Re-Skilling Biggest Challenge For IT Sector: Nasscom President
The IT sector’s lobby group feels companies need to focus on challenges such as re-skilling and finding the right talent.
Even as Indian information technology companies try to stay relevant while undergoing a digital transformation, the sector’s lobby group feels there are other challenges that companies need to focus on.
Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom, said that re-skilling is imperative for IT firms and finding the right talent is their biggest challenge.
“We have to make re-skilling the new imperative for this industry. It has to be job-oriented,” Ghosh told BloombergQuint in an interview. “Jobs are changing, and the technology is bringing that change faster than before. We need to ensure the workforce is ready for these new jobs.”
The digital transformation opportunity is estimated at $154 billion in India, while globally it’s about $370 billion in the next three years, she said, adding that IT companies are best placed as they partner with about 75 percent of the Fortune-500 companies. “It’s not easy to manage legacy and new businesses simultaneously.”
Ghosh said that the Donald Trump administration’s proposals on H1-B visas will have maximum impact on U.S. companies that depend on talent from India. “The skill gap in the U.S. is real.”
“Indian companies account for less than 13 percent of the (H1-B) visas,” Ghosh said. “The largest taker of these visas are the U.S. tech companies, which also happen to be the largest spender on R&D (research and development) in the U.S.”
Watch the interview here: