Tamil Nadu: Recession blues

The impact of recessionary trends in the Indian economy and the global meltdown is increasingly being felt by the estimated 495,000 engineering students graduating annually from the countrys 2,240 technical colleges and institutes. With the information technology (IT) industry, the biggest recruiter from engineering colleges and institutes, having frozen campus recruitments from all but a few top-notch institutions, the cheerful and upbeat mood, which was pervasive on engineering campuses at this time last year, has all but evaporated.In the southern state of Tamil Nadu (pop. 62 million), which hosts 354 engineering colleges and churns out 135,000 graduates annually, excepting top-ranked institutions such as IIT-Madras, NIT Tiruchirapalli and Anna University, most colleges which recorded 90 percent-plus campus placements last year, are experiencing a 40-70 percent drop in campus recruitment. The plight of second and third tier colleges in the state is worse, with companies shying away altogether from the campus recruitment process. Moreover, several companies that had issued offer letters to graduates in 2008 have yet to communicate joining dates.
According to brokerage house CLSAs placement survey of 45 engineering colleges across a dozen cities, IT major Infosys Technologies reduced the number of campuses visited from 1,079 in 2007 to 620 in 2008; Wipro from 300 to 106; and TCS from 265 to 260. However, TCS has not decelerated its recruitment drive, and has honoured its commitment to the 24,000 graduates, to whom it issued appointment letters last year.
But recessionary winds blowing over the IT industry have proved to be a boon for core engineering companies which were hitherto sidelined by IT companies. Against a 70:30 recruitment ratio in favour of the IT industry in 2007, the ratio was 50:50 in 2008, offering non-IT engineering companies an oppor-tunity to recruit high quality graduates.
Simultaneously institutional manage-ments are preparing students to look beyond IT. We are advising students to take up jobs in the BPO, banking and insurance sectors even if they are less lucrative, or pursue studies to wait out the recession. We are also offering vocational courses to enhance their skill sets, says G. Visagan, head of placement and training at Rajalakshmi Engineering College, a premier institute in Chennai.
Meanwhile IT industry leaders, even while admitting that the sector has been hit by the double whammy of a global meltdown and the Satyam fiasco, believe that the situation is redeemable. In the first half of fiscal 2008-09, we posted 24 percent growth. While recruitment is admittedly lower, there is still job growth. We are expecting to create 100,000-150,000 new jobs in the IT sector this year. To survive the current slowdown, students will need to equip themselves with industry specific skills instead of expecting to be trained after they join work. Infrastructure management, enterprise resource planning and software engineering are some key areas students should focus on to become readily employable in the IT industry, says Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM).
Quite clearly these are testing times for engine-ering — especially for computer sciences — students. But the silver lining is that a substantial proportion of the onus of getting students industry ready is shifting from corporates to colleges and students themselves. This will enable the IT industry to cut costs, become more competitive, and perhaps ride out the recession.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)