India can have 9-10 million strong tech workforce in next few years: Nandan Nilekani

Infosys co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Nandan Nilekani said that India's 4.5 million technology workforce is expected to double to 9-10 million in next few years with huge demand in digital services, rising number of unicorns and double-digit growth of IT service majors. The architect of India's Aadhaar, Nilekani, while delivering keynote address around the theme "Adaptive Advantage" at the sixth edition of Ascent e-conclave on Friday said that the rising attrition is a concern for the tech companies right now and that the firms need to invest in reskilling and employee engagement while taking stock of the rising situation.

Notably, during the September quarter (Q2FY22), all the four major IT service providers, including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCL, had reported a spike in attrition rates with industry witnessing a major war of talent, especially for digital skills. On the other hand, the IT industry has doubled down on hiring freshers with approximately 2.5 lakh college graduates having been onboarded so far in FY22 according to market intelligence firm, UnearthInsight.

While speaking about the job creation opportunities, the Infosys co-founder said that tech industry growth will also create opportunities for employment in other sectors and in a post-pandemic environment, every company will have to offer roles for digital / technology profiles.

"In this global war for talent, digital needs will be felt by enterprises across sectors. Companies will have to evolve their HR practices, recognise talent, promote culture of bonding and people-first strategy. Adaptability will come from a culture of continuous learning, reskilling, be on top of developments, invest in learning culture, recognising credentials of employees with promotions and compensations," he added.

Nilekani laid down three parameters for providing impetus to the fast-growing digital economy. The technologist further argued that the multi-cycle growth process of the IT service providers as an after-effect of the pandemic, which has given them a strong double-digit revenue growth forecast, will be the first crucial factor to help the economy grow. He also referred to the rising number of unicorns, and start-ups listing successfully on stock exchanges as crucial to job creation, economic growth. "The regulatory changes in China have proven to be an advantage to India with capital flowing in for new-age companies," Nilekani said.

The third significant factor, according to the Infosys co-founder, is the creation of public digital infrastructure like Aadhaar, which enables digital identification and linkage with the bank accounts of the users, and the United Payments Interface (UPI), which has now become the fastest mode of digital payments surpassing 4.3 billion transactions in October and amounting to $100 billion in value.

"I see account aggregator system as the next big innovation in India linked to digital public infrastructure where the users, including small kirana shops/ retailers will have an easy access to credit/ lender by leveraging their personal data ," Nilekani said.

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