherein various components are spread across multiple computers and can accommodate scaling at an exponential rate that will help account for higher traffic. Working at scale also creates an opportunity to work on Big Data technologies, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. With the advent of startups that are building products for a population of over a billion people, India's tech talent is being exposed to these valuable skills.

The English proficiency of India’s tech talent combined with the ability to work with large-scale systems is among the key skill sets that help drive the future of several tech offerings coming out of the country for the world. These also are some of the key factors that make India an ideal tech hub for several global companies in the country.

Tech ecosystem through a fintech lens 

Global companies are forging ahead with India’s tech talent building several industry-first products and setting global benchmarks across various verticals, including fintech. Ever since the introduction of digital payment systems such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the fintech sector in India has boomed. The fintech space in the country is expected to grow to $150 billion worth by 2023, thanks to global investments pouring in and widening opportunities owing to tech. With this, the tech talent in the country has also been exposed to and is building several game-changing products for the fintech industry.

Roadmap to attracting the best of India’s tech talent

Two aspects that are currently shaping the future of India’s tech talent and the overall ecosystem are the rises of remote work and the means to upskill themselves through easily accessible courses. The popularity of remote work has opened newer doors to the talent available in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. This has enabled many Indian and global tech companies to tap a diverse pool of talent from across nooks and corners of the country.

On the other hand, investing in upskilling the existing employees is helping companies retain their people at a time when the demand for this talent is at an all-time high. Besides the learning and development programs run by companies, access to free or low-cost learning through various platforms is helping India’s tech talent pick up any new tech skills they would like to.

The opportunities opened up by remote work, along with the existing knowledge of building highly scalable products, as well as access to platforms helping in upskilling their tech knowledge together will witness the scaling of India’s tech talent to newer heights in the coming years.

With such high demand, the war for tech talent has also been steadily heating up. Only those companies which go beyond generous remunerations can attract and retain employees. Tech companies need to get creative and build a work culture that embodies transparency, ownership, employee freedom, and holistic wellness to retain a strong workforce.

As a step toward a work culture offering employee freedom and ownership, startups and tech companies are now offering hybrid or remote work models along with flexible work hours. Companies and startups are focusing on building an employee experience program that is not only holistic but also inclusive through initiatives like unlimited leaves, period leaves, and allowances for learning and recreation to name a few. Companies can also look at financial and mental wellness programs to ensure a better employee experience. The secret to attracting tech talent lies in a work culture that looks beyond remuneration to prioritising employee wellness.

Authored By: Mukesh Gupta, Head of Engineering, Syfe