25 young minds who say the future is IT

Manjula Nair, Web Designer, DBS, Infotech, Coimbatore



It is going to be very difficult to ignore the importance of IT, says this 25 year old Web designer. Not only does she feel that IT will be inevitable in our lives five years from now, it will also make life simpler by making us smarter. Already dependent on IT for designing websites for her clients, she cant do away with its growing eminence in the way she functions, from shopping online to connecting with her family via video chat. She also stands by her view that no matter how overwhelming IT might become, creativity will be insurmountable for IT.

Cherry Annaiah, Architect, WS Apkins, Bangalore



Her clients demand that their work areas be spruced up and turned into lively places. Helical structures, bright colors, and stylish food courts are the order of day. And this is where the challenge lies for her for this architect. We have clients like Satyam and Infosys telling us they want something abstract. She sees IT as an important element aiding her design buildings that suit the changing taste of her client in the future. As her designs get more complicated, the software aiding her design will be a class apart. IT will certainly help her beat future challenges.

Kanika Sood, Executive Producer, Zee Business, New Delhi/NCR

There is probably nothing that goes on in our studio without a touch of IT. Right from shooting to editing and finally airing a show, IT is involved every step of the way. However, for this assistant producer, IT would be the power behind her changing channels of her television set, just by calling out the name of the channel she wants to watch, touching the remote would be a bygone. Or better still, sitting in a boring meeting, she expects to have her favorite TV show on her mobile phone, and she is sure IT will soon allow her to do so.

K Kiran Kumar, Team Leader IBM, Bangalore



The IT industry has not only showed me new ways of effective communication but also has enlightened me with new strategies to deal with customers from different geographies, says Kiran. My interaction with clients from the developed countries has helped me understand the manner in which IT industries function in these countries in comparison to the Indian scenario. The analogy definitely helps in learning and unlearning a lot of things, it also offers scope for value addition, he feels.

Chaitanya Medikonduri, Developer Support, Engineer, Microsoft, Bangalore

Spending hours talking to clients in the US and solving their technical problem, he knows that today, most of the IT work done in India is for the West, and that there is a long way to go for IT in India. According to him, a lot has changed in the last five years but even more is going to change in the next five years with IT. IT companies have planned for the next 50 years and though new software will be sophisticated in terms of developing it, its application is going to be much more simpler in the future for the users. IT will bring with it more exposure for the people. It is just a matter of time that every other home in India will have a computer.

Comparing it to the present day situation, Silvi elevates IT to a level where it brings a sea of change for both her fellow doctors and patients who queue-up outside the hospital in hundreds everyday. She sees herself profiling her patients, entering their history and symptoms, fetching opinion from experts across the country, and conducting the preliminary test, all at the click of a button. Silvi is confident that digitization of patients records and e-medicine, which is already happening in small capacities, will save a lot of man power that goes in to fetching records or collection lab results.

Silvi Shah, Junior Doctor, LNJP Hospital, New Delhi

Vaibhav Shastry, Faculty Computer Maintenance Corporation, Mumbai

The IT industry now offers diverse employment opportunities, says Vaibhav, There are ample number of openings emerging in India for people aspiring for a career in this sector. He has seen his classmates getting into excellent jobs with promising careers in IT, and handsome pay packages. And all they needed was a little exposure to basic technology education. Technology has become ubiquitous, and hence career in technology, he feels, will never let you down.

Vasundhara Singh, Content Writer, HT Media, New Delhi

Simplifying and making life much more easier is how Vasundhara puts the repercussions of growth of IT. Already, each one of us is so affected by it that in the future, it will just get bigger and better. Improvement, expansion and more usability of IT and its application is surely slated for future.

Aditi Pany, Programme Associate, Asoka Innovators for the Public, New Delhi

Aditi dabbles in two disparate worlds. One, that has people like her integrating their lives with technology every step of the way. And the other, that has 65% of the waiting to be the facilitator and a beneficiary of technology. She works at the grass-root level, for the people who are untouched, leave alone being swept by the on going IT wave, and is cognizant with the potential that IT has for them. For her, IT is worthy of being a tool for governance for the rural masses where IT has barely scratched the surface. There will be a two-way communication process, where someone can raise a query, the government answers, a reaction is generatedall using IT, says Aditi.

