An Indian Perspective on IT

1
An Indian Perspective on IT Engineering
ProgramsThe Quality Imperative

• Vijay Bhatkar
• International Institute of Information
  Technology, Pune, India

2
India The Knowledge-based Civilization

• Worlds first knowledge-based civilization since
  the Vedic times, 5000 years back
• Veda Knowledge
• Vast knowledge heritage through the centuries
• First universities (Taxila, Nalanda) were borne
  here
• Invention of zero, decimal system, and early
  advances in language, mathematics, astronomy,
  etc. credited to India.
• Richest country of the world till the 11th
  century
• In the 20th century, India was termed as a rich
  country where poor people live

3
India The Economic Miracle in the Making

• A nation of 1 billion people (not a billion
  mouths to be fed by a billion minds to be
  unleashed)
• Fourth largest economy in the world in terms of
  PPP
• GDP expected to grow at a rate 7 plus in 2003-4
• To emerge as worlds 3rd economic superpower by
  2050
• Worlds 2nd largest ST manpower now
• Worlds largest English speaking nation by 2010
• Synonymous with Information Technology now

4
A Huge Market Potential for Education

• 1 billion plus population
• Education No. 1 priority for parents
• Enrollments at Higher Education level growing at
  7 plus in last few decades

5
Stupendous Growth in Higher Education Segment

• A culture of propensity for higher education in
  India, supported by a strong institutional
  framework
• No. of UGC recognized universities increased from
  27 in 1950-51 to 272 in 2001-02 colleges from
  580 to 11,100 in the same period
• Enrollment of 8 million graduates
  post-graduates in 2001

6
Governments Role in Education Sector

• The role of Government in higher education has
  progressively decreased over the years. The
  Government spend on higher education has come
  down from 33 to 19 over the last decades.
• This trend is expected to continue, as the
  Government is targeting the goal of Education
  for all at the elementary education level.

7
Governments Role in Education Sector

• Budgetary allocation across segments
• USD (Bn)
• Primary education 0.80
• Secondary education 0.21
• Higher education 0.14
• Total 1.15
• Budgetary allocation for higher education has
  been frozen at 1991-92 levels
• Budgetary Constraint of the Government has been
  an important driver for the opening-up of the
  higher education segment to private investment.

8
Increase in Private Sector Participation

• There has been a significant increase in the
  number of higher education institutes promoted by
  the private sector
• A bulk of the recent growth has occurred in the
  engineering management segments
• - In the last decade the number of engineering
  colleges have trebled from 400 to 1200
• - Presently, there are around 750 management
  institutions in the country
• However, a number of the new entrants have not
  been able to match upto the quality benchmarks of
  publicly funded premier institutes.

9
Gap in Quality Education in India

• Although the number of students enrolled in
  higher education institutes has grown
  significantly over the years
• Growth in Enrollments Higher Education

10
Gap in Quality Education in India

• However, there remains a sizeable unmet demand
  for top quality professional education
• Institute Annual Intake Average number
• of applicants
• IITs 3,800 170,000 -gt 2 success rate
• IIMs 1,250 130,000 -gt 1 success rate
• Besides, barely 50 of the 750 recognized
  management institutes make it to the serious
  recruiters list.

11
Significant Growth in the Number of Students
Opting to Go Abroad

• The unmet demand is partially met by students
  going overseas to earn professional
  qualifications particularly in the areas of
  engineering, IT, management and medicine
• Indian Students in Foreign Universities
• - US accounts for the largest share (74)
• - There has been a 58 increase in the number of
  students going to US in the past two years
• - About 75 of the students go for higher
  education
• On an average a student going to the US spends in
  the range of USD 20,000 to USD 40,000 on tuition
  fee alone

12
Summary of Key Trends in Indian Higher Education

• India has a strong base for higher education, and
  this segment has registered over 7 compounded
  growth over the past few decades
• Traditionally, the Government has been the
  biggest funder of higher education However, this
  has changed in the last decade, and Government
  spending has decreased significantly during this
  period. Changes in the regulatory framework have
  also enabled private investment in this sector.
• The Private Sector has moved in to fill this gap
  but there is a distinct gap in quality in most of
  the newer entrants.
• There is a big demand for quality higher
  education, and number of Indian students going
  overseas for higher education in engineering, IT
  and management has seen a steep increase.

