CHAPTER-III AN OVERVIEW OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE CHANGESshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/37247/5/chapter3.pdf · CHAPTER-III AN OVERVIEW OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND

CHAPTER-III AN OVERVIEW OF

CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE CHANGES

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CHAPTER III

AN OVERVIEW OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND

LIFE CHANGES 3.1. INTRODUCTION

The Indian Information Technology industry accounts for 5.19% of the

country's GDP and export earnings, as of 2009, However, only 2.5 million people are

employed in this sector either directly or indirectly. In 2010-11, annual revenues from

IT-BPO sector is estimated to have grown over $54.33 billion compared to China with

$35.76 billion and Philippines with $8.85 billion. The revenues are expected to touch

US$225 billion by 2020.

The most prominent IT hubs in India are located at Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The other emerging destinations are Chennai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune,

Mumbai and Ahmadabad. Technically proficient immigrants from India have sought

jobs in the western world as India's education system produces more engineers than

its industries can absorb.

India's growing stature in the Information Age has enabled it to form close ties

with both the United States of America and the European Union. However, the recent

global financial crisis have deeply impacted the Indian IT companies.

As a result, hiring has dropped sharply, and employees are now looking at

different sectors like financial service, telecommunications, and manufacturing

industries, which have been growing phenomenally over the last few years.

3.1.1. ORIGIN OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The Indian Government acquired the EVS EM computers from the Soviet

Union, which were used in large companies and research laboratories. In 1967 Tata

Consultancy Services in partnership with Burroughs - established SEEPZ, Mumbai

which was the country's largest software producers during the 1960s. As an outcome

of the various policies of Jawaharlal Nehru (office: 15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964)

the economically beleaguered country was able to build a large scientific workforce,

third in numbers only to that of the United States of America and the Soviet Union.


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On 18 August 1951 The Minister of Education Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad,

inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in West Bengal.

Possibly modeled after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology these institutions

were conceived by a 22 member committee of scholars and entrepreneurs under the

chairmanship of N. R. Sarkar.

Relaxed immigration laws in the United States of America (1965) attracted a

number of skilled Indian professionals aiming for research. By 1960 as many as

10,000 Indians were estimated to have settled in the US. By the 1980s a number of

engineers from India were seeking employment in other countries. In response, the

Indian companies realigned wages to retain their experienced staff. In the

Encyclopedia of India, Kamdar (2006) reports on the role of Indian immigrants

(1980 - early 1990s) in promoting the technology-driven growth.

The inestimable contributions of thousands of highly trained Indian migrants

in every area of American Scientific and Technological achievement culminated with

the Information Technology Revolution, which is most associated with California’s

Silicon Valley in the 1980s and 1990s.

The National Informatics Centre was established in March 1975.The

inception of the Computer Maintenance Company (CMC) followed in October 1976.

By 1977-1980 the country's Information Technology companies Tata Infotech, Patni

Computer Systems and Wipro had become visible. The 'microchip revolution' of the

1980s had convinced both Indira Gandhi and her successor Rajiv Gandhi that

electronics and telecommunications were vital to India's growth and development.

MTNL underwent technological improvements.

Between1986-1987, the Indian government embarked upon the creation of

three wide-area computer networking schemes: INDONET (intended to serve the

IBM mainframes in India), NICNET (the network for India's National Informatics

Centre), and the academic research oriented Education and Research Network

(ERNET).


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3.1.2. POST LIBERALISATION

Regulated VSAT links became visible in 1985. In 1991 the Department of

Electronics broke their impasse, creating a corporation called Software Technology

Parks of India (STPI) which, being owned by the government, could provide VSAT

communications without breaching its monopoly. STPI set up software technology

parks in different cities, each of which provided satellite links to be used by firms; the

local link was a wireless radio link. In 1993 the government began to allow

individual companies their own dedicated links, which allowed work done in India to

be transmitted abroad directly.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) introduced the Gateway Electronic

Mail Service in 1991, the 64 kbit/s leased line service in 1992, and commercial

Internet access on a visible scale in 1992. The Indian economy underwent economic

reforms in 1991, leading to a new era of globalization and international economic

integration. Economic growth of over 6% annually was seen between 1993-2002. The

economic reforms were driven in part by significant usage of internet in the country.

The new administration under the Prime Minister-ship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee

placed the development of Information Technology among its top five priorities and,

formed the Indian National Task Force on Information Technology and Software

Development.

3.1.3. DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY THROUGH

THE NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY, 1999 (NTP 1999)

This policy helped further liberalize India's telecommunications sector. The

Information Technology Act 2000 created legal procedures for electronic

transactions and e-commerce. Throughout the 1990s, another wave of Indian

professionals entered the United States. The number of Indian Americans reached 1.7

million by 2000. This immigration consisted largely of highly educated

technologically proficient workers. Within the United States, Indians fared well in

science, engineering, and management. Graduates from the Indian Institutes of

Technology (IIT) became known for their technical skills.


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Hence, India planned to establish new Institutes especially for Information

Technology to enhance this field. The success of Information Technology in India not

only had economic repercussions but, also had far-reaching political consequences.

India's reputation both as a source and, a destination for skilled workforce helped it

improve its relations with a number of world economies.

3.1.4. INDIAN IT IN THE MILLENIUM

A joint EU-Indian group of scholars was formed on 23 November 2001, to

promote further research and development. On 25 June 2002, India and the European

Union agreed to bilateral cooperation in the field of science and technology. The

economic effect of the technologically inclined sector in India accounted for 40% of

the country's GDP and 30% of its export earnings as of 2006, but employed only 25%

of its workforce. Today, Bangalore known as the Silicon Valley of India, alone

contributes 33% of Indian IT Exports. According, to the data from Indian IT

association Nasscom, India's technology and business services revenues accounted for

6.1% of GDP in fiscal 2010, up from 1.2% in 1998. The Indian addressable market

for IT products and services is projected to increase from US$19.7bn in 2010 to

US$41.2bn by 2015.

3.1.5 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY JOB OPPORTUNITIES

The World has entered the new millennium, which is predicted to be an

Information Technology Age. Today, Computers have not only assumed strategic

importance in the corporate world, they are being effectively used in almost every

field ranging from space exploration to food processing and banking to

communication etc. In this era of Information Technology, which has revolutionized

the world over, INDIA has met to the world standards and is being regarded all over

the World for its skilled IT Professionals. Even the government has recognized the

promising future of this industry and has formed a new IT Ministry which, will give

the much needed boost to this industry. Presence of Multinationals like IBM, HP has

made possible, the transfer of hardware technology into the country. Internet has

further bridged the time gap, ensuring the arrival of the latest in technology

simultaneously in INDIA as in the West without any delay.


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The domestic hardware industry has witnessed quantum growth in the

turnover and profits, which is largely attributable to our liberalized economy. On the

software front various software giants like IBM, Motorola, Oracle, Samsung, HP,

Digital, Unisys, AT&T, ICL, Fugitsu etc. have opened software development centers

in the country. The number of professionals in this industry is believed to have

crossed the 2 lakh mark and still there exists a huge gap between the demand and

supply of professionals which is an encouraging sign. The US alone requires around 3

lakh professionals. INDIA is also exporting software to around 100 countries many of

which are its exclusive buyers. It is a fact that around 65% of the world's software is

produced in INDIA. Many Indian IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, NIIT, Zenith

computers, Satyam Computers, STG, Pentafore Software, Mastek etc. are expanding

themselves in a big way, making their presence felt globally.

