Sarah.Zia@timesgroup.com

J esus and Mary College(JMC), University of Delhi, isgoing to start conducting a

SAP certificate course from theend of this month.

The certification is offered byan eponymous German softwarecorporation that creates softwarefor enterprise and employee man-agement used in many organisa-tions worldwide. With 200places, the 104-hour course isopen currently to JMC students.

“We decided to introduce SAPtraining and certification due to itsglobal popularity. Given that thetraining process involves multiplelevels, we are introducing the firsttwo basic levels, 01 and B1, at thisstage,” informs Pavitra Bhardwaj,assistant professor, department ofcomputer science, JMC and courseco-ordinator.

The course involves self-studythrough e-tutorials, so enroleeswill spend two hours a week inthe college’s computer labs.

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This year seems to beparticularly prom-ising for the IT

industry in India, withits spending expectedto grow to US$ 73.3billion, up by 9.4% fromthe US$ 67.1 billion projected for 2014,according to an October 2014 study byGartner, Inc.

As per the information technologyresearch and advisory company’s

analysis, among thehottest skills in digital

business that chief infor-mation officers of companies must lookfor while hiring or outsourcing talentare mobile integration, user experi-ence design and data sciences. Threeyears from now, the research predicts,skills in smart machines (including theinternet of things), robotics, and auto-mated judgment and ethics willshape digital businesses.

Additionally, over the next sevenyears, specialised roles are likely togrow; integration specialists, digitalbusiness architects, regulatory ana-lysts and risk professionals will drivedemand in the sector.

With innovations sprouting indifferent corners of the country, in-dustry needs various skills to keeppace with changes in the market.Says Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president, Nasscom, “Some of theskills required are in the areas ofmobile app development, cloud andvirtualisation, platform engineering,analytics and big data, and user ex-perience design.”

APP DEVELOPMENT>> As more Indians root for smart-phones, the mobile app developmentsphere is obviously drawing attention.Sourav Chatterjee, working with afront-end team on iOS development atXenovus Inc, Ranga Reddy (Telan-gana), says skilled iOS developers,with an understanding of building aproduct from scratch and having com-prehensive training in computer sci-ence, could look forward to favourable

professional growth in this industry.He adds, “As a software engineer,such professionals are part of teamsdeveloping apps for the iPhone envi-ronment. But it is much more thanjust an app requiring involvement ofartificial intelligence, machine learn-ing, etc. I currently work on objective-C and swift programming languagesfor this purpose.”

USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN>> The growth of digital gadgets cor-relates to an increased demand foruser experience/interface designerswhose job is to make a user’s interac-tion with a product or service smooth.Abhisek Das, a web/user interface de-

signer working with Thrillophilia, anactivity travel curator, in Bangalore,points out that with the number of mo-bile phone users going up, desktop us-age in India is declining. Thus, everywebsite has to have a mobile inter-face, which is where people like himcome into the picture. “The best partof being a user interface designer isthat you can work on the design aswell as implementation of your wire-frames and mock-ups, from formationto the finished product. When I designa feature for the interface, I walk theuser through the feature by making arough sketch of the main components(buttons, lists, and text blocks) on asheet of paper. I then simulate how

the user might interact with thefeature, by drawing their input and

selections. The challenge has alwaysbeen to design in such an alluring waythat the user can benefit from thefunctionalities instantly,” says Das.

BIG DATA>> When it comes to analytics andbig data, organisations are reportedlyembracing it to become more effi-cient and innovative. Moreover, the

Department of Science AndTechnology, Government of In-dia, has a Big Data Initiative to“promote and foster big data sci-ence, technology and applica-

tions in the country and to developcore generic technologies, tools andalgorithms for wider applications ingovernment,” among other goals.

“Big data and analytics on theIndian subcontinent is at a nascentstage,” says a 2013 KPMG-CII re-port, The SMAC Code, focusing onsocial media, mobility, analytics andcloud computing. “However, sectorslike financial services and telecomhave started adopting these tech-nologies. Also, other sectors includ-ing e-commerce are among the earlyadopters of the technology to solvethe issues of storing as well as cre-ating business advantage from theeverlasting data records.”

IT industry jobs are not only aboutwork with immediate application.There are some companies, whichrecruit for fundamental scienceresearch as well. “When it comesto basic science research, ourindustry is still conservative.However, there are quite a fewopenings for basic scienceresearch in areas like nano-technology and biotechnology inindustry,” says Harjinder Singh,professor, Centre forComputational Natural Scienceand Bioinformatics, IIIT,Hyderabad. These are in ITcompanies which intend todevelop, for example, biomedicalor nano-technological products ordigitised instruments, he adds.

SUBJECT WISE★★★

ILLU

STRA

TIO

N:D

EBA

SISH

SA

RMA

> BASIC RESEARCH

SKILLED FOR THE FUTUREWhen it comes to IT careers, mobile app development,

user experience design and big data analysis are some of the major skills in demand

Iwas born in Bihar and com-pleted most of my school ed-ucation in east India. After-

wards, I joined Assam Engi-neering College to pursue a BE(electronics and telecommunica-

tions). I grew up with a dreamof making a career in IT; howev-er, it was nipped in the bud, forthere were no computer sciencecourses at college. In the finalyear, I took up a software-relat-

ed project and was thrilled at itsinteresting outcome. But I couldnot fetch a job during the cam-pus placement drive as employ-ers thought that I was more in-clined towards IT.