13
India Emerging as IT Superpower

• IT has crossed US 13 billion ICT 20 billion
• Present growth rate 25 plus per annum
• GDP share 4 plus export share 25 plus
• Significant increase in employment opportunities
  in ICT sector
• Number of professionals in IT sector increased
  from 160,000 to 650,000 in 5 years
• IT will cross US 80 billion in 2008 ICT US 100
  billion

14
IT Industry Targets for 2008 (Software)

• 
  In US Billion
• 
  Total Production (Export Target)
• IT Services 38.05 (23)
• Software Products 19.5 (08)
• ITeS 19.0 (15)
• E-Business 10.0 (04)
• Total 87.0 (50)
• Source MIT X Plan Study Team

15
Software Manpower Break-up for 2008

• (In Million)
• Segment MIT Study NASSCOM /
• McKinsey
• IT Services 0.58 ) 1.10
• Software Products 0.20 )
• ITeS 1.26 ) 1.10
• E-Business 0.33 )
• Total 2.37 2.20

16
IT Manpower Projections for 2008

• (in Millions)
• Software 2.2
• Hardware
• - Direct 1.6
• - Indirect 3.2
• Total 7.0
• Source Task Force on HRD McKinsey Report

17
Supply of IT Manpower (2000)

• Colleges Awarding Engineering Degrees 776
• Colleges Awarding MCA Degrees 494
• Total Colleges 1270
• Total Intake 200,000 (Appx.)
• IT Courses Intake 60,000 (33)
• IITs, IIITs, IISc 7000 (1200 in IT
• 
  (courses)
• Total IT Intake 73,000
• 
  

18
Projections on Availability of IT Manpower by 2008

• Graduates 785,000
• Post-Graduates 263,000
• IITs, IIITs, IISc 12,000
• Total Availability 1060,000

19
IT Skills in Demand

• Programmers/Engineers/Analyst/ 41
• Computer Scientists
• Internet/e-Commerce Applications/Web
  Designers 19
• Database Administrators/Developers 11
• Network Specialists/Telecom Engineers 14
• Digital Media Technical Writing 5
• ITeS Managers/Engineers 10

20
Life Skills Required

• Communication Skills/Technical Writing Skills
• Project Management/Time Management
• Team Work
• Stress Management/Emotion Management
• Multi-Ethnic Culture
• Ethics,Values Attitude
• IQ, EQ SQ

21
The Quality Issue

• Rigid and outdated course curricula
• Inability to adapt course curricula to dynamic
  industry requirements
• Poor lab infrastructures
• Limited exposure to latest tools techniques
• Limited exposure to industry problems
• Poor industry linkages
• Best do not come to academics to teach
• Little RD
• Inability to enter into emerging areas
• Problems of economic viability
• No significant endowments/grants/donations

22
The Quality Issue (Pedagogy)

• Examination Orientation
• Insufficient grounding in theoretical concepts
• Inability to explain applied framework
• Inadequate lab/tools techniques infrastructure
• Little real-life case studies
• Little scope for creative learning

23
Strategy for High-Quality High-End Education
Program in ICT Emerging Technologies

• Increase in No. of IITs/IIMs Capacity Increase
  in each Institute
• Upgradation of RECs as NITs
• Consolidation of IIITs with Private Sector
  Involvement
• New World Class Institutes/Corporate Universities
  High-End ICT Emerging Technology Education with
  Global Collaborations
• Distance Education through Advanced e-Learning
  Environment

24
Drivers for New Strategy

• Demand Drivers
• Significant Growth in New Technology Industries
• - IT
• - Communications
• - Biotechnology
• - Bioinformatics
• - Nanotechnology
• Gap In High-Quality Higher Education in India

25
.

• Supply Constraints
• - Limited Quality Graduate Institutes
• - Constraints in Capacity Increase in Existing
  Publicly Funded Institutes
• Indias Global Positioning
• - Indias Brand Equity in ICT
• - Indias Emergence as a Global RD Hub

26
Indias Emergence as a Global RD Hub

• Availability of High-Quality Low-Cost ST
  Manpower
• Over 100 of Fortune 500 Companies have set-up RD
  bases in India.
• These RD bases have been remarkably
  cost-effective
• Over 1000 patents filed
• The new phenomenon of brain-gain
• Increase in demand for highly skilled resources
  in frontier areas of IT, ST, and Tech

27
New Areas for Advanced Education

• ICT
• - Microelectronics VLSI
• - Embedded Technology
• - Advanced Networking
• - Wireless Technologies
• - Web-Services Architectures Applications
• - Advanced Database, Data-warehousing
  Data-mining
• - e-Manufacturing
• - ITeS

28
New Areas for Advanced Education (contd.)

• Biotechnology
• Bioinformatics Biocomputing
• Environmental Technology
• Management of ITeS/BPOs
• Advanced Technology Management

29
Success Failures Lessons Learnt

• IITs IIMs emerged as world-class institutions
• However, recent Government signals on Policy
  Changes have created confusion
• Capacity expansion taking time
• Upgradation plan of RECs to NITs is slow
• IIITs with State Government involvement is a
  mixed success (IISE, Mumbai closed)
• Creating research and industry linkages is a
  major challenge
• I2IT started with a private initiative shines as
  a successful model

30
Summary

• India poised for an explosive growth in ICT
• India emerging as a global RD Hub
• From brain drain to brain gain
• Millions of jobs will be created in ICT other
  emerging technology areas
• Quality issues will have to be addressed
• Private Sector world class institutions will
  emerge with global collaborations
• India will reclaim its ancient heritage of the
  worlds most advanced knowledge-based
  civilization called Bharat.