A total of 1,100 seats have been allocated under Central Government’s India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) for creation of employment opportunities and promotion of BPO/ITES under Digital India programme in Chhattisgarh, top Government officials said on Saturday.
Till now, two companies for a total of 500 seats have been declared successful to set up BPO/ITES operations at Raipur, the officials added.
The Union Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), has notified the “India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS)” under Digital India Programme, which provides financial support in the form of Viability Gap Funding to eligible companies.
The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous society of (MeitY) has been designated as the Nodal Agency for implementation of the IBPS.
The IBPS aims to incentivize establishment of 48,300 seats in respect of BPO/ITeS operations across the country with information made available by the Ministry of the eligible seat-slab among each State and maximum number of seats per bidder in a State.
Notably, the STPI in Bhilai had been providing incubation services to start-ups and SMEs.
On the other hand, it may be recalled that in February last year, The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) had announced that it would establish its ‘Incubation Centre’ in Chhattisgarh.
Chief Minister Raman Singh during his visit to Bengaluru where he was as chief guest to attend 'Vision Summit- 2015' organised by the India Electronics and Semi-Conductors' Association (I.E.S.A) in Bangalore, Karnataka had stated that he had met the Chairman and senior scientists of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the representatives of NASSCOM during the 'Vision Summit -2015'.
Singh had stated that NASSCOM will open an ‘Incubation Centre’ in Chhattisgarh which will provide better guidance, technical knowledge and information related to the industry besides other help to the IT students.
Efforts will be made to provide technical and financial assistance to the students for entrepreneurship development, Singh said.
The ‘Incubation Centre’ will serve as a good platform for students, said Singh, adding, the IT majors and investors wishing to invest in IT sector are likely to visit Chhattisgarh during the coming days.
Satisfied by his tour, Singh had stated that discussions were also held with the investors regarding investment in Defense sector in Chhattisgarh.
Representatives of India’s well known companies present in the ‘Vision Summit 2015’ have evinced interest for making investment in new sectors in the State.
The investors present at the Summit believed that Chhattisgarh is a better place for IT industry,' Singh had stated.
In April last year, the Chhattisgarh government and NASSCOM had also signed a MoU, in which NASSCOM agreed to provide necessary guidance to State's Information Technology Department for promoting Information Technology and Skill Development of youth in Chhattisgarh.
The Chhattisgarh Government will be hiring highly qualified system integrators for making assessment besides providing training and ensuring placement of fresh IT and ITeS graduates under the “Mukhya Mantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojana”, officials informed.
The “Mukhya Mantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojana” project is a major initiative taken by Chhattisgarh government aimed to improve placement rates of fresh college graduates of three and four year degree courses in IT and ITeS sectors.
The program envisages providing training to students in such areas of aptitude that are required to successfully navigate the selection process of IT and BPM employers and secure placement. The training will be designed with a view on the in-demand skills and abilities in contemporary employment market. The training will be delivered by leading trainers who will also make necessary arrangements for the employment opportunities for placing a minimum of 60% of the total students undergoing the training program.
Notably, Chhattisgarh has already established itself as a major educational hub with presence of premier institutions like NIT, IIM, NlU and AIIMS. It also, has many other world class educational institutions for professional programmes such as Engineering, MCA and MBA as well as in Humanities, Commerce and the Sciences, officials informed.
However, there is a gap between the number of students graduating and the number of students getting placed. There is a tangible gap between present state of aptitude and the required aptitude for getting selected in prestigious organizations, they informed. Hence, there is a need to establish the platform which could increase the employment opportunities. It is an observed trend that most employers in IT and ITeS sector have rigorous training programmes that provide the necessary technical skills that are required to perform the jobs for which they hire. The focus, when these employers hire, is on assessing a range of abilities.
The general curriculum of our education system has been focussed on imparting technical skills. However, aptitude is an area which tends to get ignored and thus students from Chhattisgarh tend to lose out to fresh graduates from larger cities which offer better opportunities for schooling and more exposure, officials informed.
Therefore, imparting abilities training to help them prepare for the selection process in a short and concentrated capsule is expected to improve greatly the chances of the students of Chhattisgarh securing employment with some of the best employers in the IT/BPM space. The training will also be complemented with efforts to establish the credibility of Chhattisgarh in providing quality talent as well as to ensure that reputed organizations come to Chhattisgarh for recruitment. This may start the trend where students, corporate and government of Chhattisgarh are mutually benefitted, officials informed.