The Times of India (Delhi edition)
To tide over the economic slowdown, corporate India is realising the need to create a technical infrastructure that reiterates the need for qualified technical people in the corporate world.
Talking about the emerging research areas in IT firms that are generating scope and opportunities, Manish Gupta, associate director, IBM India Research Lab, says, “Traditionally, research in IT companies focussed primarily on software and hardware. IT service, which is a later entrant in the business portfolio, is now becoming a hotbed of research.” Explaining this further, he says, “Global markets are increasingly service-based economies and IT is the backbone of almost all service industries. IT offers scope for research and innovation as everything, starting from service design to delivery, requires more efficient and scaleable methods.”
“IT organisations now need a skilled workforce, like those with a PhD and MTech degree” informs Gupta. There is a need for people who can leverage the application of technical concepts to address the challenges of a complex business environment.
Elaborating on this, Anjaneyulu Kuchibhotla, research manager, HP Labs India says, “Environment, resource conservation, and carbon emissions are the biggest challenges of our times and IT has a critical role to play. The challenge essentially is to develop an IT industry with a very light carbon footprint of its own that drives the reduction of carbon emissions throughout the global economy. Areas like these do not directly map to subjects of study in Master’s or PhD programmes but most of them require specialised understanding of relevant areas and their applications to these challenges.”
Gupta adds, “As research is becoming more and more interdisciplinary, IT companies are providing research opportunities in varied streams like chemistry, computer science, engineering, physics, mathematics, service science and systems. Also, there has been a tremendous interlock of different streams that is helping to expand the spectrum of research. As IT companies work with a multitude of industries, researchers with diverse backgrounds also have the opportunity to work in such firms today.”
Adding to this, P Anandan, managing director, Microsoft Research India, says, “Research opportunities are fast emerging as IT firms are realising the need for innovation in order to move up the value chain. Moreover, IT firms are investing to develop partnerships with the academia and government to develop a strong research ecosystem. This has progressively impacted the number of engineers who pursue PhDs. Today, for instance, the number of Phds in computer science has almost tripled as compared to the last three years.”
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