The New Jobs Generator

Besides helping businesses run more efficiently and grow

faster, and getting people in remote and backward areas connected to the rest of

the world, communications and networking are doing a lot of other things too.

One of them is generating immense employment opportunities. Many of us believe

that for a country like India, employment is a much larger issue, and one which

is closer to the common man’s heart.

According to estimates, just the communications-enabled

services like medical transcription services and call centers, will employ about

12 lakh people in the next six-years. Similarly, telecom software, which is a

new phenomenon for India, will be another employment generator for software

professionals. No doubt, with a mushrooming of ISPs and call centers,

announcement of a liberal DLD policy which allows multiple operators, cellphone

operator space getting more active, the DTH coming up, and so much more

happening, communications will surely be a big employer in a not so distant

future. There are not too many opportunities right now for top slots, but for

middle and junior level technical as well as non-technical people–the demand

is increasing.

It’s a very interesting phase. On one hand, productivity is

a major issue at gigantic organizations like BSNL, MTNL, VSNL, and ITI, which

employ lakhs of people, and Voluntary Retirement Schemes are being offered to

encourage non-performing, non-profitable employees to leave. On the other hand,

these organizations are getting into newer service areas and on the lookout for

more people. Clearly, in these places, the mantra is to upgrade and enhance to

latest and current skills or make way for those who have them.

Ten years ago computers were seen as a tool in the hands of

the rich, which would do little for the poor. If computers have done nothing

else for the country, then at least one thing which nobody can deny, is the

amount of employment they have generated.

Obviously this will result in acceptance of communications and networking

among the masses, and thereby less opposition to it, even at lower levels of

society. One hopes that this will provide our political leaders some incentive

to think and do about communications in the country.