Of the more than five lakh engineers India produces annually, just 2.68 per cent meet the skill requirements of the IT products sector.
This is a huge dearth of talent and a pertinent risk for the sector, which has witnessed the birth of about 1,282 start-ups from 2008-2012, according to a report by Aspiring Minds, an employability assessment company.
Nearly 92 per cent of the engineering graduates lack computer programming and algorithm skills required for IT product companies, whereas 56 per cent show lack of soft skills and cognitive skills, it said.
“There is a clear and measurable distinction between the talent required to develop IT products vis-à-vis typical IT services talent. While we observe employable talent is spread across all kinds of colleges, building India’s prowess in IT products would require significant focus and investment in training and evaluating students in core technology,” said Aspiring Minds Chief Executive Officer Himanshu Aggarwal.
The top cities with regards to percentage of employable talent in the IT product sector are Delhi at 10.91 per cent, Kolkata at 4.51 per cent followed by Bengaluru at 2.93 per cent. Aspiring Minds assessed more than 55,000 engineers for the study.