Infosys presses panic button on talent, Wipro says take it easy

Information technology heavy-weights Infosys and Wipro seem to have contrasting takes on the question of a crunch in human resources in Indian IT industry.

The Infosys management has constantly highlighted a looming danger of a crunch in engineering talent in the country whereas the Wipro management has chosen to underplay fears of a human resource crunch arguing that there isn’t a dearth of qualified people if “engineering talent is supplemented with non-engineering talent, wherever possible’’.

With the IT sector set to see a recruitment overdrive in the coming years, to maintain growth rates, the supply of talent has emerged as a key question mark over the industry. As many as 10 lakh people are likely to be hired over the next two to three years in the IT sector.

The IT majors have seen their employee strengths rise from around 4,000 in 1999 to over 60,000 at present. “The limiting factor for India’s growth will be availability of trained people. It is the biggest challenge for the sector as IT companies increasingly battle for talent pool in the country,’’ says Infosys human resources head T.V. Mohandas Pai. “While the number of engineering colleges in the country have increased in the last six years from 523 to 1,352, the quality of students is a cause of concern,” says Pai.

Wipro chairman Azim Premji, however, says, “There is adequate talent available in the country and no need for panic’’. Reports of a human resource crunch in India was creating more panic for customers than companies, he said. Several functions can be performed by trained B.Sc graduates and there is no need for depending on engineers alone, he added.

Both Infosys and Wipro have incidentally begun their own schemes for creating talent supplies. Infosys has started a programme called Campus Connect at over 100 engineering colleges in the country under which teachers are trained to teach the latest technologies in use in the industry. Wipro has started the Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) programme, in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS-Pilani), to hire BSc graduates and train them in software engineering over a four-year period.

During the financial quarter that ended on September 30, Infosys added 7,741 employees, the country’s largest IT exporter TCS added 6,663 employees, and Wipro hired 5,328 employees during the period. While Infosys had projected a total of 25,000 employee hirings for the current year its latest hiring figures show that the company is set to hire 28,300 employees for the year. TCS has projected a headcount increase of 30,500 people for the year.

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