As the Indian IT sector faces its worst crisis being battered by global slowdown coupled with the Satyam fraud, the state’s IT minister Debesh Das is already making dire predictions, saying West Bengal would be far behind the target this year so far the number of fresh recruitments in the IT sector are concerned.

“In the last financial year, 15,000 IT professionals were recruited. This year, we believe the numbers will come down 5,000-10,000 for the financial year ending March 2009,” said IT Minister Debesh Das, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of INFOCOM 08-09.

The growth rate from the export revenue in 2007-2008, which stood at 46 per cent, is also going to take a hit, he said.

The financial year of 2007-2008 saw a rise in the number of fresh recruits from 12,000 in the previous year to 15,000 in last year.

“India and West Bengal have been hit by the global meltdown as we were heavily dependent on outsourcing from the US,” he said

Sources in the IT department too painted a grim picture on the number of fresh recruitments this year. “While we are not expecting major cut down from TCS, CTS and HSBC, the recruitment scenario at Wipro looks a little grim,” he said.

West Bengal has 64 engineering colleges that churn out a large number of IT professionals.

Of the 1,400 students recruited from the Jadavpur University campus in 2008, more than 50 per cent found jobs in the IT sector.

“Around 900 students from our campus got offers from IT companies with TCS and Cogizant being the major recruiters. Other companies included Wipro, IBM and Accenture,” said Siddhath Battcharjee, placement cell head at the University.

“Though no major recruiter has refused coming to the campus this year, I am not sure about the number of students each will recruit,” he added.

As an alternative employment, the IT minister said the government would discuss with various universities and colleges to start fresh diploma courses to help the students find jobs.