Skill sets of Indian and Lankan IT professionals “largely similar”

The skill sets and the cost bases of Sri Lankan and Indian information technology (IT) professionals remain “largely similar”, according to Virtusapolaris, which has presence in both the countries.

“…we find that the skill sets are largely similar; the cost bases are largely similar and the level of innovation is largely similar,” Virtusapolaris Chairman and CEO Kris Canekeratne told reporters in Colombo yesterday, elaborating on the company’s experience working with the IT professionals in Sri Lanka and India. These comments come at a time when the current government is pursuing an extension to the existing free trade agreement with India, namely the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), to allow importation of labour for selected industries—which includes IT services.

However, the move has been met with massive resistance from the local IT industry professionals.

The government maintains that Sri Lanka requires IT professionals from India with certain skill sets that the country doesn’t have at the moment, while the local IT professionals accuse that opening the doors would allow low-skilled IT professionals entering the Lankan IT landscape for lower pay.

“From the perspective of scale, the Indian IT industry is a very large industry where India graduates over a million engineering or technology professionals a year, whereas Sri Lanka may graduate around 30,000 a year.

So, it’s a matter of need. If there is a specific need anywhere in the world that cannot be fulfilled in that location, then you need to look beyond that. For us, however, we have found that we can hire the types of talent that we need both in India and in Sri Lanka,” said Canekeratne.

“I’m not too privy to contractual arrangements or any of the agreements that may or may not get passed. What I can say is that if you can’t find the talent you are looking for in a certain location, then you need to be mindful of being able to expand the area that you can bring in the requisite talent. But I’m not in a position to tell you whether we need the talent or not,” added Canekeratne.

According to Virtusapolaris General Manager Madu Ratnayake, who handles the Lankan operations of the company, IT is a supply-constrained industry and it would continued to be like that in the future, given the rate of innovation that is taking place.

Hence, Ratnayake believes Sri Lanka needs to produce more engineering and technology graduates.

“In the last five years, there has been a steady increase in the graduate output, but we need to get into a much larger initiative to radically increase the number,” he said.