IT companies to adopt colleges in Dharwad

IT companies to adopt colleges in Dharwad
The Times News Network
By R Raghavendra/TNN

Bangalore: Even as the state government is making a serious attempt to promote Hubli-Dharwad as a good Tier II location for IT and ITeS companies by conducting the IT investors meet during this weekend, NASSCOM is gearing up to get more from this event. In order to make graduates in North Karnataka 'IT-ready', the taskforce on IT Workforce Development within NASSCOM is ensuring that IT companies come forward and adopt a few colleges in Dharwad.
NASSCOM, along with the Department of Technical Education, government of Karnataka, is organising the first ever ITeS/IT Industry-Academia Meet in Dharwad on the same day when the IT investors meet would take place in Hubli. On this occasion, Sun Microsystems and MindTree Consulting have come forward to adopt a few colleges in order to equip them on industry requirements.
"We have identified several Tier II cities in India where such initiatives would make a huge difference. This is the first time it would take place in Karnataka. It is initiatives like these that will help us ensure that India would not have a talent crunch of 5 lakh people by 2010 as estimated by the NASSCOM-Mckinsey report,'' Kiran Karnik, president of NASSCOM told The Times of India.
Over the last few months the IT industry has made it known on various platforms that it is unimpressed with the quality of graduates coming out of colleges especially in Tier II towns. Lack of good soft skills, bad communication and problem solving skills and knowledge on algorithms are some of the common woes of the IT companies.
According to Prof K Basavaraju, director, Department of Technical Education, government of Karnataka: "Our graduate intake every year is 45,000 students, whereas the output is currently 28,000 students. This meet would help students understand the needs of the industry in today's context directly from the industry leaders.'' With a 72% literacy rate, Dharwad prides itself for being the centre of high quality education and has 16 engineering colleges beside two medical colleges.

NRIs have sought land for IT City: Shettar

Hubli: It is destination Hubli for the IT/ITeS sector in Karnataka now. The state government is open to the idea of setting up an integrated IT City depending on the response from entrepreneurs attending the IT Investors' Meet here on Saturday.
Revenue minister Jagdish Shettar said on Wednesday that some eight to 10 NRIs based in Manipal, who are engaged in software development for export, had approached him to explore the possibility for allotment of land in Hubli for the establishment of an IT City. Addressing a meet-the-press programme organised here by the Dharwad District Working Journalists' Association, he said if they form a consortium and identify a piece of land, KIADB will certainly help them out from the 400 acres already acquired by it. Shettar said that the NRIs are attending the investors' meet on Saturday. They will be shown the available KIADB land in Rayapur and Mammigatti on NH4 and Kelgeri near Dharwad.