The search for a job took meto Delhi, where I chanced upona write-up on optical characterrecognition (OCR) in Indian lan-guages. It was similar to mysoftware project in college. Iwrote to the writer, along withthe details of my project. Soon, Ireceived a call from Centre forDevelopment of Advanced Com-puting (C-DAC) to join the team

working on OCR in Indian lan-guages at its Pune office. Thewriter, an expert from C-DAC,was impressed with my project.

After working at C-DAC fortwo years, I joined InnomediaSoftware and then moved toQuark. My enriching experienceat these IT organisations ex-panded my horizon in the fieldof data processing, languagetechnology and enterprise dataintegration. I quit my job in2003 and moved to the US topursue a Master’s degree. Thiswas the time when the US waswitnessing robust growth in IT

products. Sensing the vast op-portunity in IT products, I leftmy course mid-way and found-ed a software company, Win-shuttle, along with two part-ners, in America. As we did nothave huge capital, engineeringoperations in the US were mak-ing it difficult for us to sustain. Idecided to design and engineerour products in India and han-dle sales from our US office. I re-turned and started operationsfrom my house in Chandigarh.During the day, I was a soft-ware developer while at night, Iwas support staff.

Later, I took office space at ITPark, Chandigarh, and graduallyexpanded my team by recruit-ing talent from institutions likethe IITs, IIMs and NITs. Soon,our IT solutions garnered re-sponse from multinational gi-ants. Today, we have a team of350 people at our offices in In-dia, US, UK, Canada, France andGermany to design enterprisesoftware products.

– As told to Nishant Kumar

Overseas fair

I ndian studentsaspiring to pur-sue their degrees

abroad can avail ofscholarships in theform of financial aidand fee waivers.Most times, thesescholarships are giv-en on the basis ofmerit and need. Can-didates with strong academicrecords, good scores in standard-ised exams and extracurricularachievements are usually eligiblefor such financial assistance.

Scholarships ranging from 5-100% equivalent to Rs five crorehave been received by students atthe previous world education fairsheld by Edwise. Many scholar-ships cover the cost of the entireprogramme. Over 300 students re-ceived part/full scholarships forcourses that commenced in 2014.

Chandrika Dhariwal received ascholarship from BournemouthUniversity, UK; Alvan D’Souzafrom Fanshawe College, Canada;Rutuprasad Sagariya from Univer-sity of Queensland, Australia; Su-san Abraham from University ofCanterbury, New Zealand; SheetalSaini from Curtin University, Sin-gapore; and Vinit Jhawar fromHult International BusinessSchool, US.

Meeting university representa-tives and showcasing yourachievements is the best way toinitiate the process of getting fi-nancial aid. To facilitate this, Ed-wise is conducting a world educa-tion fair at The Park, New Delhi onWednesday 4th February 2015 from10.30am to 5pm.

Students will get an opportunityto meet representatives from over80 institutions across 12 countries(list depends on city) and get first-hand information on applicationqueries, campus facilities andscholarship opportunities.

Students are required to pre-register on www.worldeducation-fair.com or call: 08600911333 or 1800 200 3678

Retell the pastA DU college is setting up an archive-cum-museum and a translation centre

Sarah.Zia@timesgroup.com

Indraprastha College forWomen (IPCW), Univer-sity of Delhi, has set up

a translation centre, as anextension to the collegelibrary, on campus.Stocking rare man-uscripts in lan-guages such as Ben-gali, Punjabi, Hin-di, Sanskrit andEnglish, the cen-tre will notonly be open toits studentsbut also toscholars working in thearea of language andtranslation studies.

It is likely to be inaugu-rated in the first week ofFebruary.

Among its highlights arerare translations of theRamayana and Padmavatin Persian, which theinstitution acquired fromthe Rampur Raza Library.

“We are cataloguing thedocuments and books thatwill be housed in thecentre,” informs BabliMoitra Saraf, principal,IPCW. “Next,we plan toadd more titles in otherlanguages.”

Apart from the transla-tion centre, the collegeplans to throw open to thepublic, a recently built mu-seum and archive, as partof its centenary celebra-

tions. The college willcomplete a hundred yearsin 2023 and 2013 markedthe beginning of itsdecade-long centenarycelebrations, “with allthese moves geared in thatdirection,” explains Saraf.

The college engageda museologist and histeam for the muse-um-cum-archive proj-ect. In 2014, it builtan exhibition an-nexe, where one of

the first exhibi-tions was ofthe RampurRaza Library

manuscripts. “The popu-larity of the move and theinterest it generatedprompted us to take up themuseum project more seri-ously,” says Saraf. “We al-ways had an archive andthe intent to formally makea museum but it was afterthe exhibition that we de-cided to give the project afinal shape.”

Hence, the existingarchives were reorganisedand digitised. Saraf addsthat the museum also hasdigital kiosks with projec-tion facilities where smallgroups can watch films.According to her, the mu-seum not only traces thehistory of the college butcan also give a micro-per-spective on the transitionin education from colonialto post-colonial times as IPis one of the oldest col-leges in Delhi.

“Given that Annie Be-sant was among the peo-ple associated with thecollege, we are not just apart of the history of thecity, but also the nationalmovement for independ-ence,” she concludes.

The museumalso has digitalkiosks withprojectionfacilities

Globalcertificate

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