The phenomenal growth which this industry is witnessing has lead to it being,

recognized as one of the highly paying industry. As this sector is young, the average

age of its professionals is lower than that in any other industry. The availability of

skilled, qualified professionals is unable to meet the requirements, leaving a large gap

to be filled by those with ambition, aptitude and willingness to work hard.

3.1.6 NATURE OF WORK

There are two main sectors in this field:

3.1.6.1 Hardware:

This includes the physical elements of the computer system and deals with the

designing, manufacturing and maintenance of computers. This area also includes the

assembling of the manufactured components of the computers.

3.1.6.2 Software:

This includes the set of instructions by which a computer is programmed for

working and performing the specified tasks. This realm includes the work of

designing the programs for various purposes. Programs may be for controlling the

functioning of the computers or they may also be user-friendly for specific needs. The

programs may also come in the form of packages, which are designed for meeting the

different kinds of requirements of large number of people.


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3.1.6.3 Functional areas in Hardware:

• Manufacturing: This involves the work of production and assembly of

components of computer systems.

• Maintenance: People in maintenance look after the smooth functioning of the

machine and help in rectifying and detecting the breakdown in them. They

also help in taking preventive measures so that, least amount of damage could

be caused to the computer systems and its peripherals.

• Research and Development: It involves designing of chips and circuits,

computer architecture and integration of peripherals. It also includes

improvement and upgrading of the existing systems.

• Management: Managers ensure that the development and production work

goes on smoothly. They look after the allocation of resources and planning.

3.1.6.4 Functional areas in Software:

• Manufacture: This involves preparing the set of instructions or programs to

let the computer work. This further needs combining of application of

computer science and telecommunications principles and creativity.

• Software development: This involves updating and development of existing

operations as well as their refining and improvement. All this is carried is

carried out in various stages like analysis, designing, construction,

implementation etc.

• Data entry: The data for the programs, which are made, have to be fed into

the computers. So this work is done at data entry level.

• Programmers or Coders: They write and test programs and convert the

strategies of the system analyst into working programs.

• Application programmers: They prepare programs either for a general

purpose or user-friendly programs or some specific programs according to the

need of the individuals, along with testing and integrating them.

• Support services: They vary in nature and can range from helping a customer

in the purchase of the software, suggesting its right kind of application and

providing them with the required training at the initial stages of its use.


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3.1.6.5 Other technical areas, where one can look for employment in this field:

• Computer operations: It requires handling of computer peripherals along

with other accessories like CD-ROMs, disk drives, printers etc.

• Database administration: It involves management and maintenance of data.

• Sales and Marketing: The work here involves selling of the computer system

and its marketing to different companies or individuals.

• Data center management: It involves management of the dedicated facilities,

which houses the critical servers and other networking and backup

equipments. Data-centers typically houses those equipment which have to be

kept operational 24x7x365.

3.1.6.6 Specialization

One can specialize as:

• Software Engineers: They design programs and specialized packages for the

required purposes. Their work even involves research and development.

• Web developers: They are electronics and computer engineers who are

engaged in developing websites for the Internet.

• System analysts: They look after the work of final testing of the software and

advising the clients on the purchase and installation of the computer systems.

They also are responsible for researching the organizational procedures and

planning their computerization.

• Consultants: They provide expert guidance to the companies during the

purchase of the computer system. System analyst or designers with

considerable amount of experience can work as consultants.

• Technical writers: They are involved in writing manuals for computers.

• E-commerce: They are adept in the net-com business, e-commerce

fundamentals and its security issues and assist in developing websites for

commercial purposes.

• Knowledge engineers: They are expert in designing of the computer systems,

which are associated with a human expert, like medical diagnosis or safety

systems for industries.


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• Webmasters: They handle the task of configuration and setting up of the

websites and its development. They have to take care of the security of the

websites and create firewalls against the hackers and stalkers.

• Networking: This work involves designing of networks, implementation of

support, servicing and management.

• Computer education: This job involves giving training to the end users,

students or computer professionals in advanced technologies.

3.1.7 CAREER PROSPECTS

India is no longer considered as a country of Castes, Curry and Cows with an

ossified society. According, to India's National Knowledge Commission, India is well

positioned to take advantage of the knowledge revolution which can be seen as a

dramatic revolution in the field of Information and Technology. This has witnessed a

wide range of macroeconomics implications which can be seen in the development of

multi-million dollar IT sector and creating of a huge amount of job potential for a

large assembly of English speaking scientific professionals.

Information Technology encompasses a wide range of activities like Office

Automation, Telecommunication and Computing, therefore providing a larger area of

job avenues for those who have acquired the right qualifications for it. At the

beginning of this millennium NASSCOM, National Association of Software and

Services Companies made an estimate that India would require 10,00,000 trained

software professionals in a few years. The present availability, of such skilled people

is only 5% of the required amount. So, we can conclude that this sector is going to

provide employment to a large number of such professionals.

3.1.8 REMUNERATIONS

IT professionals earn a good amount of salary and incentives. The pay scales

vary from job to job and depend on the level of qualification and performance. The

data entry staff earn in the range of Rs 5000 to Rs 15,000 and so do the computer

operators and supervisors. The pay scale in the programming jobs range from Rs 5000

to Rs 20,000 per month. Software consultants can earn around Rs 50,000 per month.


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At the Management level the pay scales varies to Rs.1,00,000 per month. At

the Maintenance level one can earn around Rs 15,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per month so are

the salaries of those who are in Research and Development.

3.1.9 ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

The external environment of an organization involves both a general culture

(technological, sociological, Economic, political and so on) and a particular set of

groups with which the organization must interact. These groups usually include

customers, suppliers, competitors, labor supply, labor unions and governments. The

external environment is a major contingency variable for many reasons in order to

survive and evolve, an organization must adapt effectively to changes that take place

in its environment. The inability to adjust to environmental changes can erode the

effectiveness of an organization and threaten its continued existence.

3.1.9.1 Political Environment

The political environment of a developing country is also important from an

implementation perspective. If the country’s government severely restricts an

organization's operations, this has negative implications for successful

implementation of IT. On the other hand, government policies can create a positive

environment for implementation. For example, India’s commitment to develop its

telecommunications sector provides an environment conducive to successful

implementation efforts. At the same time the regulatory environment impacts the

amount of competition in sectors such as telecommunications. Deregulation leads to

increased competition, increased services, and decreased costs for consumers in many

countries.

3.1.9.2 Culture

Culture is also an important element in implementation success. Enns (1999)

differentiated between national culture and organizational culture, and noted that both

are relevant to implementation studies. They suggested that national culture is an

important moderator of the relationship between organizational culture and

characteristics of the technology on one hand, and the effectiveness of technology

transfer on the other hand.


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The way in which people think and behave is strongly influenced by the social

environment or culture to which they are accustomed. Thus an information system

that worked successfully in New York or Toronto may not be as effective in Mexico

City or Tokyo. Cultural factors and values should not be overlooked in MIS design

and development.

Huff S (1999) found in his case study that Datacom’s organizational culture,

which centered on enthusiasm for technical work, and persistence in the face of

obstacles, was consistent with the Internet and VSAT initiatives. The cultural factors

helped them to become first to establish such services as the countrywide PC-

Mailnetwork. And due to cultural effect they showed a great deal of persistence in

training themselves in the necessary hardware and software technologies and make

the implementation of Internet successful.

3.1.9.3 Government

Government agencies might often require specific forms and content of

reporting; imposing specific IS structures that are required for compliance.