Neelam Kapadia, Entrepreneur, FineJewelryVault.com, New York



I expect IT to become the vital part of everyday life. In a world that is becoming interdependent and with the rise of small businesses, the biggest challenge will be how to make it easier for the customer, and the solution is IT, says Neelam Kapadia. After completing his education, seeing the jumps in e-commerce and the online IT market, he collaborated with his father to start a jewelry website. Today, not only does he run a successful website, FineJewelryVault.com, he has hands on experience in using the latest IT applications. He sees IT solving two major problems for e-commerce. First is a real-time solution to seeing products prior to purchase, and second, is a lengthy checkout process that requires input from customers and often becomes redundant and annoying. I also see the future of IT as a bridge between countries across the world, concludes young entrepreneur.

Pallavi Tyagi Bhuchar, Design Engineer, Augen Technologies, Bangalore



Pallavi holds a masters in automotive engineering from Germany and credits IT for simplifying life, making communication easier, and reducing boundaries. She firmly believes that IT will continue to be a high growth industry, acting as a medium for growth in other industries. Not stopping at that, she points out that IT will bring two extremes of the same rope, the seller and the consumer closer to each other, facilitate research across geographies and eventually, act as a catalyst for development of new technologies. This design engineer sure has all ITologies in place.

Pranil Dasika, Search Engineer, Guruji.com, Bangalore

The Es of the Internet revolution from e-banking to e-trading have changed his life great deal, mainly by saving time and increasing convenience, and more so, helped him focus a lot more on what he is best atengineering. Talking about future prospects he says smart homes and offices will become much more easier for individuals. Distinguishing IT as instrumental for helping save lives from natural disasters in the near future, Pranil also feels IT to be an instrument for educating the masses about health. In the future, IT can possibly spread its wings to the farming community. But, information security will be an area of focus for countries and companies, he concluded.

Caroline Castelino, Quality Control Engineer, Tarang Software, Technologies



Caroline feels that to survive in the booming and competitive IT business it is necessary to constantly re-invent and also be in the right organization; one that would nurture the innovations. Change is the only constant factor in IT. Innovative ideas make path-breaking ventures possible. As IT is becoming all prevalent, its exclusivity is now lost, which means IT is no longer the stronghold of a chosen few. More and more people are joining the IT bandwagon, and are forging their way with successful careers, she says.

Rohit Janakaran, Radio Jockey, Fever 104 FM, Bangalore

Between the hustle-bustle of the city, Rohit, one of Fever 104 FM Bangalores most popular RJ, paints the town with his smooth talk everyday. For his every listener, he is a friend. However, Rohit befriends IT in his fully digital soundproof studio and cannot imagine how he would ever get along without the convenience that IT has brought with it. I think that IT will continue to become and integral and eventually an invisible part of our lives. When I say invisible, I mean that we will very soon just take technology for granted. It will be in every part of our lives, from cash counters in shops to regulating of our traffic signals, says the energetic jockey. For Rohit, the future of IT is not just bright; it is a happy and efficient one.

Nirmal Singh Shekhawat, Legal Executive, Sahara India TV, New Delhi/NCR

Nirmal cant be more right when he says that IT will take us to a point where on one side, there would be major labor cutting, and one the other side, there will be remarkable improvement in efficiency. Already an essential tool for him to carry on the days work, he also confers IT with the most fast paced growth that, if reaches to the 65% of our populationrural India, will dramatically change the way people function. However, the onus of bringing about this change lies on the government. In the near future, legal recognition of online signatures and e-banking will see extensive adoption, concludes this servant of law.

Vasuki R, Technical Lead, Development Tarang Software Technologies



The growth of IT and its impact in the last decade has been tremendous. Citing Internet as an example he explains how it has become an inseparable part of peoples lives. I dont hear people talking about whether they have got the new version of Windows. The question often heard is what someone has been doing over the Internet lately, he says. The high growth in smart phones segment also means an automatic addition to the Internet user base. It makes me strongly believe that the future of IT is the network, says Vasuki.

Nalini Singh, Sub-Editor, The Asian Age, New Delhi

Nalini was not in tune with IT until her job demanded that she relies on it for her daily functioning. Adjusting was difficult and she was hesitant. But that was then. Today, IT has trickled down to even the basic chores like taking out money from the ATM. However, she refused to be a slave to the technology and turn into a machine. Nalini projects a future where at one end, technology might be reaching new levels, but on the other, it would ultimately be a matter of choice for the people. They would ultimately decide how much of IT they want in their lives. IT has already given me a lot of convenience. And that is enough. IT will see huge growth but I will see it as static, confides Nalini.

