Background

Human Resources Development activities of DIT are aimed at generation of - trained HR for the manufacturing & service sectors of electronics and ICT industry. Initiatives include identifying gaps emerging from the formal sector and planning programmes in non-formal and formal sectors for meeting these gaps. In pursuance of projects initiated during the 10th Plan for generation of quality manpower in the area of Information Security, VLSI Design; setting up of a Regional Institute for e-Learning and Information Technology (RIELIT) at Kohima, Nagaland for creating skilled

manpower in the area of Computer Science/IT were continued during the 11th Plan period.

A ‘Scheme for Manpower Development for the Software Export Industry’ was evolved which is being implemented by DIT, as a follow up to the discussions/interactions with various state governments, industry association, academia and industry representatives. This scheme is aimed at creating course contents, generating mentors & quality faculties and skilled graduates in the Information Technology Sector at various locations across India with a view to increasing the employability of the students.

A Working Group on Human Resource Development in Information Technology was set-up to evolve long-term HR strategies and a suitable approach for the implementation of these strategies for significantly increasing the number of well- trained professionals in line with economic projections, for various IECT and related areas. Based on the recommendations of the Working Group, new projects were initiated in the area of capacity building for meeting the HR needs of the IECT. Having gained significant leadership position in the global IT/ITES sector there is a need to move up the value chain and maintain the leadership position in R&D, Product development, Electronics and Hardware manufacturing sectors as well.

Government of India is laying special emphasis on Electronics, Hardware Manufacturing, R&D and Innovation. There is a need to chalk out special manpower development programmes in these areas. DIT through MAIT had undertaken a study on mapping the manpower skills in the IT Hardware and Electronics Manufacturing Industry. With the envisaged growth of this industry several manpower issues would need to be addressed during the XII Plan period.

Some of these new project initiatives taken in the XI Plan period need to be consolidated and nurtured into full fledged programmes during the XII Plan period. In the context of the National Skill Development Policy which assigned a specified target of 10 million IT manpower by 2022 to DIT, a special programme needs to be drafted to address this issue.

1.1 Manpower Forecasting during XII Plan period

a) NASSCOM's Report Perspective 2020: NASSCOM collaborated with McKinsey & Co. to develop an extensive research report ‘Perspective 2020: Transform Business, Transform India’ in 2009. The objective of this report is to identify opportunities that industry can penetrate and provide strategic insights for the industry to reinvent business models and offerings that can transform global business through a well-defined customer value proposition.

As per the NASSCOM's Report Perspective 2020 global manpower projections by 2020 are as follows:

 Total manpower requirement – 12.3 million by 2020 (from the current level of 2.5 million of the employment).

 Projected shortage of 2.3 million by 2020 (0.8 million for domestic outsourcing and 1.5 for global sourcing market).

 Additional 1.2 million requirements for innovation-driven scenario (shortage of high caliber talent pool of 3 million by 2020): 3 lakh Ph.Ds required.

 The report does not cover manpower requirement arising out of e-Governance introduction.

b) National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) Report- HR & Skill Requirement in Electronics & IT Hardware Sector (2022): Government of India announced the National Skill Development policy in 2009 and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was set up. Under this policy a target of 10 million manpower to be skilled by the 2022 was assigned to DIT. NSDC has recently conducted a survey of manpower requirements.

The consumption of Electronics in India was US $ 28 billion in 2005. It is estimated that the demand for electronics (consumption) in India will be US $ 125 billion in 2014 and US $ 400 billion in 2020. Out of this, the Indian Electronics and IT Hardware sector production amounted to Rs. 947 billion in 2009 and has grown at a CAGR of 16.4% since 2002. The human resource directly employed in the industry is estimated to be approximately 770,000 in 2007. This was about 0.9 million in FY 2009.

The Indian Electronics and IT Hardware sector has 6 key segments, namely Consumer Electronics, Industrial Electronics, IT Hardware, Telecommunication Equipment, Electronic Components, and Strategic Electronics. Consumer Electronics and Telecom Equipments are the largest segments with about 27% share each in total production.