Trade and industry associations as well as major trading partners of an

organization might also impose certain information processing requirements, data

access, and set standards for inter-organizational communications and external

reporting of information.

Fish M (2000) after conducting the research study of information technology

implementation in settlement houses had following observation regarding the effect of

government on implementation practice. Influences from the environments of the

settlement houses have significantly impacted IT implementation efforts. For

example, the social service programs in the settlement houses are funded in large

measure by government contracts. Just prior to the initiation of implementation

efforts, a shift to Republican leadership occurred in the U.S. Congress, as well as in

New York State and New York City governments. As a result, the funding for social

service programs was curtailed by all three levels of government which seriously

affected the implementation of information system


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3.1.10 Training and Development

Training and Development is the framework for helping employees to develop

their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. The focus of all

aspects of Human Resource Development is on developing the most superior

workforce so that the organization and individual employees can accomplish their

work goals in service to customers.

All employees want to be valuable and remain competitive in the labour

market at all times. This can only be achieved through employee training and

development. Employees will always want to develop career-enhancing skills, which

will always lead to employee motivation and retention. There is no doubt that a well

trained and developed staff will be a valuable asset to the company and thereby

increasing the chances of his efficiency in discharging his or her duties.

Training in an organization can be mainly of two types; Internal and External

training sessions. Internal training involves those organized in-house by the Human

resources department or training department using either a senior staff or any talented

staff in the particular department as a resource person. On the other hand External

training is normally arranged outside the firm and is mostly organized by training

institutes or consultants. Whichever be the training method, it is very essential for all

staff and helps in building career positioning and preparing staff for greater

challenges.

Employers of labour should enable employees to pursue training and

development in a direction that they choose and are interested in, not just in company-

assigned directions. Companies should support learning, in general, and not just in

support of knowledge needed for the employee's current or next anticipated job. It

should be noted that the key factor is keeping the employee interested, attentive,

engaged, motivated and retained. For every employee to perform well especially

Supervisors and Managers, there is need for constant training and development. The

right employee training, development and education provides big payoffs for the

employers in increased productivity, knowledge, loyalty, and contribution to general

growth of the firm.


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3.1.10.1 Reasons for employee training and development:

The reasons behind employee training and development cannot be

overemphasized. From our discussions so far, one can easily deduce some reasons

behind firms engaging in training and developing their staff. Summarizes below are

some of the reasons:

• Needs arise as a result of findings obtained from the outcome of performance

appraisal.

• As part of professional development plan.

• As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned

change in role in the organization.

• To imbibe and inculcate a new technology in the system.

• Because of the dynamic nature of the business world and changing

technologies.

3.1.10.2 Some topics treated in employee trainings:

• Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings a

wide variety of languages and customs, thus staff should be able to be very

good in both written and verbal communication.

• Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting

administrative and office tasks. In this era of technological advancement,

computer skills are very necessary for almost every departments in an

organization.

• Customer service: Increased competition in today's global marketplace

makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.

The firm that stands out from the crowd is that firm which puts its customers

first before every other goal. Hence, creating the need to always train staff on

customer service.

• Diversity: This includes explanation about people and their different

perspectives and views, and how this can be handled.


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• Ethics: There are divergent ethics in different firms. Some firms attach more

importance to certain issues like moral, work period, lateness etc than other

issues. Today's society has increasing expectations about corporate social

responsibility.

Also, todays diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to

the workplace. This calls for the need of the staff to be updated through

training and development.

• Human relations: The increased stresses of today's workplace can include

misunderstandings and conflict. Training can help people to get along in the

workplace with good understanding of each other and improve inter personal

relationship to reduce official conflict.

• Quality Management: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality

Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts,

guidelines and standards for quality, etc.

• Safety: Safety training is critical where working with heavy equipment,

hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities etc.

Staff should be made to understand that despite the fact that they have a safety

department, the safety of each staff is in his or her own hands.

3.1.10.3 BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:

• Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees.

• Better inter personal relationship and customer satisfaction.

• Increased employee motivation.

• Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in improved financial gain.

• Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods.

• Increased innovation in strategies and products.

• Reduced employee turnover.

• Enhanced company image.

• Better Risk management and staff safety consciousness.

• Increase in productivity.


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3.1.11. MAJOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HUBS

S.NO CITY DESCRIPTIONS

1 Bangalore

Popularly known as the Silicon Valley of India, it is currently leading the Information Technology Industry in India.

2 Chennai

It is the Second largest exporter of Software next only to Bangalore. It has the largest operations for India’s top software companies like TCS and Infosys.

3 Hyderabad

Hyderabad called as Cyberabad, which has good infrastructure and government support is the technological hot spot of India. The Government of AP has built a separate township for the IT Industry called the HITEC City.

4 Pune Pune, is a major industrial point in India.

5 Coimbatore

It is the Manchester of South India. This flourishing health care hub has now become the cynosure of the IT industry in India.

6 NCR

The National Capital Region of India comprising Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad are areas of interest to the IT industry, which are undertaking ambitious projects and are trying to do every possible thing to compete with the best in the industry.

7 Mumbai

Popularly known as the commercial, entertainment and financial capital of India. This is one city that has seen tremendous growth in IT and BPO industry, it recorded 63% growth in 2008.

8 Kolkata

Kolkata is a major IT hub of eastern India. All major IT companies are present here. The city has tremendous potential for growth in this sector with upcoming areas like Rajarhat.

9 Trivandrum

Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala is a green metropolis and tier I city. GOK provides a good platform for IT development in the city with India's largest IT park Techno park and dedicated Techno city SEZs, situated here.

10 Jaipur

This rapidly growing industrial city houses a lot of IT/ITES and BPO giants. Genpact, Connexions IT services, Deutsche Bank. EXL BPO, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro have their base here.


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3.1.12. QUALITY: THE MAGIC MANTRA

Outsourcing software requirements depend mostly on quality of services, and

this has continued to remain a prime edge for Indian software companies.

According to the NASSCOM survey, the Indian software industry continues to

win recognition for its quality in software development over the last year. Out of the

top 400 companies, more than 250 have already acquired ISO 9000 certifications.

However, it is in the SEI CMM (Software Engineering Institution Capability Maturity

Model) Level 5 segment that the real accolades have come India’s way. Out of the 54

companies in the world that acquired SEI CMM Level 5 certification, 27 companies

are located in India.

3.1.13. STATE INDUSTRIAL HUBS TO DRIVE JOB GROWTH TILL 2016:

REPORT

Industrial hubs, created by various states, are likely to be hot spots for hiring

in the next five years, according to Team Lease India Labor Market Report. Over the

past five years, Bangalore and Mumbai have emerged as the biggest clusters, followed

by Pune with IT manufacturing and engineering, and Ahmadabad with healthcare and

pharmaceuticals along with manufacturing and engineering.

Mumbai, the biggest and most diverse city-sector cluster, will see hiring

sentiments head north, driven mainly by IT. However, infrastructure hiring may go

downhill. Bangalore too is likely to fare well on hiring sentiment, while Pune is

another case of reform initiatives working well. The report, however, says

infrastructure in these cities is a cause for worry. According to Sangeeta Lala, senior

vice president, business's expanding operations need land and human resources, the

supply of both of which is acutely short in these cities.

3.1.14. GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

The crucial steps taken by the Indian government to propel the sector growth are

given below.


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§ Constitution of the Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP)

under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani. The Group would develop IT

infrastructure in five key areas, which includes the New Pension System

(NPS) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

§ Setting up the National Taskforce on Information Technology and Software

Development with the objective of framing a long term National IT Policy for

the country.

