COIMBATORE: “The long-term sustainability of the IT sector has been clearly established and has proved that it will continue to thrive. National Association of Software and Services’ Companies (NASSCOM) has predicted that the $ 64 billion target in 2010 will increase to $ 225 billion in 2020. Hence, the strength and vitality of the industry is there for everyone to participate,” S. Lakshminarayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said here on Friday.

Speaking at the inauguration of the national conference on Intelligent Computing organised by the Coimbatore Chapter of the Computer Society of India (CSI) and CSI Division III at the PSG College of Technology, he called for application of technology in solving societal problems.

Quoting the examples of IBM’s efforts in solving the traffic congestion problem in London and the Unique ID project of the Indian Government, Mr. Lakshminarayanan said such efforts went to prove that the power of computing and the human creative mind could come together for problem solving at the macro level.

Speaking about the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu, he said it aimed at providing training and other development inputs to nearly 5,000 faculty who in turn would train the college students. This would address the issue of lack of collaboration between the industry and academia, he added.

P. Thrimurthy, President-elect, CSI, said the Society had created a knowledge portal that was on a trial run. Sponsored by the Tata Consultancy Services, the portal was expected to attract more student members to the Society.

The portal would be formally inaugurated by the Minister of State for Communications and IT, Sachin Pilot, on February 16.

“CSI is looking at bringing in more students into its fold. At present, there are 387 student branches and 66 chapters in the country. But, the membership is only about 50 per cent. The portal is expected to change this.

The Society is also looking at developing teachers as managers and vice-versa. This is going to be the slogan of the Society,” Mr. Thrimurthy said.

S. Ramanathan, Regional Vice-President, VII CSI, and former office-bearers of the Society, spoke.

Courtesy - Hindu