'Stupid Study': Former Infosys Top Boss Defends Indian Techies

Indian IT industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai was once again seen defending Indian techies' capabilities. Mr Pai, former chief financial officer of technology major Infosys, termed as "total rubbish" a study by employability assessment company Aspiring Minds. The survey claimed that 95 per cent of engineers in the country are not fit to take up software development jobs. Mr Pai took to Twitter to say denounce the survey as a "stupid study". According to the study by Aspiring Minds, only 4.77 per cent candidates can write the correct logic for a programme - a minimum requirement for any programming job.

The comments from Mr Pai, currently chairman of Manipal Global Education Services, comes at a time when the IT industry is facing uncertain times amid broad changes in technology landscape and tightening visa regimes in the US and other countries like Australia and Singapore. (Also read: 
Tightening H-1B visa norms a blessing in disguise for IT firms, says Mohandas Pai)

Another business leader Kiran Mazumdar Shaw backed Mr Pai's views. "I agree @TVMohandasPai I don't know where they get this inference from. In fact blue collar workers of the future are coders," said Ms Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, chairperson and managing director of biotechnology company Biocon,

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw also holds key positions in various industry, educational, government and professional bodies. She also serves as independent member on the board of Infosys, where Mr Pai served as CFO from 1994 to 2006.

Mr Pai had in February this year too expressed confidence in the abilities of Indian IT professionals, days after a top executive of a tech company said that many of them are not "trainable".

"It is very wrong to say 60-65 per cent Indian IT cannot be re-trained. It's a very wrong statement. In Indian IT, the average age (of employees) is 27 years," Mr Pai had said.