§ Enactment of the Information Technology Act, which provides a legal

framework to facilitate electronic commerce and electronic transactions.

§ Setting up of Software Technology Parks of India (STPIs) in 1991 for the

promotion of software exports from the country. Apart from exemption from

customs duty available for capital goods, there are also exemptions from

service tax, excise duty, and rebate for payment of Central Sales Tax, for

promoting software exports.

§ Plans to formulate Information Technology Investment Regions (ITIRs).

These regions would be endowed with excellent infrastructure and would reap

the benefits of co-sitting, networking and greater efficiency through use of

common infrastructure and support services.

3.1.15. INDIAN INSTITUTES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IIITS)

There are a group of four institutes of higher education in India, focused on

information technology. They are established by the central government, centrally

funded, and managed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Admissions

into undergraduate programs in IIITs are through the All India Engineering Entrance

Examination (AIEEE). 3.1.15.1 LIST OF IIITS § Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT Allahabad) was

established in 1999, and was recognized as a deemed university in 2000. It

focuses on the areas of informatics and library sciences.

§ Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior

(IIITM-G), is the first IIIT of country established in the year 1998. The name

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was added to IIITM Gwalior in honor of India's former

Prime Minister.


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§ Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing,

Jabalpur (IIITDM Jabalpur), Madhya Pradesh, was established as an

autonomous institute in the year 2005.

Focus was laid on the development of an interdisciplinary curriculum such

that students become proficient in all four fields of Design, Computer

Sciences, Electronics and Communication and Mechanical Engineering. It

became a deemed university in June 2009.

§ Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing

Kancheepuram (IIITDM Kancheepuram) was established in 2007 to pursue

design and manufacturing oriented engineering education and research

excellence. The Institute is offering novel and first of its kind UG, PG and

PhD programs in the broad areas of computer, electronics and mechanical

engineering.

3.1.16. PROPOSED NEW INSTITUTES AND POLICIES

The Institutes of Information Technology Bill 2010 proposes the addition of

new IIIT'S as Institutes of National Importance. With the government policy of e-

governance, vendors are expected to compete for a share of the significant spending

on major public sector IT projects such as ID cards, and railway modernization.

There is an increasing number of large projects, not only from the government,

but also from key verticals such as banks, telecoms, defense, manufacturing and retail,

creating new significant opportunities.

As per the Budget 2011, twenty more IIITs under the Public-Private

partnership (PPP) model are to be launched for every major state of India. Indian IT

companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, HCL and Mahindra Satyam are developing

cloud computing applications and solutions for verticals ranging from financial

services and banking to manufacturing.

3.2. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN KARNATAKA

The Information Technology in Karnataka state has become one of the pillars

of its economy. This thriving industry is mostly concentrated in and around

Bangalore.


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3.2.1 DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE INFORMATION TECHNOLGY

INDUSTRY IN KARNATAKA

In 1992 Bangalore was the first city in India where a satellite earth station was

set up for high speed communication services to facilitate software exports.

Subsequently, in 1999 STPI established earth stations in Mysore and Manipal. The

state made a giant leap forward in the Information Technology sector when Union

Minister for IT Mr. Pramod Mahajan inaugurated the country's first 'extended facility'

of the international gateway and network operations center at the Software

Technology Parks of India (STPI) in this Electronics City. In August 2000, a Cyber

Park - Technology Incubation Centre, another first of its kind, was set up in Bangalore

to promote the growth of the IT sector. On 19th September 2002, a software

technology park, IT Park Hubli. 3.2.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY IN KARNATAKA

Information Technology Policy of Karnataka State Government gives a thrust

to the Information Technology sector and encourages units to setup their operations in

the state of Karnataka. Under this policy, several infrastructural facilities are

proposed in Mysore, Hubli, Manipal and Mangalore apart from Bangalore. The

facilities include providing training to engineers and others as well as providing

employment opportunities. The setting up of IT industries under this policy will help

earn valuable foreign exchange through software exports. It also will help in

increasing the tax base of the state.

3.2.3 FIRST CHOICE FOR INVESTMENTS

The Karnataka government has largely supported development of the IT

sector. Software Technology Park was established in 1991 at Bangalore. It has 6 New

Private Technology Parks with a built up area of 6 Million Sq. ft. to start an Indian

Institute of Information Technology. There is a specialized Electronic City at

Bangalore and Mysore, with software Technology Parks at Mysore, with Hubli and

Mangalore with High Speed Data Communications Facilities. It has the best Telecom

Infrastructure in the Country. There is a proposal for establishing a Bangalore Mysore

I.T. corridor. This has resulted in an increase in the number of companies, thus an

increase in the revenue.


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The state attracts on an average 3 to 4 foreign equity companies every

fortnight. Many MNC's like HP, IBM, Intel, AMD, Cisco, Kyocera, Oracle etc ., has

made Karnataka a first choice for IT investments.

3.2.4 BANGALORE-THE SILICON VALLEY OF INDIA

Synonymous with the IT revolution in India, Bangalore or Bengaluru the

capital of the state of Karnataka in India. Bangalore has earned the sobriquet "Silicon

Valley of India". With a population of approximately 6.8 million (2006), Bangalore is

India's third-largest city. This steep rise in the population of Bangalore district has

seen it top the population growth rate in the country. The Bangalore urban district has

grown three times faster than the population of the state as a whole. Bangalore

district’s population ballooned 46.68 per cent over the past decade to around 9.59

million in 2011. The district today houses over 15.69 per cent of the state’s

population. Today, 4,378 persons cram every square kilometer space of this district.

Migration has contributed significantly to the population boom.

3.2.4.1 Geography

The capital of the state of Karnataka, Bangalore occupies the heart of the

Mysore Plateau with an average elevation of 920 m (3,018 feet). It is located at 12.97°

N, 77.56° E. Bangalore district shares borders with the Kolar, Tumkur, Mandya,

Charamrajanagar districts of Karnataka and the state of Tamil Nadu.

Though no major rivers run through Bangalore, the Arkavathi and South

Pennar cross paths at Nandi Hills, 60 km from Bangalore. The Vrishabhavathi, a

minor tributary of Arkavathi, arises within the city and furrows its way through it.

Bangalore has a large number of lakes -the prominent among which are Sankey lake,

Ulsoor lake and Yediyur lake. It receives adequate rainfall from the Northeast

Monsoon as well as the Southwest Monsoon. Bangalore enjoys a pleasant climate

right through the year. In summer the maximum and minimum temperatures hover

between 36°C and 20°C, while in winter the temperatures range between 27°C and

17°C. The salubrious locales of Bangalore are sure to put a song in your lips.


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3.2.4.2. Economy and Industry Watch

Bangalore is undoubtedly one of the engines, which is powering India's

growth as an emerging economic giant. It provides an excellent industrial climate.

The easy availability of trained technical manpower, research and development

facilities provided by a number of Central Government laboratories and research

institutions, salubrious climate, good transport and communication facilities have

combined to make Bangalore a favorite industrial hub.

3.2.4.2.1. Information Technology

Bangalore, is the undisputed IT Capital of India. Apart from the leading Indian

IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, the world's leading IT

companies like GE, Texas Instruments, CISCO, Digital, IBM, HP, Compaq, Sun

Micro Systems, Microsoft, Lucent Technologies, Oracle, Novell etc. have set up shop

in Bangalore.

