Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Steps on to provide adequate human resource for ICT sector

Staff Reporter

`Tamil Nadu aspires for 25 per cent share in this segment in India by 2011'

PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT: (From left) Coimbatore Collector Neeraj Mittal; Chairman of CII (Tamil Nadu), Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu; Information and Technology Secretary, C. Chandramouli; Chairman of Connect 2007, Gopal Srinivasan; and Managing Director of ELCOT, C. Umashankar, at `Connect Coimbatore 2007', in the city on Tuesday. - K. Ananthan

COIMBATORE: The State Government has initiated several measures to ensure adequate availability of skilled manpower for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, C. Chandramouli, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, said here on Tuesday.

Inaugurating `Connect Coimbatore 2007' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in association with Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu and the Software Technology Parks of India, he said the State was aspiring for a 25 per cent share in the country's ICT sector by 2011.

On the hardware front, a lot of internationally acclaimed companies had zeroed in on Tamil Nadu for investments.

On the automobile front, a lot of components were becoming electronic-based and the niche area of auto electronics offered many opportunities.

An IT Academy was proposed and initially it would look at developing contents, curriculum and faculty training to meet the needs of the industry.

"We are also trying to introduce a curriculum that will prepare students for tests by the IT companies," Mr. Chandramouli said.

This programme was in association with the National Association of Software and Service Companies.

Soft skills

The Government planned language laboratories and soft skill training at the school level. The labour and industry departments were working to identify skills needed in each industry.

Based on this, the Industrial Training Institutes could have special training in the needed areas, apart from the general curriculum.

Software exports from the State during 2005-2006 were Rs. 13,000 crores and this year it was expected to be about 30 per cent more, he said.

The Managing Director of ELCOT, C. Umashankar, said the corporation planned to develop IT parks in Madurai, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Salem and Hosur.

One lakh new employment opportunities were expected through each of these parks in the next five years.

Coimbatore District Collector, Neeraj Mittal, said that Coimbatore was especially advantageous for entrepreneurs to grow because of large number of industries here that needed to become IT-enabled to improve their efficiency to compete in the global markets.

Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Chairman of CII, Tamil Nadu, said that local IT entrepreneurship was vital for sustaining the IT growth and socio-economic development of the region.

Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman of `Connect 2007, said the IT sector had provided employment to about six lakh people now and this was expected to go up to 20 lakhs in another four or five years. So the CII was working on generating talent.

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