Whoever predicted an apocalypse of India's information technology (IT) sector a year ago, in the rising tide of newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and Machine Learning, are a disappointed lot. After tepid job creation in 2017 and early 2018, the domestic IT industry, one of India's top employment generators until a few years ago, has risen like a phoenix from the ashes.
Domestic IT majors are once again ramping up their operations, thanks to large deals coming their way. This has led to a sudden jump in the recruitment of techies as Indian companies embraced emerging technologies. Besides hiring afresh, they have also begun to spend on upskilling their employees. As per a recent report, India's top ten IT companies added over 1.1 lakh engineers to their workforce in 2018, posting a four-fold increase from the previous year. Of course, the hiring by Indian IT companies in the US as per the instructions from the Donald Trump administration may have pushed up the numbers, though.
This is good news as it comes in the backdrop of a major lay-off season in last two years, which saw companies handing over pink-slips to over half-a-lakh employees. As per the latest numbers, India's $167 billion software services industry has employed 3.7 million people by December-end, with the top ten companies accounting for nearly 40% of them.
