The boom seen today may not last long for a variety of reasons
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(The writer is a third year Chemical Engineering student from kerala) An article from a The hindu news papers OPEN PAGE
A PREMIER engineering institution in Kerala has quite a story to tell as far as placements are considered. With more than one year and four months left for graduation, 240 of the 500 students have been recruited by IT giants through various campus and off-campus recruitment processes. That is almost a whooping 50 per cent.
And a dozen more IT companies are fighting tooth and nail to grab the remaining 50 per cent. With the average pay package being Rs. 3.3 lakhs per annum, a very significant percentage of those recruited do actually join. There is a catch, though. Only 10 per cent of the students study courses that have anything to do with the IT industry. The rest study (or specialise) in fields such as Chemical, Civil, Mechanical, Electronics Engineering, etc.
Today they study the Design of Distillation Towers and tomorrow they go off and work for the IT industry with the basic programming skills they acquire in the training period. Either we students are stupendously “brilliant” or we are the on the verge of a doomsday.
Why brilliant? Because we can very easily change our areas of specialisation and master anything under the sky if given an appropriate four month training. We could also say we are brilliant in a sarcastic tone. Why else would we spend four years specialising in one particular field of engineering, toiling day and night over IC engines, DC motors, FCC reactors, etc., and then one fine morning go and work for a company that maintains websites and provides networking for banks?
We could put forward arguments and say that such a transformation does not necessarily imply that we have wasted four years as we do gain a lot of relevant exposure. But then again who are we trying to hoodwink? Our four-year struggle only serves to provide us a B. Tech certificate for decorative purposes.
It is not just the condition of B. Tech students and the emerging professional engineers that seems quite out of balance. On a macro level too, conditions indicate that the larger the IT boom gets the closer we are to the verge of a doomsday. It is true that the Indian IT industry is doing quite well today and growing and this growth has no parallel in the history of our planet. But this growth will not last long for a variety of reasons.
The first is integration. Most of the industries involved with sectors such as energy, banking, health care, communication, defence, entertainment and transportation services have begun integrating into themselves all aspects related to computerisation.
These industries will no longer outsource these areas or tasks to the IT industries once this integration is complete. Without outsourcing the IT industry is as good as out.
The second is a vicious circle. As the Indian IT industry gets bigger, the competition grows fiercer and the companies are forced to provide their services at a lower price to attract more clients. To attract and employ the best professionals periodic salary hikes are absolutely essential. These two factors are bound to collide.
Moreover with falling exchange rates, the IT companies will be forced to raise their service price tags. At one particular juncture outsourcing will no longer be as cheap. And at this juncture the standards of living will be higher and the IT employees will begin to ask for more. And that is one more collision.
The third is obvious. With the best brains going off to the IT industry due to the lucrative pay packages, the other core industries are bound to suffer. And once the core industries are affected by this kind of brain drain, their R&D suffers and faces eventual closure. Who are the IT industries going provide their services to once this happens?
These theories might be the pinnacle of pessimism. Given the millions of people working in the IT industry, let us hope so.
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That was the most wanted event in Shaastra. That’s why such a huge crowd including us.