More than 40% of Bangalore's software exports are in the high technology

areas-IT access networks, optical networks, video broadcasting, Bluetooth, WAP, 3G

Wireless Applications etc. Today with a growing population of young professionals, it

has acquired a vibrant, cosmopolitan air.

3.2.4.2.2. Electronics and Telecommunications

Bangalore steals a march over many other Indian cities in the field of

electronics and telecommunications with many of the world's leading companies

having set up base here. The leading companies include bigwigs like Siemens,

Motorola, AT&T, Alcatel, Sony, Sanyo, GE and British Aerospace, BPL Limited etc.

The Government of Karnataka has also been extremely positive about the software

and services marketplace, has helped create the relevant telecom policies as well as

infrastructure conducive to the growth of this sector.

3.2.4.3. Reasons behind the software companies being centered at Bangalore

Every year Bangalore conducts conferences, workshops and exhibitions

related to software. There are a number of reasons behind the software companies

being centered at Bangalore.


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They are:

• Excellent infrastructure

• Availability of human resources

• International quality research and development centers

• Favorable government policies

• Cosmopolitan ambiance

• A very favorable climate

3.2.4.4. The work of various software companies in Bangalore are:

• Software development

• Maintaining and re-engineering services on high-end Internet

• Providing various IT solutions

• Meeting the multifarious needs of the customers

• Services in the field of application development, business intelligence

and data warehousing

• Product realization services, etc

3.2.4.5. IT companies in Bangalore

Bangalore houses a number of companies specializing in Information

Technology. Some of the most reputed IT companies located in Bangalore city, are

listed below:

Accent Technologies Linc Software Services Pvt Ltd

Accenture Logix Microsystems Ltd

Accord Software and Systems Nich - In Software Solutions Pvt Ltd

Caterpillar Motorola

Cisco systems Oracle

Cognizant Technology Solutions Phoenix Global Solutions India Pvt Ltd


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Compaq Radiant Infosystems Pvt Ltd

Dell Robert Bosch India Ltd

Google SAP Labs India Pvt Ltd

HP Satyam

HCL Technologies Simplex Solutions

Impact Solutions Pvt Ltd Sonata Software Ltd

IBM Sun Microsystems India Pvt Ltd

Intel Syntel India Ltd

Infopac Software Pvt Ltd Texas Instruments India Pvt Ltd

i-NetFrame Technologies Pvt Ltd Tricon Infotech Pvt Ltd

Infosys Technologies Ltd Wipro Infotech

Ionic Microsystems Pvt Ltd Zenith Software Ltd

Jupiter networks LEC India Software Center Pvt Ltd

The Software Technology parks of India, Bangalore includes The International

Technology Park Bangalore or ITPB, the International Technology Park Ltd or ITPL

and the Electronics city.

The growth of IT industries in Bangalore is mainly due to the initiatives of the

Karnataka Government, which has set up a suitable market place and infrastructure, A

number of leading computer centers in Bangalore provide trained IT professionals to

this industry.


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3.3. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT TAMILNADU

POLICY NOTE – 2012-2013

It is the vision of our Hon'ble Chief Minister to make Tamil Nadu as “The

Knowledge capital” and “Innovation hub” of the Country. Under the able and

dynamic leadership of our Hon’ble Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu endowed with well

developed infrastructure facilities and skilled human resources has become the

destination of choice for IT/ITES investments in India.

The objectives of the Information Technology Department are as follows:-

• Provide Government services, both informational and transactional to Citizens

at their door steps through the Internet;

• Bridge the digital rural-urban divide;

• Make Tamil Nadu the Best State in IT enabled Governance;

• Substantially increase the software exports of Tamil Nadu;

• Taking Computing in Tamil to a higher level;

• Enhance the quality of life of Citizens through Information and

Communication Technology.

With the help of available resources, efforts are under way to take the various

services of the Government to the Citizens covering the length and breadth of the

State. There will be a vibrant shift upward in the quality of services delivered by the

Government to its Citizens in the years to come. The transformation will enable the

common man to avail the various services of the Government online. To fully reap the benefits of the use of Information and Communication

Technology in Government, an e-Governance Policy reflecting the above initiatives

will be launched shortly. This will remove intermediaries thereby taking governance

closer to people. The Government of Tamil Nadu will thus nurture a culture of

responsive and transparent Governance that ensures progress, security, and equal

opportunity to all stakeholders. Tamil Nadu has been in the forefront of the IT

revolution. As of now nearly 3,50,000 employees are employed in about 1,750 IT/ IT

Enabled Services (ITES) companies in the State.


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Software exports from the State, which stood at Rs.42,100 crores in 2010-

2011, are expected to be Rs.48,000 crores in 2011-2012. All efforts are being taken

to attract more IT/ITES investments in the State.

3.3.1. ELECTRONICS CORPORATION OF TAMILNADU LIMITED

(ELCOT)

Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) is a Government of

Tamil Nadu Undertaking, registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. Since

the advent of the Information Technology revolution in India, ELCOT which was

formed for the promotion of electronics industry has transformed itself into the

Information Technology arm of the Government of Tamil Nadu. ELCOT has been

providing support to various Departments, Organizations, Boards, etc. of the

Government of Tamil Nadu in the area of Information Technology, e-Governance,

providing Internet Connectivity and Capacity Building.

ELCOT is the optional nodal agency for hardware procurement, software

development, major turnkey IT projects of the Government of Tamil Nadu and major

projects of the Department of Information Technology, Government of India. The

Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) and Tamil Nadu State Data

Centre (TNSDC) have been established by ELCOT in a pioneering way. The Hon'ble

Chief Minister has given the new brand name for ELCOT, and created an IT Special

Economic Zone, ELCOSEZs. ELCOSEZs would be marketed as the destinations of

choice for IT / ITES investments. 3.3.2. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

(ELCOSEZ)

In the IT Policy 2002, a blue print for developing infrastructural initiatives for

Knowledge Industry Township was laid down by the Hon’ble Chief Minister. It was

stated that, Knowledge Industry Townships (KITS) will be created along the IT

highway in Chennai through Public Private Partnership.

It was also envisaged to position Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Tirunelveli,

Hosur and Salem as Tier II cities for promoting IT investments. Based on that vision,

ELCOT has established ELCOSEZs (ITSEZs) in the following eight locations:-


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• Chennai -Sholinganallur ELCOSEZ

• Coimbatore -Vilankurichi ELCOSEZ

• Madurai- Ilandhaikulam ELCOSEZ

• Madurai -Vadapalanji-Kinnimangalam ELCOSEZ

• Trichy -Navalpattu ELCOSEZ

• Tirunelveli- Gangaikondan ELCOSEZ

• Salem - Jagirammapalayam ELCOSEZ

• Hosur - Viswanathapuram ELCOSEZ

3.3.2.1. Hardware Procurement

The Government has issued orders authorizing ELCOT as the Optional

Procurement Agency for all Government departments and their agencies to procure IT

and IT related products and services from the market. ELCOT is procuring the IT

products for the major Departments such as Treasuries and Accounts, School

Education, Higher Education, Commercial Taxes, Registration Department, Co-

operation Department, Labour and Employment Department and Agriculture

Department. ELCOT also facilitates the Government offices to procure the IT

products.

3.3.2.2. Software Development

ELCOT, Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) and National

Informatics Centre (NIC) have been providing active support to the Government

Departments for their software needs by studying their requirements, preparation of

Request for Proposals (RFP), floating of e-Tenders and selection of Software

Developers. ELCOT undertakes a Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

approach, so that a complete documentation of the entire development to roll-out is

captured.

