An Indian Perspective on IT & Engineering Programs:

The Quality Imperative

Vijay BhatkarInternational Institute of Information Technology, Pune, India

India: The Knowledge-based Civilization

• World’s first knowledge-based civilization since the Vedic times, 5000 years back

• Veda = Knowledge• Vast knowledge heritage through the centuries • First universities (Taxila, Nalanda) were borne here• Invention of zero, decimal system, and early

advances in language, mathematics, astronomy, etc. credited to India.

• Richest country of the world till the 11th century• In the 20th century, India was termed as a rich country

where poor people live

India: The Economic Miracle in the Making

• A nation of 1 billion+ people (not a billion mouths to be fed by a billion minds to be unleashed)

• Fourth largest economy in the world in terms of PPP• GDP expected to grow at a rate 7% plus in 2003-4• To emerge as world’s 3rd economic superpower by

2050• World’s 2nd largest S&T manpower now• World’s largest English speaking nation by 2010• Synonymous with Information Technology now

A Huge Market Potential for Education

• 1 billion plus population

• Education No. 1 priority for parents

• Enrollments at Higher Education level growing at 7% plus in last few decades

Stupendous Growth in Higher Education Segment

• A culture of propensity for higher education in India, supported by a strong institutional framework

• No. of UGC recognized universities increased from 27 in 1950-51 to 272 in 2001-02; colleges from 580 to 11,100 in the same period

• Enrollment of 8 million graduates & post-graduates in 2001

Government’s Role in Education Sector

• The role of Government in higher education has progressively decreased over the years. The Government spend on higher education has come down from 33% to 19% over the last decades.

• This trend is expected to continue, as the Government is targeting the goal of “Education for all” at the elementary education level.

Government’s Role in Education Sector

• Budgetary allocation across segmentsUSD (Bn)

Primary education 0.80Secondary education 0.21Higher education 0.14

Total 1.15

• Budgetary allocation for higher education has been frozen at 1991-92 levels

• Budgetary Constraint of the Government has been an important driver for the opening-up of the higher education segment to private investment.

Increase in Private Sector Participation

• There has been a significant increase in the number of higher education institutes promoted by the private sector

• A bulk of the recent growth has occurred in the engineering & management segments:- In the last decade the number of engineering colleges have trebled from 400 to 1200- Presently, there are around 750 management institutions in the country

• However, a number of the new entrants have not been able to match upto the quality benchmarks of publicly funded premier institutes.

Gap in Quality Education in India

• Although the number of students enrolled in higher education institutes has grown significantly over the years…

Growth in Enrollments – Higher Education

Gap in Quality Education in India

• …However, there remains a sizeable unmet demand for top quality professional education

Institute Annual Intake Average number of applicants

IIT’s 3,800 170,000 -> 2% success rate

IIM’s 1,250 130,000 -> 1% success rate

• Besides, barely 50 of the 750 recognized management institutes make it to the serious recruiters list.

Significant Growth in the Number of Students Opting to Go Abroad

• The unmet demand is partially met by students going overseas to earn professional qualifications particularly in the areas of engineering, IT, management and medicine

• Indian Students in Foreign Universities

- US accounts for the largest share (74%)- There has been a 58% increase in the number of students going to US in the past two years- About 75% of the students go for higher education

• On an average a student going to the US spends in the range of USD 20,000 to USD 40,000 on tuition fee alone

Summary of Key Trends in Indian Higher

Education

• India has a strong base for higher education, and this segment has registered over 7% compounded growth over the past few decades

• Traditionally, the Government has been the biggest funder of higher education; However, this has changed in the last decade, and Government spending has decreased significantly during this period. Changes in the regulatory framework have also enabled private investment in this sector.

• The Private Sector has moved in to fill this gap; but there is a distinct gap in quality in most of the newer entrants.

• There is a big demand for quality higher education, and number of Indian students going overseas for higher education in engineering, IT and management has seen a steep increase.

India Emerging as IT Superpower

• IT has crossed US$ 13 billion & ICT $ 20 billion

• Present growth rate 25% plus per annum

• GDP share 4% plus; export share 25% plus

• Significant increase in employment opportunities in ICT sector

• Number of professionals in IT sector increased from 160,000 to 650,000 in 5 years

• IT will cross US$ 80 billion in 2008; ICT US$ 100 billion

IT Industry: Targets for 2008 (Software)

In US$ Billion

Total Production (Export Target)

• IT Services 38.05 (23)• Software Products 19.5 (08)• ITeS 19.0 (15)• E-Business 10.0 (04)

Total 87.0 (50)

Source: MIT X Plan Study Team

Software Manpower Break-up for 2008

(In Million)

