Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 25
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIIT Limited, Rahul Keshav Patwardhan, who was in Dimapur today, said two major issues confronting the country today are –the growing rate of GDP but decreasing job opportunities and, the role and future of the IT sector in shaping the country’s economic destination.
The NIIT chief said the rapid digital transformation taking place in almost all sectors has helped the country to achieve the GDP growth rate, but on the other hand, this has not resulted in corresponding growth of employment opportunities.
Addressing a press conference on the theme ‘Digital transformation & future of IT & banking’ here at Hotel Europa Inn Friday evening, Rahul said Naga youths have the attributes and potential to excel in IT and other sectors. “Naga youths are good in spoken English and are extroverts. They can be trained to be good workforce around the world. The youth talent in the state is highly marketable”, he remarked.
He meanwhile stated that creating economic growth without new jobs is a serious social and economic issue that India needs to address. He said at present, India is the second leading country in the IT sector with 3.9 million workers in this sector. However, the IT sector in the country has reached maturation and saturation point and that almost 35% of the 3.9 million workers are sitting on the bench as they have become outdated and are no longer productive.
He also pointed out that profit margins of companies like automobile manufacturers have gone down due to various factors including outdated IT workforce.
The CEO said for the country to build a vibrant economy and also create jobs, the need of the hour is not only to undertake massive re-skilling of outdated employees but also to recruit new talents from the youth force.
And this, he said needs a lot of effort, resources and change of focus. While re-skilling of outdated workforce is a big problem, recruitment of new workforce in the IT sector remains a huge challenge as the curriculum of most IT institutions in the country too are outdated, and it takes time to change curriculum, Rahul pointed out.
Despite these challenges, the NIIT CEO said there also vast opportunities for new jobs in the IT and related sectors. He said with the present central government giving much focus towards providing banking facilities to the vast majority of the unreached population, there is immense potential for IT professionals in the banking sector.
“Fintech as a sector is hot”, Rahul commented and added transformation in education sector is needed to skill students in digitization. In this regard, Rahul said NIIT with its whole new curriculum can give the cutting edge to institutions to equip students with the latest in IT.
