Kolkata, May 29: The state’s information and technology sector is growing faster than the national average, attracting a pool of talent from other sectors. However, this trend has left other manufacturng sectors gasping for skilled and quality manpower.
It has been noticed that top scorers at the state’s joint entrance examinations make a beeline for the IT sector, preferring it over other core disciplines like civil, mechanical, electrical engineering etc. IT offers better salaries.
A quick survey of the courses offered in some of the new private engineering colleges show that many have not bothered to introduce departments on core subjects. Among them are the Institute of Engineering & Management and B P Poddar Institute of Management & Technology. It is also seen that those who fare better in the joint entrance exams prefer IT degrees. In 2005-06, students who opted for IT in the MCKV Institute of Engineering & Technology had ranked between 4,443 and 9,430. Those who opted for automobile engineering ranked between 7,290 and 18,942. This, in spite of the fact the MCKV Institute is one the few colleges that offers automobile engineering and that the automobile industry is booming now.
The West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT) offers an undergraduate engineering course only in IT. But, in the four other streams of biotechnology, bio informatics, computer science and engineering, natural science, humanities and management, it offers a post-graduate course.
The placement scenario also reflects the skewed demand for education in this course. The undergraduate IT course has 70 seats, of which 51 students were recruited on campus placements in the year 2005-06. In contrast, only 17 students out of 115 in the PG courses (including PG-IT) bagged jobs in the on-campus recruitment drive.
Placement in-charge at Jadavpur University Dr Siddharth Bhattacharya said, “The basic salary for fresh engineers, irrespective of the stream, is an annual pay package of Rs 3.25 lakh in any IT company. That amount is around Rs 2 lakh for a core sector graduate.” Prof Samiran Chattopadhyay of the IT department said there are other factors that prompt students to avoid core engineering courses. He said IT offers better lifestyle, better chances of working abroad and the opportunity of being associated with multinational corporations. At the same time, IT companies like TCS sponsor various events on campus, creating awareness about the company and the scope of work.
Srinil Majumdar, an electrical engineering graduate of the 2006 batch from St Thomas College, said: “The scope in core sectors is limited, the pay is less and opportunities for growth and placements outside the country are fewer.” Majumdar works at Infosys.
Biswadip Gupta, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s eastern region wing, said the biggest challenge for industry is people. “Even if we get people, we are unable to retain them,” he said. Gupta admitted that core engineering sectors have not been able to market themselves well.
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