3.3.2.3. Distribution of Laptop Computer Scheme

The Government of Tamil Nadu is implementing the scheme of distribution of

laptop computers to the plus two students studying in Government and Government

aided Schools and students studying in Government and Government aided Colleges

in the State to facilitate them in acquiring better computer skills.


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The Government have entrusted the task of procuring Laptop Computers

toELCOT for distribution to students. The procurement and distribution of the total

requirement of 9,07,790 laptop computers for the year 2011-2012 is under progress.

Advance action is being taken for the procurement for the year 2012-2013.

3.3.2.4. Enterprise Resource Planning

ELCOT has developed a Web Based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Solution in Linux Platform, enabling all operations of ELCOT on anytime anywhere

basis. This ERP has been customised in the following Departments:-

• Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation Limited

(TAHDCO)

• Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited (TAMIN)

• Registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS)

3.3.2.5. Information Communication Technology Policy 2012

New Information Communication Technology (ICT) Policy 2012 will lay

emphasis on attracting foreign direct and domestic investments leading to creation of

large employment opportunities and the right atmosphere for the establishment and

growth of the ICT sector in Tier II and Tier III locations of Tamil Nadu. This policy

will be released soon.

3.3.3. IT INFRASTRUCTURE

IT Infrastructure provides the backbone for advanced collaboration and

integration of various technologies such as Cloud Computing, Data Centre,

Connectivity, Grid data storage, Grid based resource sharing etc. In order to provide

seamless service, the following infrastructure have been created :

a) Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC)

b) ELCOT Data Centre

c) Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN)


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3.3.3.1. CONNECTIVITY

3.3.3.1.1. Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) – Vertical

Connectivity

Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network having 708 Points of Presence (POPs)

has been established in the State by ELCOT. It is a shared scheme between the State

and Central Governments being implemented at an estimated cost of Rs.181.69 crores

(GOI share is 15 16 Rs.97.17 crores and State share is Rs.84.52 crores). The Network

provides services such as Voice, Data, Internet and Video to the Government

Departments. The Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) Operation of the

Network will be over by 30.11.2012 and the Operation and Maintenance of the

Network beyond the BOOT period is to be taken care by the State Government for

which necessary action plan is being devised. 3.3.3.1.2. Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) – Horizontal

Connectivity

Government Departments can get connected to the TNSWAN POPs for

getting intranet facility for rolling out applications and also to avail other services

such as Voice, Internet, Video Conferencing etc. So far, Horizontal connectivity has

been provided to about 1600 offices of departments such as Commercial Taxes,

Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD), Tamil Nadu Health Systems

Project (TNHSP), Treasuries & Accounts, Registration, Employment & Training,

Forest, Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA), State Health Society, Tamil

Nadu Housing Board (TNHB), Survey and Settlement, Tamil Nadu Cements

Corporation Limited (TANCEM) etc. 3.3.3.1.3. Broad Band Connectivity

Broadband refers to high-speed data transmission which can carry a large

amount of data at once. The increase in Information and Communication Technology

(ICT) enabled applications for facilitating Government to Government

communication has mandated the need for broadband connectivity for Government

Departments.


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ELCOT is providing Broadband connectivity to Government offices at

competitive rates. As of today, broadband connectivity has been provided to about

7,450 Government offices including schools.

3.3.3.1.4. National Knowledge Network

National Knowledge Network (NKN) is a national level high speed network

established by Government of India for connecting academic institutions across India

and also for linking the global scientific community. NKN provides a common

platform to the scientists, researchers, doctors, scholars and students to work together

for advancing human development. NKN also provides Network platform to National

e-Governance Projects (NeGP) for national level roll-out. NKN is a Government

owned network and the bandwidth providers are Central Government agencies such

as BSNL, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) and Railtel. The NKN

consists of an ultra-high speed core, starting with multiples of 2.5/10 Gigabits per

second and progressively moving towards 40/100 Gigabits per second (Gbps)

connectivity.

3.3.3.2. Tamil Nadu State Data Centre

Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC) has been established in the State by

ELCOT and is in operation from 1.8.2011. It is one of the core e-Governance

backbone infrastructure under National e-Governance Action Plan (NeGP). It is a

shared scheme between the State and the Central Governments as per the SDC

Guidelines of Department of Information Technology, Government of India, at an

estimated cost of Rs.60.80 crores (Government of India share is Rs.55.80 Crores and

State share is Rs.5 crores).

TNSDC will facilitate the Government departments in the consolidation of

services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of

Government to Government (G2G), Government to Citizen (G2C) and Government to

Business (G2B) services. State Data Centre would provide many functionalities via.

Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN), Common Service Centre (CSC)

and Internet. TNSDC is a secure and centralised facility which is a Data repository for

all Departments.


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Applications such as Document Management System for Chennai Metro Rail

Ltd (CMRL), Tamil Nadu Health Management Information Systems (TNHMIS),

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for Laptop and Mixie-Fan-Grinder

schemes etc. are currently hosted in TNSDC.

3.3.3.3. Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC)

The applications and services of Government departments have been hosted in

the State Data Centre (SDC) in a secured environment. In order to avoid loss of data

or applications due to natural or manmade disasters, establishment of a Disaster

Recovery Centre (DRC) has become mandatory. Administrative approval has been

issued for the establishment of a Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) in Tamil Nadu and

Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) has been nominated as the

implementing agency for the setting up of Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) in two

phases.

3.3.4. TAMIL NADU e-GOVERNANCE AGENCY

Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) is an autonomous society

formed to cater to the e-Governance initiatives of the Government Departments in the

State. The Director of e-Governance is the Chief Executive Officer of this Society.

The following are the activities carried out by the TNeGA:

• State-wide Rollout of e-District Programme

• Common Service Centres

• Capacity Building (CB)

• Tamil Nadu Geographical Information System (TNGIS)

• State Portal

3.3.4.1. State Wide Rollout of e-District Programme

Districts are practically the front-end of Government where most Government-

to-Citizen (G2C) interactions take place. The e-District project was conceptualized to

improve this experience and enhance the efficiencies of the various Departments at

the district level to enable seamless service delivery to the citizens.


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On pilot basis, this Project was implemented in Krishnagiri District followed

by five districts, i.e., Ariyalur, Perambalur, Coimbatore, Tiruvarur and The Nilgiris.

Now the Government of India has approved the Detailed Project Report (DPR) to roll

out the project throughout the State.

3.3.4.2. Urban Common Service Centres

Urban Common Service Centres (Urban CSCs) will be established in Chennai

City as a pilot project. The Commissioner of Chennai Corporation will be the Nodal

Officer for the implementation of Urban CSCs. Data, Voice and Video services in the

areas of e-Governance, Health, Education, Entertainment, Tele-Medicine and other

private services will be rendered to the citizens through these Urban CSCs.

3.3.4.3. Capacity Building

The Capacity Building scheme is intended to train and develop computer skills

of the Government employees. It is a continuous skill development programme in

basic Information Technology Training, Soft Skills Training, Hardware and

Networking training, Database Management training, IPv6 Courses, Application

Software Training for their respective departments etc. Such programmes are

undertaken by TNeGA on a regular basis. The State e-Governance Mission Team

(SeMT) has been established at TNeGA and the SeMT is handholding the

departments in the following areas.

