While a cautious approach was proposed for self-financing institutions, the premier institutions shall be encouraged and facilitated to create intake in IT/IT-related programmes, introduce new programmes and use new technologies for increasing their reach and enhancing effectiveness through anetworking approach, the report said. The task force proposed a multi-pronged approach for increasing availability, improving quality and retaining quality faculty in IT. These initiatives will form the `IT faculty development initiative'.

The report also recommended immediate implementation of recommendations of the PG review committee for promotion of postgraduate education and research in all fields of engineering and particularly in IT and IT related areas. Recommending a continuous review of trends in IT manpower, the task force said this would create public information on it manpower so that the system could make periodic adjustments. Instead of following a gap filling approach between demand and supply, there shall be a thrust on producing surplus it manpower at the higher end, so that the country was able to record even better rates of growth in software and services than has been hitherto projected by the capturing of a larger share of the global markets, it said.

The task force said the recommendations were made with a view to integrate the core competencies and expertise of the country and innovative information technologies to create for it a sustainable competitive advantage.