Its amazing how a couple of weeks of “feel good” can transform a recession of sentiment that we have been experiencing in our country into a revival of the halcyon days of a couple of years back. A rampaging stock market, a revival in the fortunes of many domestic industries and a strong new Government promising all the right investments and changes in policy to enable infrastructure, healthcare, education and even exports to see the green shoots of economic recovery – all this and more good news have made many people believe that happy days are indeed here again!

The good news about this relatively slow period that the industry has seen in the last six months and more is that some burning issues are now been addressed by industry, academic institutions and the government. One of the most worthy experiences I have been part of is the CII initiative in Maharashtra to empanel companies that are willing to extend a helping hand to al interested academic institutions through a collaborative assessment process and the establishment of IT finishing schools in the premises of the institution. At a time when employment is still a tough ask for many worthy engineering and IT graduates, the willingness to support the colleges in their endeavour has been welcome by all participants and will soon be a model worthy of replication across the country.

For a long time technology has been the holy Mecca of the graduates of educational institutions but now the time may have come for technology to become the enabler of better education. CISCO Systems the exemplar in all matters pertaining to networking and unified communications has taken major leaps in enabling this with their superior telepresence video-conferencing capabilities and the acquisition of Webex given them an edge in enabling learner centric education. Global Talent Track the Pune company which has now spread its wings to Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and even Malaysia with its unique model of collaborations – with Government, Academia and Technology providers has enabled the industry to provide the expertise needed by students in the classroom and may well augur a new generation of highly employable graduates even as the recession subsides and placements starts at a brisk pace all over again.

So far so good but the future success of the industry cannot be taken for granted and more collaborative efforts are required, not just in the seven developed locations but in forty-three other towns and cities that have already been identified. These will need to be developed and nurtured till they find their own place in the knowledge firmament. The Perspectives 2020 study of NASSCOM with Mckinsey has suggested that the industry can scale to over two hundred and fifty billion dollars if the shortcomings are overcome and the right steps are taken to provide better infrastructure and education on the part of Government and to innovate in more areas on the part of industry. If India does not do what is needed and other countries which are eyeing the lucrative outsourcing business are allowed to take the lead, we could well fall short by seventy to eighty billion dollars which would be a loss of opportunity that the country can ill afford.

In the global environment too, the US seems to have seen the benefits of the Obama stimulus package and while the jury is still out on whether the recovery in certain sectors is a transient positive or a serious sign that the trough has been passed and the slow slope to recovery is being traversed, it is encouraging that many corporations have started to loosen their purse strings and investments in new technology and process outsourcing initiatives have commenced. UK caught in its own political imbroglios with the sequential setbacks faced by the Labour Government threatening to overshadow even the severe recession on the front pages of all newspapers may still take till next summer to recover but some signs of economic stirring is visible in other parts of the world as well.

So is all well? Not yet but there are stirrings of life which should serve as a call to action! To enable India’s green shoots to flourish and IT to be the favoured destination again, each of the players- in the IT eco-system – large firms, entrepreneurs, academic institutions, associations , financial institutions and even the Government must demonstrate the willingness to go the extra mile in the next six months. Let’s make it happen, folks!