India has the potential to become world’s second-largest cloud talent hub: Nasscom

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With the combined efforts of government bodies, education, skilling organisations, technology providers and IT industry body, India has the potential to become the second-largest cloud talent hub, Nasscom said on Monday. In association with Draup, the IT industry body said in a report that the country currently ranks third globally with an installed talent pool of 6,08,000 (FY 2021) cloud professionals.

India’s cloud market is estimated to reach  $5.6 billion by 2022, a 26% YoY growth. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Accenture were strategic partners for the research effort.

“By 2025, India would have an estimated 1.4-1.5 million cloud professionals (baseline growth). However, with an estimated demand for over 2 million professionals in the next four years, India could reach 1.7-1.8 million cloud talent pool with a fairly aggressive skilling roadmap,” the report titled ‘Cloud Skills: Powering India’s Digital DNA’ said. It also added that, with a baseline growth of 24% CAGR, India’s cloud talent pool is expected to grow 2.4 times to nearly 1.5 milllion by 2025.

In the new normal, migration to cloud-based services will provide a significant competitive advantage for SMEs and enterprises, as everything has become on-demand and need-based due to rapid digital acceleration

This is further expected to grow exponentially with accelerated cloud adoption across sectors. Infrastructural agility, flexibility, and resilience on cloud with significantly lower costs, especially post the pandemic, have been the key growth drivers for such a shift, the report said.

The Indian SaaS (software as a service) startup ecosystem is another driver of cloud demand, it added. SaaS companies in India employ over 40,000 professionals across job domains, more than any other tech startup segment, Nasscom said.

FutureSkills PRIM to upskill talent

The report estimates that with a more aggressive talent-building roadmap, India can increase its cloud talent pool to between 1.7 to 1.8 million. At the same time, there is an urgent need to train talent further with the right skillsets, that will help meet this demand, it said.

It further added that Naascom’s FutureSkills PRIME initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has been set up to upskill talent in emerging technologies and cloud skills are a key area of focus on this platform.