Take heart, job opportunities are opening up in India

Bangalore: When Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) tells 500 people to leave and when there is talk of a squeeze in salary in the IT industry, you know it is time to worry about jobs. Or is it?

The US may be about to sneeze, and the IT industry in India may be paying a heavy price due to a rising rupee. But in such trying times, all you need to have is just the patience of Job. Because for every job lost, there are thousands of opportunities opening up — thanks to IT majors Cisco and Capgemini, no less.

By establishing partnerships and opening testing facilities, Cisco aims to expand India’s networking workforce capacity to 360,000 engineers in the next five years — a six-fold increase over present employment levels.

Also, to give a fillip to its training-development initiative, the company has made National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) and Indian Institute of Hardware Technology (IIHT) — two of India's largest technology training organisations — Cisco Certified Learning Solutions Partners.

IIHT and NIIT can now offer training materials and certifications authorised by Cisco to students and professionals in more than 200 locations in India.

Leo Scrivner, vice-president of human resources at Cisco Services, said, “Globalisation will continue to transform India's economy and require its young workforce to develop skills that are market-driven.”

"With these initiatives in place, we are able to ensure that our customers and partners have the resources available to train and equip thousands of motivated students in India with the knowledge and skills necessary to shape the country's burgeoning information economy," he added.

French consulting giant Capgemini, for its part, plans to become a 40,000-strong team in India. It has also decided to use India as one of its global training bases.

The company, which trains over 10,000 people globally every year, has tied up with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad to start two courses in India.

The company trains around 5,500 people in global courses and another 5,000 in local courses. India would become the consulting major's global training centre.

Steven Smith, Capgemini vice-president and director of the training arm, Capgemini University, said, “We want to have at least 40 per cent people from across the world in the courses that are run in India, while the remaining people will be our Indian employees.”

Now, that surely is good news. But what will come as a sweetener is the fact that MNCs adding more jobs in India is not confined to the IT sector alone.

Novo Nordisk, the $18.5-billion global leader in diabetes care, is also planning to expand its Indian operations. According to media reports, the company, which employs over 600 people in India currently, is to triple its staff strength in four years in its drug discovery and manufacturing processes.

It is also firming up long-term partnerships with Indian firms in the key areas of drug discovery, financial management and sales, according to Melvin Oscar D’Souza, managing director, Novo Nordisk India.

"India will become the biggest market for diabetes care. Being the leaders in insulin business within the country and internationally, we have a lot of India specific growth plans," he said.

What’s more, the parent company is also looking at outsourcing its data management requirements and financial services from Indian companies in near future.

It surely is raining jobs in India!