There is a requirement of skilling more than two million new and existing talent workforce in the next three years and will be a daunting task according to a discussion paper commissioned by BML Munjal University, Gurugram.It is knocking hard at the gates of the Indian technology industry and academic institutions. However, this challenge is not one that is India’s alone. In an era of rapid exponential technologies, this need is being felt across the world. The paper titled, ‘Reimagine the future of work with new age opportunities—Emergence of Exponential Technologies and Role Opportunities for the Indian Technology Workforce’ was released by one of the founder promoters of of Hero Group, Sunil Kant Munjal, who is also the Chancellor, BML Munjal University at a conclave on AI & Future of Work on January 24 in Delhi.
By 2020 end, there will be 6.1 billion smartphone users, 20 billion IoT devices in the world and more than 2.2 billion social media users globally. So security testing will continue to be area of high growth Robotic Process Automation can yield cost reduction of 35%-65% for on-shore operations and 10%-20% for off-shore delivery. RPA improves service levels with enhanced process quality, speed, governance, security & continuity and will be deployed increasingly.
Authored by Sameer Dhanrajani, CEO, AIQRATE Advisory & Consulting, and Dr. Vishal Talwar, Dean – School of Management, BML Munjal University and Kritagya Jain, MBA Business Analytics, BML Munjal University, the paper says, “The time is now to synergise the efforts of enterprises and academic institutions and to leverage India’s demographic structure into a true dividend for the nation. The Indian technology industry will see a net increase in headcount and there will be demand for new talent with expertise on exponential technologies skills.”
The paper in its research found routine office jobs declined from 26% to 21% between 1999 to 2019, leading to a loss of 7 million jobs, post the financial crisis, things have worsened for unskilled jobs, which reduced by 55%. The composition of high-end jobs is changing; 49% of the top quartile skills require new age technology skills. AI/ML opportunities are up by 20x and other allied exponential technologies by 12x.
The multiple opportunities that this future of work with new age opportunities will unfold is as interesting as it gets. Technology Industry is massive and will employ 4.4 million professionals by 2021 according to NASSCOM estimates. By 2020 end, the total data market will double from 2015 levels and the revenue mix from digital technology industry will rise 60% to USD 4 trillion by 2025.. The paper based on review of existing information says that in next three years exponential technologies will impact business greatly and AI and Machine Learning will constitute 63% of this, Cloud Computing Technologies – 55%, Internet of Things -48%, Robotic Process Automation -37%, and cyber security 29%. For this The job market of technology industry is changing as well. New roles like Machine learning Experts. Data Scientists, Digital Marketers, Cloud Engineers, Mobile Product Developers are emerging. Data analyst of today is data engineer of tomorrow. High level of automation, payment by task, short term contracts/retainers will replace secure tenured jobs of today.
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There is an expected supply of 7 million people for Indian technology industry that consists of graduates,PGs, diploma holders and PhDs, but overall employability is 18% only. Only 12% of the students clear the corporate process for recruitment assessment. This large pool needs urgent attention in terms of relevant skilling in the wide spread technological areas in order to become employable in Technology Industry. The Indian education system needs contemporary programs and curriculums. Nearly 1.5 – 2 million of the existing tech workers and professionals need to go through reskilling process Growing demand for the exponential tech professionals is putting extreme pressure on Indian Technology industry to remain competitive at global level.
Tenured technology organizations are sitting at a large problematic bulge in the middle.The overall skilling requirement is the highest any Indian industry has witnessed, with more than 2 mn people to be trained. India is also facing the challenge of having a large number of higher academic institutions but a very low employability of students.
To overcome this, dynamic, fungible and flexible course curriculum has to be incorporated for exponential technology programs. Also, personalized learning techniques need to be incorporated to make faster deployment. Indian technology industry needs to have benchmarking of standardization and best practices of exponential technology projects and engagements.