• Setting up of Project e-Mission Teams (e-Team)

• Help departments to create a department level e-Governance road map

• Play advisory role to the departments in implementing e-Governance projects

3.3.4.4. Tamil Nadu Geographical Information System (TNGIS)

Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool for managing, analyzing and

decision making, by seamlessly combining both spatial and non-spatial data. Tamil

Nadu Government is taking the initiative to set up Tamil Nadu Geographical

Information System (TNGIS) Centre for implementing standards based GIS

applications, which could be used by intending Government departments.


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3.3.4.5. State Portal, State Services Delivery Gateway (SSDG) and e-Forms State Government has granted administrative sanction for this project at a total

estimated outlay of Rs.16.13 crores to be funded by the Government of India. The

Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) has been nominated as the State Nodal

Agency for the project. The project components are

(i) State Portal

(ii) State Services Delivery Gateway (SSDG) and

(iii) e-Forms.

The e-Forms will be hosted on the State Portal and could be downloaded by

citizens for online submission. Once the e-Form is submitted to the State Portal, the

e-Form data will be routed by SSDG to the respective Department Server located at

the State Data Centre (SDC) where the information submitted by the citizens will be

stored. Service locations of the departments will pull out the information from the

Department Server (DS) and after processing, the response will be submitted to the

State Portal via SSDG. Citizens will get periodic status update on the State Portal. The

National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed the State Portal. The newly

designed and developed State Portal incorporating e-Forms and SSDG middleware

will be launched soon to enable the Citizens to access Government services through

Internet. The new Portal will be hosted in the URL www.tn.gov.in replacing the

existing website for the use of citizens for access through Internet.

3.3.5. e-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES FACILITATED BY INFORMATION

TECHNOLGY DEPARTMENT Chief Minister’s Award for Excellence in e-Governance

§ Award for Government Departments-The Government of Tamil Nadu has

envisioned that all Government Services are to be delivered to citizens at their

doorsteps. As a mark of recognition and encouragement, the departments which

strive towards this task successfully will be awarded with the “Chief Minister’s

Award for Excellence in e-Governance” every year. Orders have been issued in

this regard.

§ Award for Students-In order to create an awareness on e-Governance among

the youth, students and e-Governance enthusiasts, a competition for development

of innovative e-Governance software applications shall be held every year.


http://www.tn.gov.in

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The winners shall be honored with the “Chief Minister’s Award for Excellence in e-

Governance”. The Award is instituted under three categories.Each awardee shall be

honoured with a prize money of Rs.2,00,000/- (Rupees two lakhs only) and a trophy

worth Rs.15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand only) in the respective categories.

Orders have been issued in this regard.

3.3.5.1. e-Governance Awareness Campaign

To change the present scenario of “People approaching the Government”,

Hon’ble Chief Minister has envisaged a situation where “Government reaches the

People”. The role of e-Governance is indispensable to implement this vision. In order

to create awareness among the poorest of the poor in our society about e-Governance,

it has been decided to conduct e-Governance Awareness Campaigns at the Block

level, which will be a “People’s Movement”. These campaigns are proposed to be

conducted shortly.

3.3.5.2. Citizen Contact Centre

The Citizen Contact Centre (CCC) with the help of Government of India is to

be established with a vision to provide help on informational, transactional,

nonemergency Government to Citizen (G2C) services for various departments at the

State level.

While other channels of delivery such as departmental counters, websites, and

service kiosks serve important functions, Citizen Contact Centre shall provide the

advantage of greater accessibility due to high penetration of telecom and cellular

services in rural parts, ease of usage, reduced costs and improved service delivery

over these channels through a single unique phone number which will be common

across the country.

Some of the key benefits envisaged from Citizen Contact Centre are:

• Timely access to Information, Government to Citizen (G2C) services

• One number to call, with local language capability.

• Integration of services given by various departments on a single platform.

• Provide service tracking information and grievance handling.


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Administrative approval has been granted for the establishment of Citizen

Contact Centre. Further action is being pursued for implementing the above project.

3.3.5.3. Mission Mode Departments

"Mission Mode Projects” implies that the objective and the scope of the

project are clearly defined, the project has measurable outcomes and service-levels

and the project has well-defined milestones and timelines for implementation under

National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The Government of Tamil Nadu has identified

14 Mission Mode Departments (MMDs) to implement the Mission Mode Projects.

The following are some of the Mission Mode Departments of the State:

• Commercial Taxes Department

The Commercial Taxes Department is developing and hosting comprehensive

software enabling the mercantile public to avail various e-services like online

registration, e-filing, e-payment etc. The Government has sanctioned a sum of

Rs.230 crores for the end-to-end computerization of Commercial Taxes

Department.

• Employment and Training Department

An online 24x7 web portal has been exclusively developed for the

Employment Directorate, so as to facilitate the registration of job seekers,

vocational guidance, periodical collection and compilation of data and

implementation of Unemployment Assistance Scheme. Apart from this, to avoid

the serpentine queues at the Employment Exchanges, an online registration

system has been introduced whereby the students can register through internet

from their school itself and get the same day seniority. About 12 lakh students

have benefited through this new initiative.

• Agriculture Department

AGRISNET - a software for Agriculture Department aims at delivering single

window information and services to the farmers. It also provides alerts on crop

information, climatic conditions etc. to the farmers.


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• Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department

ELCOT has created a State level Family Card Database for about 2 crore

families in Tamil Nadu. This Database is being used by various Government

departments. Health and Family Welfare Department The Health Management

Information System (HMIS) has been envisaged not only to help the

administrators to have better monitoring and control of the functioning of

hospitals across the State using decision support indicators, but also to assist the

doctors and medical staff to improve health services with ready reference patient

data, work flow enabled paper-less process and parameterized alarms and triggers

during patient treatment cycle.

• Police Department

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) has been

approved as one of the Mission Mode Projects under NeGP. It aims at creating a

comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and

effectiveness of policing through a nation-wide networking infrastructure for

evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around investigation of

crime and detection of criminals. This will cover all the Police Stations in the

country.

Apart from the above, Revenue, Registration, Social Welfare and Nutritious

Meal Programme, Transport, Treasuries and Accounts, Education, Industries and

Municipal Administration and Water Supply Departments are also covered under

the Mission Mode Projects.

3.3.6. ICT ACADEMY OF TAMIL NADU

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) is an initiative of Government of

India, Government of Tamil Nadu and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

ICTACT is an autonomous non-profit society established on Public Private

Partnership (PPP) mode. It has embarked on the novel path of improving the quality

of students in the State of Tamil Nadu. The objective of ICTACT is to train the

Higher Education teachers and students of the ICT domain, for benefiting the

students to become Industry ready and employable thereby, creating a new generation

of talent pool which would benefit the ICT Industry in the State of Tamil Nadu.


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To fulfill the vision of the Hon’ble Chief Minister to make Tamil Nadu as an

innovation hub and knowledge capital of India on the strength of world class

institutions in various fields and the best human talent, ICT Academy would

implement various skill development programmes for the students in the State. ICT

Academy would also be part of the programme on imparting IT training to the college

students. ICTACT is involved in facilitating and monitoring Rural Business Process

Outsourcing (BPO) in the State. The existing strength of ICTACT on Industry –

Academia – Government collaboration is used to promote the Rural BPOs. This aims

at creating employment opportunities for the rural youth in the State.

3.3.7. TAMIL VIRTUAL ACADEMY

The Tamil Virtual Academy (TVA) aims at providing Internet-based resources

and opportunities for the Tamil communities living in different parts of the globe as

well as others interested in learning Tamil, Science, Technology, Tamil Computing

software and acquiring knowledge of the history, art, literature and culture of the

Tamils and to identify, establish, maintain and promote the solutions for the Tamil

computing requirements of Tamil diaspora, Government, Educational, Media and

Business institutions.