Vidya, SW Engineer Antenna Software, Bangalore



A young SW engineer, Vidya believes things will continue to change in the coming years, thanks to technology. Very contended with her career choice, she says IT holds a promising future for young people like us, because we know what we want from the careers we have chosen, Death of distance, she feels, is a wonderful advantage of the growing use of technology. She sees technology reducing the communication gap between people in the organization, making them work closely together, breaking hierarchy and legacy issues between the juniors and seniors.

Nilashish Basu, Ad Words Representative, Google India, Hyderabad



IT has changed the life of the aam aadmi, says Nilashish.

Well, the common man has done pretty well for himself since the IT industry made a huge place for itself in the country. Though still some time away, the common man will master technology like hes mastered the telephoneIT will be as pervasive and as useful as the common cell phone is to the masses. As far as young IT professionals are concerned, Nilashish feels the young work force of India is now discharging more important responsibilities than it has ever before, resulting in increasing aspiration levels.

Nauzur Ahmed, Software Engineer, HP, Bangalore

Being an IT professional has certainly accentuated my personality, says Nauzur, One thing that distinguishes the software industry from the other industries is that you have to be at your intellectual best at all timesand that is challenging. He has no shred of doubt in his mind regarding the future of the software industry getting only brighter with time, with more and more sectors turning to IT for all their problem solving, which means new age software solutions.

Priyank Kharge, CMD Proficio Geotechnologies, Bangalore



The IT industry is growing at a rapid pace. We will witness advanced technologies and increased entry of chip manufacturers, is Priyanks take on the future of IT.

The future of IT largely relies on a spur in research activities. Already IT majors like Microsoft and Google are seen undertaking large scale research activities, he says. He thinks the young IT professionals are confident and open to risk taking, and that this ensures a great future for them. Entrepreneurship and innovativeness will be the driving factors in the IT industrys future with venture capitalists showing faith in the young entrepreneurs, he adds.

Chaitanya Tatineni, Healthcare Banking, ABN AMRO, London

In response to how much IT is going to affect him in the future, this upbeat investment banker and globetrotter, says, I want to say that I wouldnt like to be too dependent on IT in the future; that in the worst case scenario, I would rather leave everything and go farming. But, I dont think I have that luxury, for I dont know nothing about growing crops and I would still need Google to get a crash course! In the process, he has explained what the future holds for IT. A qualified engineer from IIT, IT has been an inseparable part of him since college days and even today, his job demands that he procures, process and act on information before competitors. We would expect him to put IT on a pedestal and endow the future with it, instead he quips that given the dynamic nature of IT, it is really difficult to picturise it at any point in the future, and that is what makes IT so exciting.

Abhishek Thard, Student, Nirma Institute of Business Management, Ahmedabad

He is set to enter the world of IT soon and he sure has his facts straight. India is now outsourcing work to the third world like western Europe, Morocco, and Indonesia, mainly due to raising manpower cost. However, IT still has a great future due to the infrastructure we provide, tie-up with universities for human resource and e-Governance. According to him, we are already Googling half the time and booking our tickets online, so the dependency will remain in the future. In fact, he appears very optimistic about the e-Governance and that governance with IT at its core slated to be the thing of the future.

Ashwin Quadros, Content Developer, Yahoo!Search Marketing, Bangalore



IT has transformed the life of young people like us and the trend will only continue, says Ashwin Quadros. IT has opened up opportunities for even the non-techies, absorbing non-tech graduates. I have always loved surfing the net but never imagined that I would be working in the IT sector. Being a graduate in mass communication I thought the IT domain was only for techies, he says. IT definitely holds a great future for generations to come, having thrown open a platter of diverse job opportunities. IT has remarkably lessened the information divide, shrinking the world to bring people from various geographies and economies together, faster, says Aswin, though he feels much needs to be done to take Indian IT to the scale of developed economies.

Sandhya, Associate Project Manager, Information, Systems WeP Pheripherals, Bangalore

The dot net industry will grow at a steady rate, says Sandhya. IT has given her a new identity, and more value within the organization as well as outside. This is true with respect to all women working in various sections of the IT industry. IT has opened up opportunities even for people who dont have a formal engineering or hardcore professional degree in technology, she feels. A perfect example of which is she herself: having done a course from NIIT, today she finds herself working on par with software engineers.