New Delhi, Apr 18: The Information Technology sector may be doing wonders in terms of employment generation in India but industry experts are worried about bridging the estimated shortfall of over two lakh personnel by 2008. According to a recent survey carried out by National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the demand for software professionals is expected to be approximately 1.1 million people by 2008.



However, the supply of software professionals, based on current trends, is projected to be only 885,000, creating a potential shortfall of 235,000 people.


"While the Indian talent pool is extremely large with 76 per cent of all the software professionals possessing a graduate degree, there are still some gaps in their training, which would be the main contributor to the projected shortfall," says Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM. Pointing out that 167,000 engineering students and 1.54 million graduates pass out of India's educational institutions annually and are available for the Indian software and services industry, he says this talent pool lacks the preparedness for the industry.


"One of the primary reasons for the shortfall is the training gap that still exists in the education that is imparted to software professionals," he says. Bureau Report