“The IT industry in India is dependent on outsourcing and if there is a meltdown in US it will affect the IT industry in the country, including in Kolkata. This year will be worse than last year with pass-outs from engineering colleges not getting jobs. However, these should not discourage the students from taking up the course,” said state IT Minister Debesh Das, at an interactive session organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

“Students should go for higher education now so that by the time the recession gets over they can bounce back,” he added.

According to the minister, the time should be ideally utilised for concentrating on better infrastructure like power, water, road and connectivity of internet. The state IT department is approaching the universities to start post-diploma courses for students, who can later be absorbed by the IT sector.

“We are in talks with the universities to start post-diploma courses and also with the industries to ask them to introduce courses as these students whose job opportunities have frozen for now can make use of the time. Small and medium enterprises in the IT field should grab the chance and recruit good students, who otherwise are taken away by the big companies,” said Das.

According to the regional head of Wipro Technology, Tamal Sengupta, the Satyam fiasco should not be used to judge the entire IT sector.

“It will take two years to recover from the job scarcity situation and recessionary effect. There is a severe drop in consumer demand, especially in the US, and everyone is hesitant to invest. This is the time when the government should get involved and encourage the IT industry,” said Sengupta.

Students should use the time of lull as the perfect opportunity to enter into multi-disciplinary studies, believe the corporate giants.