Budget 2014 holds the promise of transforming India from just an
IT/ITeS outsourcing hub, popular for providing cheap tech labor, to a turf
boasting of indigenous software product giants. This calls for hiring versatile
techies with an entrepreneurial streak within emerging software tech start-ups
According to NASSCOM there are about 15,000
technology start-ups and SMEs operating in India. Among the large number of
SMEs mushrooming in various industry verticals in India, you might ask why this
number—specifically within the IT industry—is significant.
The reason is simple.
Imagine India emerging as hub of even a handful of indigenous software product
giants which run a business comparable to the scope of business of say, HP and
IBM. Undoubtedly, this will have a direct impact on the contribution of the IT
industry to the Indian economy and also on the absorption of Indian techies by
the emerging domestic software product companies.
Tech hiring in the past primarily for IT-ITeS companies
In the past, a major chunk
of hiring of Indian tech resources happened within the IT-ITeS industry, with
tech professionals being hired at much lesser compensation package than
anywhere else across the globe. According to NASSCOM, within India, the IT-BPO
industry has created direct employment of 2.2 million and indirect employment
of eight million. By 2020, the figures are expected to shoot up to more than 10
million.
Data from TimesJobs.com
indicates that currently there is demand for more than 4,700 jobs for entry
level candidates in the software space, the biggest chunk of it being in the
software development space. According to this data, maximum (roughly 40,000+)
software centric jobs are available in the mid-level, where candidates have
experience ranging between 5-8 years. This demand is mainly from large tech
companies.
Added to this is the huge
potential that tech start-ups hold to generate tech jobs within the software
product development arena. Considering that India is a hub of brilliant tech
resources, why have we not emerged as a hub for software product companies?
This inspite of the presence of about 15,000 tech start-ups who have already
built their own tech products and solutions.
The answer is a lack of
capital as well as lack of proper mentorship which is essential for building
the core technology product and also the need to pump money to build proper
marketing and sales pipelines to give visibility to the products.
Modi government’s budget
that proposes setting aside Rs 10,000 crore for start-ups and SMEs is a move
that would give the much needed monetary push to these budding companies. Most
importantly, this is the first time that a government has recognised Indian
software product start-ups as an emerging industry that holds immense growth
potential and has promised special focus on these start-ups.
Budget pushes software product start-ups: Versatile techies to be
in demand
There is a huge difference
between the kind of tech talent that was so far in demand within IT-ITeS
companies and the kind of tech talent that would be in demand in the coming
quarters.
Explaining, Sanjay Swamy,
managing partner of AngelPrime, a Bangalore based technology incubator,
“Typically within the IT-ITeS companies, revenue generation is directly
proportional to the number of IT support professionals hired and consequently
the number of projects being worked upon. But within a product software
company, the key focus is on building a robust tech resource pool that is
constantly doing R&D centered on the software product being built.”
Swamy says that a number
of experienced tech professionals might like to leverage on the government’s
fund backing for start-ups and look at starting their own software product
companies. There would also be an increase in demand for young and versatile
tech brains with an entrepreneurial spark to build the core R&D team of
software product companies. This would also fire up the need for technology
marketing professionals who have proven expertise in positioning tech products
in the competitive market already mushrooming with tech start-ups and large tech
vendors.
Techies can catapult themselves to larger business roles within
start-ups
Within software product
start-ups, the key criteria that is looked at while hiring tech professionals
is a quiver full of strong skill-sets and versatility rather than the number of
years of experience. Swamy says that the fact that a particular professional
has been working within a tech company for a particular number of years is not
going to be enough anymore, when the candidate is looking or a job in tech
start-ups.
This means exciting
compensation opportunities for young techies who have exceptional skill-sets to
jump into the start-up environment. If they are able to present a strong
argument on how their expertise in a particular tech domain can contribute in
building the start-up’s business and realize better ROI, the compensation
package offered might be much more promising than what a large tech vendor
could offer.
Apart from the salary
aspect, a job role within a tech start-up can actually catapult techies to larger
strategic business roles, if they show business value and innovation. This is
conventionally not easy to achieve within large tech companies where there is a
defined hierarchy of growth.
Though the fine print of
the Budget proposals are being awaited, the Rs 10,000 crore debt and risk
capital fund proposed to be released in the form of equity and soft loans will
definitely give a huge boost to the tech entrepreneurs who have been nurturing
brilliant tech products but did not have access to capital so far.
The government also aims to create "at
least one IT literate per family" besides an IT entrepreneur, according to
the IT and Communications Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy. 
