News: Telecom sector to create 12 mn jobs in the coming 5 years

Recruitment

Telecom sector to create 12 mn jobs in the coming 5 years

In the wake of ambitious Digital India initiative, Indian telecom sector is likely to accelerate employment opportunities in the coming five years.
Telecom sector to create 12 mn jobs in the coming 5 years

Indian telecom industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. Over the past decade, the telecom sector has experienced rapid growth owing to regulatory liberalization, making telecom as one of the major catalysts in India’s growth story. 

The most recent news is that this sector has planned a whopping 12 million jobs in the coming five years in the wake of the Digital India initiative.  This is a reason to cheer for many professionals aspiring to pursue their career in this industry.

Lt Gen (Retd) SP Kochhar, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) chief executive, said

The ongoing Digital India program including Smart City and Make in India initiatives are likely to help telecom sector create 11 to 12 million job opportunities in the next five years, primarily in the services segment".

TSSC is a joint initiative of the government and private sector. It is supported by the National Skill Development Council (NSDC), Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) and lobby groups such as the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Providers Association of India (AUSPI). 

Digital India which was launched by PM Narendra Modi in 2014 is an ambitious initiative to digitize India by making Internet available to all villages. It also includes promotion of e-governance, e-banking, e. education and e-health thus transforming India into a knowledge economy.

In July 2015, PM Modi also launched Skill India Mission with an objective to give utmost importance to skilled manpower to meet the demands of jobs in the country and to solve the Great Indian Talent Conundrum. He also stated that India would have a surplus manpower of 40 to 50 million in the coming decade. 

The group that trains the potential workforce in telecom sector together with private firms, TSSC is well prepared to meet the country’s growing workforce requirements. Early this year, TSSC also submitted its reports to India’s apex planning body, NITI Aayog, recommending sector-friendly policies to bring in new job opportunities. It also has planned to organize employment fairs across the country starting with the north-east part of India, Guwahati. The council has also trained as many as 70,000 individuals in the current fiscal as of October-end, and the number is expected to go little over 125,000 by March 31, 2017. 

TSSC effort in creating ample jobs is owing to the government’s efforts to increase penetration in rural areas along with the growth in the smartphone numbers and internet usage.

Kochhar also said,

I have a strong feeling that, with the rising impact of technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) across Digital India, Smart City and Make in India programs, the demand for skilled workforce in the next five years will surpass the 8.3 million figure.”

Recently, the group has also partnered with top spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s non-profit organization Art of Living Foundation to spread about skill training and assessment across rural and semi-urban areas via the latter's centres. 

Read full story

Topics: Recruitment, Skilling, Technology

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?