Segment MIT Study NASSCOM / McKinsey

• IT Services 0.58 ) 1.10• Software Products 0.20 )

• ITeS 1.26 ) 1.10• E-Business 0.33 )

Total 2.37 2.20

IT Manpower Projections for 2008

(in Millions)

• Software 2.2

• Hardware- Direct 1.6- Indirect 3.2

Total 7.0

Source: Task Force on HRD & McKinsey Report

Supply of IT Manpower (2000)

• Colleges Awarding Engineering Degrees 776• Colleges Awarding MCA Degrees 494• Total Colleges 1270• Total Intake 200,000 (Appx.)• IT Courses Intake 60,000 (33%)• + IITs, IIITs, IISc 7000 (1200 in IT

(courses)

Total IT Intake 73,000

Projections on Availability of IT Manpower by 2008

• Graduates 785,000

• Post-Graduates 263,000

• IITs, IIITs, IISc 12,000

Total Availability 1060,000

IT Skills in Demand

• Programmers/Engineers/Analyst/ 41%Computer Scientists

• Internet/e-Commerce Applications/Web Designers 19%

• Database Administrators/Developers11%

• Network Specialists/Telecom Engineers 14%

• Digital Media & Technical Writing 5%

• ITeS Managers/Engineers 10%

Life Skills Required

• Communication Skills/Technical Writing Skills

• Project Management/Time Management

• Team Work

• Stress Management/Emotion Management

• Multi-Ethnic Culture

• Ethics,Values & Attitude

• IQ, EQ & SQ

The Quality Issue

• Rigid and outdated course curricula• Inability to adapt course curricula to dynamic industry

requirements• Poor lab infrastructures• Limited exposure to latest tools & techniques• Limited exposure to industry problems• Poor industry linkages• Best do not come to academics to teach• Little R&D• Inability to enter into emerging areas• Problems of economic viability• No significant endowments/grants/donations

The Quality Issue (Pedagogy)

• Examination Orientation

• Insufficient grounding in theoretical concepts

• Inability to explain applied framework

• Inadequate lab/tools & techniques infrastructure

• Little real-life case studies

• Little scope for creative learning

Strategy for High-Quality High-End Education Program in ICT & Emerging Technologies

• Increase in No. of IITs/IIMs – Capacity Increase in each Institute

• Upgradation of RECs as NITs

• Consolidation of IIITs with Private Sector Involvement

• New World Class Institutes/Corporate Universities High-End ICT & Emerging Technology Education with Global Collaborations

• Distance Education through Advanced e-Learning Environment

Drivers for New Strategy

Demand Drivers

Significant Growth in New Technology Industries:

- IT- Communications- Biotechnology- Bioinformatics- Nanotechnology

• Gap In High-Quality Higher Education in India

.

• Supply Constraints

- Limited Quality Graduate Institutes

- Constraints in Capacity Increase in Existing Publicly Funded Institutes

• India’s Global Positioning

- India’s Brand Equity in ICT

- India’s Emergence as a Global R&D Hub

India’s Emergence as a Global R&D Hub

• Availability of High-Quality Low-Cost S&T Manpower

• Over 100 of Fortune 500 Companies have set-up R&D bases in India.

• These R&D bases have been remarkably cost-effective

• Over 1000 patents filed

• The new phenomenon of “brain-gain”

• Increase in demand for highly skilled resources in frontier areas of IT, S&T, and Tech

New Areas for Advanced Education

• ICT

- Microelectronics & VLSI

- Embedded Technology- Advanced Networking- Wireless Technologies- Web-Services Architectures & Applications- Advanced Database, Data-warehousing& Data-mining - e-Manufacturing- ITeS

New Areas for Advanced Education (contd.)

• Biotechnology

• Bioinformatics & Biocomputing

• Environmental Technology

• Management of ITeS/BPOs

• Advanced Technology Management

Success & Failures: Lessons Learnt

• IITs & IIMs emerged as world-class institutions• However, recent Government signals on Policy

Changes have created confusion• Capacity expansion taking time• Upgradation plan of RECs to NITs is slow• IIITs with State Government involvement is a mixed

success (IISE, Mumbai closed)• Creating research and industry linkages is a major

challenge• I2IT started with a private initiative shines as a

successful model

Summary

• India poised for an explosive growth in ICT• India emerging as a global R&D Hub• From brain drain to brain gain• Millions of jobs will be created in ICT & other

emerging technology areas• Quality issues will have to be addressed• Private Sector world class institutions will emerge

with global collaborations• India will reclaim its ancient heritage of the world’s

most advanced knowledge-based civilization called “Bharat”.