The advent of globalisation, India''s prowess in Information Technology and a strong educational system are increasing the pace of the information-communications- technology (ICT) revolution. The signs are everywhere; the phenomenal rate of mobile adoption, increased ICT investments by enterprises for competing effectively, small and medium business investing in ICT to become suppliers to global MNCs and state governments looking to bridge the socio-economic disparity and providing effective citizen-centric services are some examples.

All of these are showing signs of an unprecedented impact on the economic development of the country. Interestingly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Looking ahead, Gartner predicts that Indian ICT spending will surpass $54.8 billion by 2008, and achieve a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 19 per cent. With this growth comes the challenge of a growing shortfall of networking professionals in the country. Networking forms the backbone of the ICT revolution.

A networking professional can be defined as a person capable of installing, configuring and troubleshooting network devices for the internet and server connectivity. This would include planning the basic wired infrastructure to support network traffic and monitoring network performance and isolating failures

While there has been a growth in the number of IT professionals in India there is an increasing shortfall of networking professionals. This is likely to have a detrimental effect on ICT adoption across all sectors in the future. The industry and the government need to work together to address this shortfall and sustain the ICT revolution that will take India into the next phase of economic growth and development.

Let''s take a look at some of the sectors that are driving the demand for networking professionals and reasons for it.

Government
Increased focus on e-governance under the ''national e-governance action plan (NEGAP), state-level wide area networks (SWANs) have been identified as part of the core infrastructure for supporting these e-governance initiatives and the Department of IT (DIT) has earmarked a significant outlay for supporting this activity, which will cover the entire cost of establishment, operation and maintenance of state-based WANs. The next few years will see a lot of state governments invest in building SWANs that will be the backbone for delivering e-governance.

ITeS / BPO
During the course of 2004-05, the ITeS-BPO sector in India witnessed a growth of 44.5 per cent to reach $5.2 billion. The ITeS-BPO segment contributes nearly 30 per cent of the total IT-ITeS exports from India and is expected to clock revenues of $7.3 billion in FY 2005-06. Besides, a new high-end knowledge-based BPO called knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) has also emerged.

Areas with significant latent potential for KPO in India include healthcare (pharma and biotechnology), legal support (intellectual property - R&D) and the entertainment sector (animation and graphics). Networking technologies will form the fundamental foundation for growth in all these areas.

BFSI
The Banking and Financial Services (BFS) sector has traditionally been a high IT spender and contributed 22 per cent of the total IT spends India during the course of 2004-05. This amounted to totaled $1.63 billion. As banks move on to the next stage of automation and operate in a more global framework, this vertical is expected to see a substantial increase in spends on IT and networking technologies.

Telecom
In April 2005, India crossed the figure of 100 million in terms of number of phone lines, thereby becoming the fifth-largest telecom network in the world. As of end October, 2005, India''s tele-density (fixed and mobile combined) stood at over 10 per cent and is expected to reach a level of 25 per cent by 2010. Add to this the fast rollout of broadband networks by operators to provide triple-play services.(See: Convergence: Triple play broadband) All of these highlight the growing demand for networking professionals to deploy, maintain and run these telecom networks.

Retail
AT Kearney has identified India as the second most attractive retail destination from among 30 emerging markets (October 2004 FDI Investment Confidence Index). Although estimates may vary, AT Kearney estimated it to be $90.25 billion and poised to double by the end of 2005. Further, projected investments in this sector have been slated as being between $451.23 million and 564.04 million in the next two-three years and over $4.51 billion by 2010. With the government contemplating measures to open up the sector through phased FDI, one can expect a boom in Indian retail - which will also see a greater role of networking technology and applications. (See: Retail''s IT hook).

Having identified the key sectors that will drive demand for networking professionals, let''s look at the shortfall and how it''s likely to increase.

A recent report by e-value serve suggests that the current demand for networking professionals in India stands over two lakhs. However, only 140,000 are currently available indicating a deficit of more than 50,000 professionals. This deficit is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.64 per cent till 2010.

In short, this current demand-supply gap is expected to widen further, posing serious concerns for the growth of BFSI, telecom and BPO / ITeS verticals in the country. BFSI, which currently accounts for 20 per cent of the total demand networking professionals is expected to witness an additional demand of over 41,000 networking professionals during 2005-10, driven by regulatory compliance.

Telecom sector, which currently accounts for around 16 per cent of the total demand of networking professionals, is expected to witness an increasing adoption of disruptive technologies creating an additional demand of over 75,000 professionals during 2005-2010. BPO / ITeS is the segment that will witness the highest growth in the demand for networking professionals, growing at a CAGR of 35 per cent during the period 2005-2010. Due to an increase in technology adoption, the demand for networking professionals in the retail sector is also expected to increase considerably.

With the aim of bridging the demand-supply gap, Cisco Systems and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in February 2006, signed a memorandum of understanding to provide the Cisco Networking Academy Programme in non-profit educational institutions across Andhra Pradesh.

As per agreement, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Colleges of Engineering in Hyderabad, Anantapur and Kakinada will be accredited as Regional Academies. These academies will further identify and accredit 250 non-profit educational institutions as Local Academies under them within a period of two years. The academies will impart networking education to around 25,000 students every year.

There is an urgent need to address this shortfall in networking professionals if India is to sustain the ICT revolution growth and subsequent economic growth. It is imperative that we re-look at the prevalent education system and the technical curriculum being taught at our universities. It is also important that the industry and the government collaborate to address this shortfall.