Panel discusses plan to multiply tech workers

NEW DELHI: A high-level information technology (IT) panel advising the Indian

government on Monday discussed measures to boost the supply of software

engineers to feed a huge global demand, industry officials said.

"We discussed how the industry can contribute to increase the quantity

and quality of manpower," Dewang Mehta, president of India's National

Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), told reporters after

the meeting.

The national advisory committee on information technology (IT) which includes

key corporate leaders, also emphasized the need for the government to boost

infrastructure facilities like power and cut red tape to promote the manufacture

of computer hardware in India, Mehta said.

The committee, which met Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan, was

also scheduled to discuss efforts to proliferate the Internet in the nation.

Members who attended the meeting said the predominant focus was on hardware and

education.

"It is estimated that globally there would be a shortage of 1.5 million

IT professionals over the next five years. India alone would require an

estimated 800,000 additional IT professionals at the high end by 2008," the

government said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

India currently produces 170,000 graduate engineers every year, of which more

than 90,000 are related to IT.

Some of the members of the committee are Azim Premji, chairman of diversified

information technology firm Wipro Ltd., N R Narayana Murthy, chairman of leading

software firm Infosys Technologies Ltd., and Rajendra Pawar, chairman of

software education firm NIIT Ltd.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.