Bangalore IT Jobs moving to Pune and Chennai

 
The growth of the IT sector in Karnataka has slowed down, lost jobs to other states and would lose more jobs in the days to come. Courtesy — the global meltdown and more importantly the apathy of the state government.

Infosys Technologies CEO S Gopalakrishnan and director (HR) T V Mohandas Pai said this on Thursday during the consultative meeting on "the implications of the global financial crisis on the state's economy'' convened by the state government.
According to Pai, the state has lost 45,000 jobs during the current fiscal year to places like Chennai and Pune. "Next year (2009-2010), around 30,000 to 35,000 jobs would be lost, if things don't change,'' he cautioned.

He compared employment generation in the IT sector in the previous year to the current year and predicted what would happen in the next financial year. "During 2007-08, 50,000 jobs were added and this year it would probably be around 35,000 jobs. But, in the next year, 30,000 to 35,000 jobs will be lost, if things don't change,'' said Pai. He said the IT industry provided direct employment to 5.5 lakh people and its exports from Karnataka stood at Rs 60,000 crore.
Gopalakrishnan admitted the IT sector had slowed down and it would affect recruitment. "IT sector will not be 'a best employer' for the next two years. Graduates in the next two years would be hit due to this. They won't find the IT sector attractive,'' he said.
What are the reasons? "IT is still growing and growth requires expansion. Growth is happening in other states, but not in Karnataka. It is this lack of growth which has impacted us,'' Gopalakrishnan said.

Pai blasted the government for the prevailing situation. He was of the view that Karnataka has a bad reputation for investments and multinational companies are not coming forward to invest here.
Both of them were of the view that clearances and regulatory mechanism was the biggest hindrance for investments. They wanted the government to remove bottlenecks, simplify procedures, including SEZ regulations, and make single window agency attractive.
Economist Sudipto Mandal said the meltdown would hit IT industry, garment exports and manufacturing industries.

Former IT secretary Vivek Kulkarni said lot of IT companies had lost money. He said technology companies with lot of intellectual property rights were not getting funds.
Mandal urged the government to spend on infrastructure and social sectors. Kulkarni felt there should an improvement in the employability of graduates and the government should come out with a policy on SMEs, spread financial literacy and speed up projects.
FICCI president Rajiv Chandrashekar said government should create infrastructure and jobs and must diversify the economy by attracting sectors that have not set shop here.