This article is based on reporting originally published by Business Standard (circa May 2017). Figures and organizational statements reflect conditions at the time of publication.
A Structural Shift in IT Hiring
India’s information technology (IT) services industry was undergoing one of its most significant hiring transformations in nearly a decade. Rather than recruiting engineers for traditional application development and maintenance work, firms were actively seeking candidates with expertise in cloud computing, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—the areas where enterprise clients were increasingly directing their budgets.
The shift reflects a broader industry reality: clients that once signed multi-million dollar, multi-year contracts for bespoke software builds are now favoring iterative, smaller-scale digital engagements. That means IT vendors need engineers who can advise and co-create alongside clients rather than simply execute against a fixed specification—a fundamentally different working model.
Hiring Numbers and Industry Expectations
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) projected that the Indian IT sector would hire approximately 150,000 people in 2017. Among the major players:
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced plans to recruit more than 20,000 engineers.
- Infosys similarly indicated it would bring on more than 20,000 new hires.
- Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra did not publicly disclose specific hiring targets at the time.
An Infosys spokesperson summarized the changing philosophy succinctly: “The IT industry is surely witnessing a change in hiring patterns with unconventional, high-value graduates with differential skills likely to be more attractive.”
Reskilling at Scale: The Bigger Challenge
New hiring alone cannot close the skills gap. The Indian IT industry employed approximately 3.9 million people at the time, and firms recognized that reskilling close to half of that workforce in emerging technologies was just as important as recruiting fresh graduates.
Nasscom partnered with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on a structured program designed to reskill between 1.5 and 2 million employees across the sector over five years. The joint initiative analyzed job postings to identify eight emerging technology domains and 55 distinct job profiles linked to those domains—providing a concrete framework for curriculum development and talent planning.
Nasscom Senior Vice-President Sangeeta Gupta described the next phase of the program: “We will enable our member companies to reskill more people and curate courses depending on the member company’s demand. We will play the role of curated aggregator and identify courses on digital technologies from global institutions such as Udacity, Stanford University, etc.”
Why Traditional Colleges Are Not Enough
Industry analysts pointed out a critical bottleneck: academic institutions had not yet updated their curricula or lab infrastructure to match enterprise demand for cloud-native development, robotic process automation (RPA), or AI engineering.
Rajesh Gupta, Partner at ISG (a technology research and advisory firm), explained the dependency: “Colleges do not have the right training facilities as of now. Companies have to skill their employees in cloud computing or robotic process automation scripting. Once the platforms being created by IT firms on these new technologies are mature, they can help in reskilling in a big way.”
Nasscom President R. Chandrasekhar echoed the urgency: “While reskilling is imperative, there is a clear shortage of talent in skills, both in India and globally. But it is hard to give a number.”
How Firms Are Sourcing Specialized Talent
Companies are experimenting with non-traditional recruitment channels to identify candidates with niche technical skills before they graduate. TCS launched a platform called Campus Commune, which engages engineering and science students through technical challenges and contests. Roughly one-tenth of TCS’s specialized campus recruitment for niche skills flowed through this platform. Competitions hosted on Campus Commune included:
- CodeVita – a programming contest
- TESTimony – a testing-focused challenge
- Enginx – an engineering problem-solving event
- Hackquest – a hackathon-style competition
These contest-based pipelines allow firms to assess practical engineering ability rather than relying solely on academic credentials—an important distinction when the required skills are too new to appear on any standard university transcript.
Key Technology Areas Driving Demand
According to Nasscom’s analysis at the time, the technology domains generating the strongest hiring and reskilling demand included:
- Cloud computing – migrating workloads from on-premise infrastructure to public, private, or hybrid cloud environments
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning – building predictive models and automating decision-making
- Big data and analytics – processing and deriving insight from large, varied datasets
- Internet of Things (IoT) – connecting and managing distributed physical devices
- Digital experience / UX engineering – designing applications optimized for mobile and web interfaces
- Robotic process automation (RPA) – scripting bots to handle repetitive business processes
What This Means for Engineers Today
While this reporting dates from 2017, the underlying dynamics it describes have only accelerated. The emphasis on cloud-native skills, AI/ML engineering, and data analytics has grown considerably in the years since. Engineers working in or entering the IT services industry should treat continuous learning in these domains as a professional baseline, not a differentiator.
For organizations, the lesson from this period is equally durable: hiring alone cannot sustain a skills transformation at the scale the industry requires. Structured internal reskilling programs, partnerships with online learning platforms, and contest-based talent identification are all components of a sustainable talent strategy.