India's tech talent pipeline is sputtering (www.theregister.com)

India’s once-reliable pipeline of entry-level tech hires is stalling: campus offer rescissions and steep falls in graduate recruitment have become widespread, even at elite IITs. Data show India’s top five IT services firms hired ~100,000 graduates in FY21 but are projected to hire ~70,000 by FY26; overall graduate hiring peaked near 600,000 in FY21–22 and plunged to ~150,000 in both 2023 and 2024. More than half of the 23 IITs saw placement rates drop by over 10 percentage points between 2021–22 and 2023–24, leaving stories like IIT Patna graduate Shubh Kumar’s—an offer revoked before joining—alarmingly common. The cause is structural: AI-powered automation and generative tools are displacing routine, rules-based roles (manual testing, low-level coding, basic support), while Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and product teams demand specialized, deployment-ready talent. Globally, entry-level tech roles fell ~35% since Jan 2024, even as demand for AI/ML roles rose ~39% (Randstad). The response is shifting curricula and hiring practices—mandatory AI courses at IITs, hands-on projects, and corporate upskilling platforms (e.g., AI-driven UaaS)—but a skills gap remains. Projections are mixed: NASSCOM sees India’s tech workforce doubling to 10M by 2030 with 2–3M AI jobs, yet realizing that growth hinges on embedding AI, data and cloud skills into education and industry partnerships to convert volume into high-value talent.