Information technology (IT) companies are likely to hire more than 30,000 people—data scientists, linguists, sociologists and technologists—this year, in a bid to reduce the skill gap that has emerged from the need to provide clients with social media, mobility, analytics and cloud, or SMAC, technology solutions in addition to plain vanilla ones. SMAC technologies are becoming critical to the growth of the Indian IT industry. Though SMAC professionals may currently account for a mere 1-2% of the 3.1 million total workforce of the Indian IT industry, they contribute 5-10% of the total revenue of IT companies. Research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) estimates that Indian IT vendors will generate at least $225 billion (around Rs.13.5 trillion) in SMAC-related revenue by 2020.

Read the Live Mint news report here.