India has become synonymous with tech innovation in the past few years. The progress is attributed to the country’s growing startup ecosystem and the government’s robust push toward digitization through initiatives such as Digital India. To make the most of this tech potential, both multinationals and Indian firms are already ramping up their recruitment plans, aiming to hire about 200,000 employees from India by the end of 2022-23 to lead their teams.
In this article, we explore four critical drivers that make India the richest source of tech talent for global companies.
Robust Government Support
The Indian government has termed the current 2020s decade as the “techade” (a decade of technology). With this mindset, it has constantly promoted numerous initiatives such as the Accessible India Campaign and Mobile App, BHIM (Bharat Interface For Money), Agrimarket App, CERT-IN, and DigiLocker, among others, under the Digital India mission. This has enabled people to maximize their access to emerging digital tools and technologies in the country.
The government has also taken many laudable initiatives to boost the startup ecosystem and promote a culture of entrepreneurship in the country. To begin with, Make in India was the first such initiative launched in 2014, aiming to attract local and global investments, transforming India into a global manufacturing hub.
Startup India and Stand Up India are specific initiatives designed to boost entrepreneurship and job creation at the grassroots level, including financial assistance and technical training for underprivileged masses. These moves demonstrate how the government is striving to create a tech-driven economy for the youth, preparing them to compete at a global level.
Growing Startup Ecosystem
Being home to the fastest-growing unicorns, India has emerged as the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade recognized 61,400 startups in 2022 alone, a testament to the country’s startup boom.
With tech at the core of these companies, they offer lucrative growth opportunities to graduates through jobs in the information technology (IT) domain. Working with startups enables young professionals to acquire new skills and adapt to the changing work environment. The startup culture pushes the tech talent to develop into highly agile and competitive professionals best suited for global IT giants.
World-class Engineering Education
Over the years, India has emerged as a global hub for engineering talent, producing more than 15 lakhs engineering graduates annually. This is attributed to the country’s unmatched education infrastructure, including top institutions like IITs, NITs, and IIITs that create the best tech talent who have the potential to get recognized globally for their exceptional contributions to the industry.
Leading technocrats like Yamini Rangan (CEO, HubSpot), Roshni Nadar (CEO, HCL), Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft), Shantanu Narayen (CEO, Adobe), and Rajeev Suri (CEO, Nokia) are testaments to India’s world-class education ecosystem. They inspire many young engineers and tech aspirants to scale their careers to new heights, hence India is poised to create more successful technocrats in the years to come.
English-speaking Population
India is home to the second largest English-speaking population in the world, after China. Indians’ ability to speak English fluently makes them exceptional communicators. Another major factor behind their excellent communication skills is the multi-linguistic culture they grow up in.
India has a total of 22 different languages and thousands of dialects. From childhood to adulthood, people learn or at least develop familiarity with multiple languages, further strengthening their communication skills and making them more confident and influential speakers.
From the U.S. to Europe, most global companies have expanded their business to India to leverage the country’s soaring tech talent. This commendable progress indicates that India is generating some of the best tech talents in the world, and will continue to do so in the future.
(Madhav Nair is Senior Vice President of Engineering at ZoomInfo)