If you do search on your popular engine about number of Indian engg graduates per year, you might not get a very precise estimate but some vague idea that India produces some 600K engg grads per year. This must be growing atleast for some years to come.
There are other interesting things you might find in those results, like 30% of them are computer science graduates or only 25% of them are employable by MNC's (source some McKinsey report). Number of AICTE apporved engg colleges around 2000 (maybe less than that), which means per college a batch is around 300 students. (which kind of verifies the big figure)
If I start running the numbers on the part I am interested in is the B-Tech project. I seriously think as a B-Tech graduate from India, that BTP (B-Tech Project) was 6 months of time to do some hands on, which with some proper mentoring could have done wonders. So, if I try to guesstimate the Indian BTP human computation worth. It must be straight forward :
Worth = BTP Project Time * Number of Engg Grads * Per month salary which one can give to them
= 6 (months) * 600,000 * 200 $ (say it 200 $, which is below than what they might get in industry)
~ 720 Million USD (did you start biting your nails already). But maybe that is the ideal case, but it gives an idea of the scale.
Recently on my Indian trip, I gave a small motivational talk in my B-Tech college department about doing interesting projects, which can be shaped as Startups. I started a google group to engage people in conversation but not very sure how far we can take it. We only have a handful of students on it as of now.
I also went to my other friends (who are a bit active in industry both in North and South) asking them the same question that, why startups/MNC's are not engaging with university students in the way it happens in west.(atleast it happens in Finland, which might pass on as a representative of west for this claim) I could not get a satisfactory answer. But, it seems there were two main points
1. We (industry and students) do not have the right mindset in India.
2. Our students are lacking a process/platform to engage with industry.
A very helpful person whom I met in Bangalore, Akash Mahajan helped me to connect with Rahul Jha (a DCE grad) who is also trying to do some initiative in trying to tap this opportunity. Their initiative is known as Step2 (for which they also have a website). I managed to have a chat with Rahul and it seems that our ideas have synergy.
Now my head is boiling with a platform concept which can tap into this opportunity and help connect the two parties. Industry and Students, and as a side effect can give India more tech startups and over all quality improvement for Engg students.
Please contact me if you think you have some suggestions/criticism for the same. Or leave comment on the blogpost.
The revenue potential as calculated is really amazing. The need is of that of an "Effective Bridge". Once we have model in place and running with few instituations successfully, then, it will move on its own momentum.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Idea . but before we make a business case we need to factor in the cost of training. very few fresh grads have skills that can be used on day one . so organization need to train them . this means he will be available for less then 6 months (6-x)+ a senior resource will be used to train him for X time . than there is no guarantee that the person will stay . for any Big organization like Infosys /wipro , the ROI on fresher happens after a year ,untill that its just a cost center . this is when they have a separate training unit .in most companies Sr resource will be providing mentoring ( more cost ) . I guess that's the reason most firm shy away from Summer internship.
ReplyDeleteThere can be two solution to the issue
#1)get the campus interview in 2nd year itself .so it make sense for organization to invest in training because they will get a trained resource at the time of joining.
#2) why not approach Govt Inplace of MNC. I am sure there are BIG potential for some serious IT initiative in things like Judiciary ,Food Corp,Railway.these are geographically scattered organization so much better for geographically scattered college. College professor can be System Analyst and Student can implement/code .some MNC might chip in with helping hand but by and large implementation is taken care by university bodies .
even outside of tech i am sure there is a lot of room for innovative projects like land record digitization, GIS Mapping,Microfinance which require a lot of Brainpower on street . that can also be a worthy use of computational power of youth.
Infosys is things on the same line by the name of Campus Connect. They are training faculty members and the students. Although the training is free of cost and open to all the students but it is mandatory for the Infosys selected students. This is saving them on the training cost.
ReplyDeleteBesides many plus points in your suggestion, still there are some points we need to face:
1. Students Attitude: They don't consider projects as serious as they should do.
2. Faculty: They are not more biased for projects on projects on fundamental topics than on "street applicable" ones.
3. College Administration and University Regulations: Not flexible enough financially, administratively and academically.
4. Industry: Don't want to invest in Industry institute alliances. Even in cases where it is there, its just superficial. They don't foresee an institute as a knowledge superstore, they just treat it as manpower supplier.
Still the opportunities are enormous and are exploreable.
Manish Chaturvedi
I agree with the concept, and the concept seems sound from Computer Science - ELectronics stand point. Mech, Industrial, civil engg i'm not sure. so the numbers maybe slightly inflated.
ReplyDeleteTaking in to account quality of the engineers and ability to solve an engineering problem is also a question, furthermore, does the industry in India have so many problems that they can solve in 6months?
However the leverage is not the complete value potential but maybe 10-20% from the top... those who are most likely good and require no training. Moreover these people can start as early as summer at the end of the first year... money on the side is great too... These people then have the best potential to startup...
a few things need clarification to refine the idea. the main players seem to be startups, large tech companies, universities and students. the incentives need to be designed carefully for each. also, would need to define why each player would pick such a platform as opposed to some existing, competing solutions. i'll try to identify some questions...
ReplyDelete1/ first, what is the goal of the initiative? to create more tech startups or produce more industry-ready graduates? the two can be mutually conflicting.
2/ one of the main reasons students are 'startup ready' in a place like finland is that they have had 3-4 jobs before they graduate. hence, it may be useful to involve students from much earlier than the BTP stage. it is not so clear to me who you would link them to: startups or large companies.
3/ need compelling arguments for why large companies would invest in this platform as opposed to say, setting up comprehensive training centers for fresh hires, or building R&D facilities in campuses like IBM or wipro are doing? the greatest risk is no guarantee of holding on to talent. further, large companies like infy run the risk of inflating the value of a fresh hire in the medium term, if they start 'outsourcing' modules of work done by fresh hires to pre-hires i.e. BTP interns on such a large scale although this may appear like a cost cut in the short term.
4/ why would startups invest time in this platform? when the alternatives to plugging into a network like headastart.in i.e. a free market for talent exists. this may offer quicker access to better talent/resources. they may perceive such a platform as a lock-in relationship with a university/department.
5/ students need to be presented with a clear win. what nature of ambitions are you targeting? students who want to get a job after graduation, those who want to build a unique portfolio, those who are already enterpreneurial, or those who seek the easiest way out of a BTP project?
6/ what are the incentives for the university? if visibility is the main thing, they would go for large companies rather than startups which may in turn create a culture among students of preferring secure jobs over startups.
piloting this idea could happen in several ways.
ReplyDelete1/ as an offshoot of headstart.in type networks by setting up an AES type unit inside colleges.
2/ as a special module/fest that can plug into techfests in campuses around the country.
3/ as one of the activities of a Wipro/IBM lab which is located inside a univ campus.
I quite agree with most of what you said, having worked on Step2(http://step2.co.in) for about a year now. I am a little skeptical about your financial projections though. To get even 50-60% of the students to do some really high value projects will require significant investements in terms of good facilites(my college had a 2mbps line for 100 computers) and most of all, decent mentorship from either professors or industry folks. Hence, the margins are going to be really slim in the first few years till we build a really strong community.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteYou have really lots of nice ideas! What do you eat in breakfast??:))
Sachin C
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHi,
You have really lots of nice ideas! What do you eat in breakfast??:))
Sachin C
He eats people like you!!!
Nice and wonderful idea. All the best Sachin.
ReplyDelete