More women in IT workforce can help bridge talent gap: Nasscom chairman Krishnan Ramanujam

Mumbai: The IT industry’s top priority is to make India the digital hub of the world, said Krishnan Ramanujam, the newly appointed chairman of IT industry body Nasscom.

Matching India’s massive talent base effectively to support the current demand environment for the $220 billion Indian IT industry over the next decade will be key to this goal, Ramanujam told ET in an interview.

Taking skill and job opportunities to millions of women as well as people across tier II and tier III cities will help the sector grow, said Ramanujam, who also leads the enterprise growth segment at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services company by revenue.


“If we are not careful, the story of this excellent demographic dividend can turn into a demographic dagger. Nasscom’s top priority is making India the digital hub of the world,” he added.

The current gap between demand and supply of talent is about 21% in India. Despite this high number, the country is actually in a far superior position than any other economy, he said.

As the industry looks at a high demand environment over the next decade, it is imperative to collaborate with government initiatives, companies and educational institutions to ensure that students entering the market now are armed with the relevant skills for this era, he added.

In addition, with almost 36% women in the Indian IT industry, Ramanujam said improving women’s participation in this workforce is a “low hanging fruit which will be a big push towards filling the talent gap”.

"Reaching $350 billion (IT BPM sector revenue) is very much within the realms of possibilities within the next three to five years given the demand momentum that all the NASSCOM member companies have seen," he added.

Ramanujam succeeded Accenture in India’s chairperson and senior managing director Rekha M Menon as Nasscom chairman.

At TCS, he took charge of enterprise growth recently as part of the company’s new operational strategy initiated since April 1.

Having spent his early years in a small village, Kulithalai in Karur district of Tamil Nadu, he said that he has had the opportunity to participate in the growth trajectory of the Indian IT sector and would want similar opportunities for students outside the top tier cities as well.

“Just as people of my generation were catapulted to a level of prosperity that was unimaginable 30-40 years ago, the same potential exists for the next two generations, at least in our tier II and tier III cities to make that leap,” he said.