India Business Intelligence software revenue to hit $245mn in 2017: Gartner

Indian business intelligence (BI) software revenue is forecast to reach $245 million in 2017 -- a 24.4 per cent increase over $206 million revenue last year -- market research firm Gartner said on Tuesday.

This forecast includes revenue for BI platforms (comprising of traditional and modern BI platforms), data science platforms, analytic applications and CPM Suites, Gartner analysts said during the "Gartner Data and Analytics Summit" here.

"The data and analytics market is undergoing a significant change. Adoption of machine learning techniques for data management and analytics, the settling of hype around big data through more mature data storage and processing and analysis solutions are a few of the changes," Ehtisham Zaidi, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.

"We are also seeing the rapid shift to the cloud and hybrid data management through focused offerings and the emergence of modern BI platforms, smart data discovery and self-service data preparation solutions, which are all fueling the next round of investments," Zaidi added.

Indian Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Data Officers (CDOs) and other data and analytics leaders are advised to evolve traditional approaches to focus on business outcomes, go with the market trends, benefit from algorithmic business, adopt new technologies and most importantly build trust.

"We are also seeing a huge focus on Internet of Things (IoT) data integration, data management and analytics by Indian companies, particularly in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and manufacturing sector, who are determined the lead the market through competitive differentiation in these key areas," Zaidi noted.

IT employees to form union in times of rampant layoffs

A forum of IT workers is all set to get itself registered as the first union of techies in the country, amid reports of large scale layoffs by IT companies. "The Forum for Information Technology Employees (FITE) will be getting itself registered formally as the first union for IT employees in India," forums vice-president Vasumathi said. "We are expecting this to happen within next five months," Vasumathi told PTI in an interview.

The move has come following "illegal termination" of employees by the major IT companies in the country. The FITE, a group of IT employees, have been in the thick of action since 2008 when it kicked off a protest to bring attention to the state of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The forum has over 1,000 online members and around 100 active members. It has opened chapters in nine cities, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Kochi and Delhi.

The group has waged various battles for IT employees who were indiscriminately sacked by various companies in the past. Calls for formation of an IT employee union gathered momentum after reports of large scale layoffs by several IT companies in view of toughening stance of developed nations on work visas and increasing automation in the industry. Executive search firm Head Hunters India had said that the job cuts in IT sector would be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually in the next three years due to under- preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

A McKinsey & Company report had said nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be "irrelevant" over the next 3-4 years. McKinsey India Managing Director Noshir Kaka had also said the bigger challenge ahead for the industry will be to re-train 50-60 per cent of the workforce as there will be a significant shift in technologies.

The industry employs 3.9 million people and the majority of them have to be re-trained. On Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar statement that IT sector should be revising the skill set every now and then to keep up with the emerging technologies, Vasumathi said it does not mean sending experienced employees home, without notice.

"The IT employees, also know the need to learn continuously and grow with the organisation. It is the responsibility of employers to foresee the change in technological trend and re-skill the employees accordingly," she said. The IT companies are laying off employees with profit motive and are using appraisal process to shield themselves and quoting "poor performance" to terminate employees, Vasumathi alleged. Vasumathi also said job cuts may increase the profit margins temporarily, but would damage the industry in the long run. Jayaprakash, another FITE member, said according to the Industrial Disputes Act, the IT companies do not have any right to dismiss employees when they are earning profits.

Layoffs are usually carried out by companies when they suffer losses, but the Industrial Disputes Act states that the laid off employees should be given first preference after the company attains financial stability and earns profits, Jayaprakash said. Flaying companies for calling laying off of 10-20 experienced workforce as "trimming the extra fat", he said, "They do not realise that each and every employee has a family to support."

IT firms may cold-shoulder B Tech-only techies in future: Mohandas Pai

Jobs would be hard to come by in the IT sector in future for youngsters who have only B Tech degree, and companies would prefer to hire post-graduates with specialised expertise, says an industry veteran. In future, a B Tech is not adequate to get a good job, one must have an M Tech and specialisation, says T V Mohandas Pai, former HR head and ex-Chief Financial Officer of IT major Infosys.

