IT sector to create 25-30 lakh jobs by 2025: Prasad

New Delhi: Denying any downturn in Indian information technology sector, Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the industry will create 25-30 lakhs by 2025.

"As (the) IT minister of the nation, I completely deny and refute that there is any downturn in the employment in this sector. It is robust, slated for great growth and once digital economy ushers then you can fathom its development," Prasad said while sharing three years achievement of the Ministry of Electronics and IT. He said that the Indian IT companies have added 6 lakh jobs in last three years.

"IT companies employ 40 lakh people directly and 1.3 crore indirectly. We are bringing BPO in small towns. It is very exciting situation. Industry is growing and Nasscom has made assessment that in coming 4-5 years 20-25 lakh more jobs will be created," Prasad said.

Analysing a report submitted by McKinsey & Co at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum, Head Hunters India founder- chairman and MD K Lakshmikanth had said that job cuts in Information technology (IT) sector will be between Rs 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for the next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

On curbs over H1B visa, Prasad said that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his recent visit to the US has conveyed concerns on the issue and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also convey concerns in this regard to the US government during his visit.

He said that TeamLease analysis for 2017-18 report that IT sector hiring sentiments is positive and is up by 4 per cent in October 2016 to March 2017, compared to the previous six-month period.

TeamLease also indicated that the e-commerce and technology startup sector hiring sentiments has increased by 2 per cent, with projected 14.94 per cent job growth.

The IT minister said that investment proposal in electronics manufacturing has increased to Rs 1.43 lakh crore.

"From Rs 11,000 crore investment in 2014, total investment proposals have now increased to Rs 1.43 lakh crore in electronics manufacturing. At present, 72 mobile manufacturing companies have come. In this 1 lakh people have been direct employment and 3 lakh people indirect employment," Prasad said.

He said that investment in mobile manufacturing has increased from 18,992 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 89,756 crore in 2016-17.

The minister said that the 2.5 lakh common services centres, which provide government and other Internet based services in rural area, have generated revenue of Rs 1,800 crore, which include Rs 600 crore from Aadhaar related services.

"Apple has started production in Bangalore in a modest level. They are in touch with IT secretary for further expansion," Prasad said.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT announced a model IT tender format to be used by various government departments in procurement of IT products and services.

"There was no consistency in IT procurement. There was request from IT sector to issue a model request for proposal format," Prasad said.

Meity also announced restructuring and re-branding of Media Lab Asia as Digital India Corporation, which will function like a professional body for rolling out digital India projects mainly e-governance.

"It will implement Digital India in a professional way. We are going to hire from private sector. It will be very good platform professionally managed with corporate architecture. NeGD (National e-governance division)," he said.

Government plans to hire professionals in the field of cyber security and launch National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) in June, he added. The minister said that government started early preparation to check cyber attacks and India was least effected by ransomware.

"Hardly 200 locations were effected and they were standalone computers. We are taking focused measures to improve cyber security ecosystem," Prasad said.