Recession has hit IT hiring in India: Nilekani

Bangalore, Feb 17: Nandan Nilekani, the Vice-Chairman of Infosys Technologies said that the global economic meltdown has affected hiring in India's IT industry. He was speaking at the sidelines of a function in the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC).

"The IT sector is not seeing job buoyancy now compared to earlier years due to global economic slowdown," said Nilekani. While delivering a lecture on 'India at the Crossroads: the Choices Before us' he said that the IT industry is facing severe crisis and no prediction can be made how long the economic slowdown will continue.

"The recruitment was well-placed earlier when the growth rate was 30 pc in the IT sector. The crisis in the financial sector has automatically affected Indian IT firms," Nilekani said.

He added that though the software export attained a growth of $40 bn in FY 2008, the economic slowdown has reduced the growth to 20 pc. "The IT industry grew rapidly on the back of high global economy growth. But in the long-run the sector will do well. The need for technology the world over has not reduced and India too is a large consumer of the technology," Nilekani noted.

Nilekani said that the country need to create as many as 270 million jobs by 2035 to reap the benefits of the demographic change. "India has a large number of young people and jobs need to be created by integrating our economy with the global economy. The potential of the youth needs to be harnessed to accelerate the economic growth rate," he asserted.

Nilekani accused of vested interests in political sector at the central and state level denying powers to local bodies. "The poor have not benefited from food, power, farm, water and healthcare subsidies. Measures have to be taken to distribute entitlements directly to the targeted beneficiaries since the subsidies are regressive and not progressive," he said.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)