Workforce in Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry: Exploring NSS Employment and Unemployment Survey
The present paper examines the situation of software workers in India wherein the paper focuses on the disparities across sub-population distinguished socio-economic and regional characteristics and also attempt is made find the determinants of IT workforce within the household level characteristics.
Employment, Exclusion and 'Merit' in the Indian IT Industry
The Indian information technology (IT) industry has been frequently hailed by the media, the state, and industry leaders as a significant new source of high quality and well-paid employment for the educated youth of India. With the recent rapid growth of the industry and expansion in the size of the workforce, the sector already employs more than one million people and is projected to generate many more jobs over the next few years. More important, the IT industry is often represented as providing employment opportunities to wider sections of the population than has been the case for most managerial, professional, and white collar jobs. Industry leaders frequently argue that because of the shortage of technically qualified people, they have had to look far and wide for workers, in the process drawing in many people from non-middle class/ upper caste backgrounds. Linked to this, a common narrative holds that employment does not depend on social connections (influence) or “ascriptive” status (reservations) – unlike in the public sector and “old economy” companies – but is based entirely on “merit”. However, the social reality appears to be somewhat different. In this paper, I present data from a study of the IT workforce in Bangalore and draw on other sources to show that the social profile of IT workers is largely urban, middle class, and high or middle caste. The processes of exclusion that operate in the education system and in the recruitment process to create this relative social homogeneity are delineated. Finally, I discuss the ideology of merit that dominates the industry in the context of the recent debate on reservations. 1
Karnataka: The Muted Anti-Reservation Agitation
The current protests against reservation in Karnataka may appear to be largely political in nature. But the protests overlook the historical nature and the wider repercussions in the polity, society and economy that the issue of reservations has had in the state. As a group, the "other backward classes" have come to constitute a politically significant section of the populace. But even as the protests unfold over reservations in government-run higher education institutions, these overlook the fact that the OBC community is in a state of flux and divisions within them indicate that a new social coalition is in the making.