It has been estimated that as demand would continue to grow, there would be an incremental requirement of Human Resource as presented in following tables.

Table1: Incremental Human Resource Requirement –education-wise till 2022 (in ‘000s) Incremental Human Resource Requirement Ph.D and Resea rch schola r Enginee rs Diploma and other equally certified skills ITI and other vocatio nal courses Other graduat es such as B.Sc. MBA/ CA/ CWA 10th/ 12th Consumer Electronics 14 43 48 35 130 106 105 Other (Industrial Electronics) 14 184 46 30 14 25 147 Computer 25 123 154 62 117 37 99 Telecom Equipment 29 230 115 38 86 32 45 Strategic Electronics 24 150 89 40 41 19 42 Components 38 192 89 110 23 13 220 Total 144 922 541 315 412 232 658

source: IMaCS analysis

Table2: Incremental HR Requirement in the Electronics and IT Hardware Industry (in ‘000s)

Projected human resource requirement 2008-2022 (in ‘000s)

2008 2012 2018 2022 Incremental

Electronics and IT Hardware Industry in India

Computers 193 273 689 810 617

Telecom Equipment 184 400 880 759 575

Strategic Electronics 69 128 271 474 405

Components 149 179 164 834 685

source: IMaCS analysis

The Electronics and IT Hardware industry has the potential to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 17% till 2022 and even thereafter considering the fact that the GDP is expected to grow at a rate of 7.5% to 8% over this period. Therefore, we expect the production of Electronics and IT Hardware to increase from Rs. 844 billion in 2008 to Rs. 7,520 billion by 2022. Consumer Electronics, Computers, Telecom Equipment, and Industrial Electronics would contribute to a large portion of the size of the industry. This would translate to the overall employment in the industry increasing from the current level of 0.9 million to over 4 million by 2022. This would translate to an incremental human resource requirement of about 3 million to 3.2 million.

Table 3: Incremental human resource requirement – function-wise till 2022 (in ‘000s)

Incremental human resource requirement R&D Manufact uring Sales Service Support Administr ation Consumer Electronics 19 241 130 67 24

Others (Industrial Electronics) 14 334 69 23 21

Computers 19 130 154 253 62

Telecom Equipment 23 172 172 172 34

Strategic Electronics 49 188 32 83 53

Components 111 427 55 38 53

Total requirement in the Industry 234 1,492 613 637 248 Incremental HR requirement 3,223

source: IMaCS analysis

1.2 Gist recommendations of MAIT for narrowing HR-availability gaps:

(a) The IT Hardware and Electronics Manufacturing Industry accordingly address the following issues: Roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders, viz. Government, Industry and Educational institutions, to improve the employability of the human resources; funding and the implementation mechanism to drive the skill development initiatives.

b) Supply creation – Creation of additional infrastructure to provide human resource to the industry.

(c) Proposed recommendations for skill development in the Industry:

(i) Introducing short term courses and opening training institutes in after-sales service support.

(ii) Introducing short term courses to train people in sales.

(iii)Inculcating simple assembly/related skills and shop floor ethics at grass roots level: Grass root level training initiative should be aimed at imparting basic and advanced training to unskilled workers to enable them to take up jobs in industries in a structured manner. The target group includes school drop-outs, 10th/12th pass-outs/drop-outs, and casual labourers in key production clusters. This group is engaged in simple assembly/related activities such as helper level functions.

d) Incremental requirement of 3.2 Million by 2022 – Existing (0.9 Million – FY 2009) (Target refers to helper (+2) level to R&D/Design(Doctorate) level in Electronics, Electrical, EPD, Communications, etc)

e) High calibre Talent pool of 0.14 Million (Ph.D/ Res. Scholars)

The above projections don’t cover additional Manpower requirement arising out of e-Governance spread, Other than IT industry segment deploying IECT (Information, Electronics and Communication Technology), changes in technology-emergence of disruptive technology, social sector, etc This implies that there is a considerable demand for Skilled manpower across all the levels in the IECT Sector. It can therefore be inferred that there is justification for this proposal of Skill Development for 10 Million in IECT Sector.