The U.S. has retained its position as the leading IT center for decades now, but according to a report, India is expected to overtake the U.S. in the number of software developers by the year 2017.
According to the latest Global Developer Population and Demographic Study conducted by Evans Data Corp, the number of software developers worldwide has been growing at an astonishing rate of 45% from its figure of 18.2 million in 2013 and if this rate of influx is maintained, it is expected to reach 26.4 million by 2019. India contributes around 15% to this figure with its talent pool of 2.75 million software developers behind the IT Industry leader US, which with its 3.7 million developers, makes a significant 20% of this pool.
Evan data projects India to have 5.2 million developers, a significant 90% increase, against 4.5 million in the U.S., a 25% increase during that span of time. This exceptional growth is attributed to the growing population of India and significant percentage of youth, with about 53% of the population under 26 years of age. But there are some key forces which are also causing deep structural changes in the industry, fundamentally transforming the way software companies: like the increasing adoption of Software as a service (SaaS) and open source software (OSS), changing buying behaviours and purchasing styles associated with digital business.
Corporations are also getting interested in knowing how to use the digital technologies, services and disciplines to create new growth opportunities. Indian businesses are already preparing themselves to transform digitally, creating new job opportunities and leadership roles.
The Indian IT firms have been conducting mass recruitment adding thousands of new employees each quarter increasing immensely each year. Consequently, IT and software work is seen as clear path to the middle class for many of the nation’s young.
For instance, in 2015, Tata Consultancy Services targeted hiring of 75,000 employees against Accenture’s 1 lakh job offers. The company also posted the highest headcount at 3.6 lakh employees. A recent McKinsey study states, by 2020, India will become the single largest IT cluster on the planet – overtaking Silicon Valley – with 2 million IT professionals, 6 million indirect IT jobs, and $80 billion in IT exports.
Besides all the big IT corporates, India has recently become the hottest country for venture investments, with Bangalore already being called the next ‘Silicon Valley’ of the world with top-tier talent returning home to India’s ecommerce giants like Flipkart and Snapdeal, commanding equal salaries despite lower living expenses. Calling India the “fastest growing” software product country, Ravi Gururaj, the Nasscom product council chairman said that country could have about 11,500 product startups by the year 2020.
Although these are all speculations and projections into the future, which is not certain at all; but one thing is certain – if the rate at which Indian IT sector is growing is sustained and the government takes active part in supporting this ecosystem, the time when India will lead the world in the tech space will not be too far.