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.