"My advice to all the people in colleges: please do M Tech and specialise, and learn coding on your own by taking extra classes, because in future most companies will hire you based on your coding knowledge. They are not going to catch you raw and give you training for six months and pay for it. Why should they waste their time? They will test you on your coding skills and if you know very good coding, they will hire you," Pai told PTI.

"In future if you want to have a job, you must have M Tech, you must know coding and you must be an expert. You must have some level of expertise," he said. When asked about salary of freshers not growing in the Information Technology (IT) industry in the past two decades, Pai termed it as a "great tragedy". This is because the whole industry is not growing at a fast pace, he said.

"Supply (the number of software engineers) has gone up, (but commensurate) demand is not there," said Pai, who is currently chairman of Manipal Global Education Services.

Global spending in IT is projected to grow only two per cent this year, a figure which was 3-4 per cent earlier. "That is also having an impact," he said. IT industry is expected to hire 1.5 lakh to 1.6 lakh people this year, he said.

"No economy in the world can absorb one million engineers (who come out of colleges in India every year)... nowhere in the world, not even China can absorb. It's too much," he said.

Some reports indicate that as against offers of Rs 2.25 lakh per annum that used to go out for freshers two decades ago, they have risen only to Rs 3.5 lakh now, which suggests a decrease in real wages from an inflation-adjusted perspective.

Pai had said earlier this year that big IT services companies in India have "come together and talking to each other not to increase" the salary of freshers taking advantage of oversupply of software engineers at the entry level.

Pai, a member of the Board of Directors of National Stock Exchange of India Limited, rubbished reports indicating widespread job losses in the slowdown-hit IT industry.

"All these news are exaggerated. All these fears of job losses, people going away are exaggerated. There is no crisis. It's part of normal attrition. Yes, every year the bottom 1-2 per cent (non-performers) are asked to go. If you look at data, there is nothing extraordinary happening about job losses. Why should anybody have sympathy for person (non-performers who are laid off) who is not working?" Pai, Chairman of Aarin Capital Partners, said. He also accused people, who are making efforts to forge a union in IT industry, of trying to "create a hype, fear-mongering". "Nobody is supporting them. People who go with them will never get jobs," he added.

Have not heard about, seen massive layoffs in IT sector, says Kris Gopalakrishnan

The opportunities for new recruitment and promotions have shrunk in India's IT industry, a phenomenon natural when growth slows down, says an industry expert, who sees no merit in reports about massive layoffs.

The growth rate has definitely slowed down because of which opportunities in the industry, especially for new recruitment, is down, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

"Because, when the growth rate comes down, there is less need of new people. Second, the opportunities for promotion are also less because you don't need more people. You don't need people at the higher level because there is no upward movement," the former CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered IT major told PTI in an interview.

"I haven't seen or heard anything about massive layoffs. There is always tightening of promotion process and I think that will happen automatically," he said. "Promotions are going to be tighter. (Performance) evaluations are going to be more tougher," said the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an early stage startup accelerator and venture fund.

But Gopalakrishnan said such developments are natural in the sector as they have happened in the past -- after the internet bubble burst in 2001 and the 2008 financial crisis.

There are multiple factors affecting the IT industry now -- growth slowing down because economies in which Indian companies operate -- the US, Europe -- are slowing down and, secondly, because of the "base effect" as the industry is very large now, and also because of uncertainty on the Visa front.

Asked about some reports on efforts to prop up a union in the IT industry, he said he firmly believes that employees in the sector are "well paid, very well taken care off, (and) they already have choices (to change jobs)."

"For me, forming a union (in the IT industry) is a bad idea. Union may make sense when you are working in a factory. This (IT industry) is not that, people have choices, (they are) very well paid," the former president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said.

On Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy's statement that IT companies can protect the jobs of youngsters if senior executives take pay cuts, Gopalakrishnan said, "I don't see massive layoffs or anything like that. So, I don't want to comment on that."

Regarding job opportunities in the IT sector, he said, "There is still requirement for people with major sciences, (skills in) artificial intelligence, new paradigms on the mobile platform, on IoT: this is an industry that's always looking for talent with right technical capability."

On if he expects "protectionist tendencies" to persist in the US and Europe, two key markets of Indian IT companies, Gopalakrishnan said, "I believe it's part of the cycle because all economies are growing, without creating new jobs. There is a tendency to protect jobs."

"Having said that, if you see data from the US, there are 600,000 unfilled jobs in IT sector. People with right skills will get recruited," he said.

"I also believe that companies (in the US) are finding it difficult to recruit right people and they will come to India and set up operations by themselves. So, the IT back-offices will continue to move to India, whether in an outsourced model and direct model," he added.

Indian IT Professionals Rush To Reskill As 85,000 Jobs Open Up In New Technologies

India's $150 billion IT industry is in the midst of a major upheaval. Pressurized by lower margins and rising costs, IT companies are switching to automation and laying off employees to rein in costs. As the industry evolves at a rapid pace, IT professionals are constantly being challenged to add value to their organizations. Meanwhile tech workers are picking up new skills and languages to stay relevant even as new digital technologies change the way IT and related industries function.

Commenting on the current trend of upskilling as a way to safeguard their IT career, Simplilearn, an online learning platform for professionals said that students for niche specializations like Big Data, Cloud, Data Science, Devops and Cyber Security have grown by 50 per cent in the last 4 months.

The company which expects further acceleration in student uptake said in the last three months in categories such as DevOps rose 109 per cent, Cloud rose 70 per cent, while students for Big Data and Data Science rose 60 per cent and 45 per cent respectively. 

"It is more important than ever for IT professionals to make sure that they are skilled in the right domains. While there is panic around job losses, in areas like Big Data, Cloud, Data Science, Devops and Cyber Security, companies are recruiting in large numbers. For example in Data Science alone there are 85,000 jobs openings and companies are struggling to find the right talent," Kashyap Dalal of Simplilearn noted.

With 3 million IT workers, India's IT industry is one of the largest employers in the country. While there is paranoia in the IT industry currently around the fear of job losses, Mr Dalal noted that "being close to the industry what I see is more a skill re-shuffle."

Here are the top IT jobs that will be in demand in the future:

WhatsApp Groups Allow Students to Express Themselves Better, Says Study

WhatsApp chat groups help teenagers communicate with their peers and express themselves better compared to classrooms they are part of, a new study claims. The findings of the study say students in WhatsApp groups are able to develop closer and more open relationships with their classmates because of the freedom of expression they enjoy on the platform.

As part of the study, the researchers observed two groups of eight youths aged 16-17, and two groups of eight youths aged 14 to 15. The teenagers perceived WhatsApp chat group as a space that breaks down the hierarchical division created at school.

"The group chats are based on trust among the members of the group, and this enhances the possibility to be in contact," Arie Kizel from University of Haifa in Israel, was quoted as saying to nocamels.com - an Israeli Innovation news website on Sunday.

"The discussions on Whatsapp enable the development of a social environment that is warm and human," Kizel added.

One student described WhatsApp as "a place where there is respect for language and where all those involved share common terms and signs."

"On WhatsApp, I usually feel that I am not being judged, particularly because there isn't any eye contact or physical contact, only words and signs. So I feel more intimacy and security," explained another participant.

The school domain often divides the class into fixed groups and friendships, created on the basis of socioeconomic status, common activities or study tracks, and so forth.

However, the WhatsApp groups break down these divisions and make the class a single, homogeneous group.

"In the WhatsApp group, everyone can talk to everyone else. WhatsApp breaks down the walls we put up between us in class. The WhatsApp group is like a class team-building day," one participant commented.