§ Academic Programmes

At present Tamil Virtual Academy is providing Academic Programmes such

as Primer Education, Certificate Course, Diploma, Higher Diploma courses and

Degree B.A.(Tamilology). 12,358 candidates from 70 Countries have registered

for different courses and 1889 certificates, 27 higher certificates, 237 Diplomas

and 128 Higher Diplomas and 109 Degrees were awarded so far. 56 Study

Centres in 17 countries all over the World are providing these Academic

programmes.

Under the plan for producing CD’s of the lessons, CD’s for Primary, Basic,

Intermediate and advanced level lessons, Learn Tamil, Tamil Karpom and other

CD’s like Thirukural and Technical Glossary have been prepared and released for

the benefit of students. In Virtual class room, 120 lessons are available for

learning Tamil. Video lectures for B.A.Tamilology class are also available. All

these are available in YouTube also.


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§ Digital Library

For the benefit of students registered for various courses of TVA and others,

books on Literature, Commentaries, Dictionaries, Tamil Technical Glossaries and

Cultural and Suvadi (Palm Leaf) galleries are made available in the Digital

Library of TVA website.

§ Tamil Software Development

Tamil Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Electronic Dictionary, Tamil

Corpus Analysis and Intelligent Information Retrieval of Thirukkural in

Handheld Devices are some of the Tamil softwares developed under Tamil

Software Development Fund(TSDF). Predictive Text Software Design for Tamil

is ongoing. Tamil Fonts and required Keyboard Drivers, for free use by all, are

also being developed.

§ Publication of Technical Glossary

About 2,50,000 technical terms compiled by various Universities have been

reviewed and grouped according to subjects and published in 14 volumes.

§ Building For Tamil Virtual Academy

Construction of the Ground Floor of Tamil Virtual Academy building is

completed. Construction of the first floor, a studio and an auditorium are under

progress.

3.3.8. EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY

The Tamil Nadu Government focused its attention on the IT industry for its

economic growth, formulated and adopted an exclusive IT policy way back in 1997.

The fiscal and tax concessions available for mega projects (investment above Rs 50

crore) and super mega projects (investments exceeding Rs 1,500 crore) will be

applicable to IT industries. The Government will provide continuous power supply at

industry rates to all IT units and ensure quality of power as required by the industry

and the tariff for power will be not as for commercial consumers but as for industrial

consumers.


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The main objectives of the policy indicated are to encourage the growth of

hardware and software industries and associated services in the State, to remove the

bottlenecks in starting and running of such units, upgrade and develop manpower

skills required for the industry, to accelerate the use of IT in educational institutions

and upgrade the quality of life of the citizens by facilitating access to consumer

applications of IT. The State Government in association with private sector will

provide full fledged facilities to set up IT parks.

Private IT park developers will be given assistance in obtaining cable and

satellite links for the necessary connectivity. An IT park will be treated as an industry

and be eligible for backward area capital subsidy and ST benefits.

The Government will also encourage software development outside the parks

by giving such stand-alone units the same incentives as the units in IT parks. There

will be no location restrictions to set up units exclusively engaged in software

development or training all software industries including services and training

institutions will be entitled to industry status and shall be eligible for all concessions

and incentives applicable to industries.

The Government will also encourage setting up of venture capital fund for

development of IT industry through TIDCO in association with private sector

partners.

Industries need not wait for approval of the plans before beginning the

constructions provided they comply with some conditions as per a Government order.

As IT building has now the status of the industry, the builder of the IT building can

avail this facility.

3.3.9. NEW SCHEMES FOR THE YEAR 2012-2013

§ An Electronic Dictionary with pronunciation

Tamil Virtual Academy has a very rich Annotated Tamil Corpus. With the

present Annotated Tamil Corpus, TVA has proposed to compile “An Electronic

Dictionary with pronunciation.”


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For the first time, phonetic transcription will be given to the Tamil words. A sum

of Rs.30 lakhs has been allocated under Part II Scheme for the year 2012-2013 for

implementing this scheme.

§ Syntactic and Semantic Annotations for Tamil Literature

Tamil Virtual Academy has very rich Tamil corpus in its e-library (approximately

1 lakh pages) with early, medieval and modern literatures in digital form. At present,

Machine Translation (MT) is inevitable one, for which Syntactically and

Semantically Annotated Tamil Corpus is needed. If the Syntactic and Semantic tags

for the Massive Tamil corpus are available at TVA, an accurate spell checker,

grammar checker and many more software for Machine Translation can be developed.

A sum of Rs.25 lakhs has been allocated under Part II Scheme for the year 2012-

2013 for implementing this scheme.

§ Tamil Computing Lab

To establish a separate lab for Tamil Computing to carry out research and

development for Tamil software such as Machine Translation, Optical Character

Recognition (OCR) etc., a sum of Rs.20 lakhs has been allocated under Part II

Scheme for the year 2012-2013 for implementing this scheme.

§ Software Repository Tool

To overcome the above issue, it is proposed to establish a centralized software

Repository at a cost of Rs. 17 lakhs for the Government Departments so that the

software, source code and documentations could be made available at a single

location under the custody of single Government agency. As and when the

Departments require the support and documentation, the same could be made

available in the future. A sum of Rs.17 lakhs has been allocated under Part II Scheme

for the year 2012-2013 for implementing this scheme.

3.3.10. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BOOM IN CHENNAI

A fast-growing segment of Indian industry is information technology. In

addition to Tidel parks promoted by the Government, a large number of private

buildings has come up in various parts of the city and many are also under

construction.


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The availability of educated manpower, high standard of educational

institutions, sound infrastructure, low costs of operation, disciplined labor force,

presence of international airport and major sea port are some of the factors which

have made Chennai the destination for IT industry.

With IT penetrating all spheres such as Government departments, educational

institutions, banking, shopping, and consumer applications, the potential for further

growth of IT industry is enormous.

The decision of the Tamil Nadu Government to encourage private engineering

colleges in 1984 has helped many students to become engineers who are being

absorbed in IT industry.

3.3.10.1. REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLGY SECTOR IN CHENNAI

The development in the IT sector in Chennai has lead to a drastic

improvement in the Real estate options in Chennai. People invest more on the real

estate because of the recent scope in the IT industry. Though there is an unpredictable

increase in the property rates in Chennai there is a vast development of IT industries

especially in IT corridors. The people working in the IT Park require residents to live

hence residential demand in Chennai is also increasing. Hence due to the

developments the real estate business has also boomed. For example Tata

Consultancy services (TCS) has planned to build Siruseri Industrial Park on Chennai's

IT Corridor over 80 acres of land. Thus IT industry has made Chennai, India's top

leading industrial state.

3.3.10.1.1 Chennai's Merits

• Good student community and popular universities

• Lesser hustle and bustle compared to other cities

• Cheaper rents and techies compared to other metros

• Success stories like ZOHO are making waves already


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3.3.10.1.2. Chennai's Demerits

• The biggest spoiler – Terrible Weather

• To a certain extent Language barrier in day to day living

3.3.10.5. SCOPE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN

CHENNAI The IT industry has great scope in Chennai as it provides employment to

many technically and non-technically graduated professionals. Thousands of college

students are recruited every year into the IT parks of Chennai. The leading IT park in

Chennai are INFOSYS, TCS, HCL, WIPRO, IBM, HP, DELL, POLARIS, etc. In

Chennai the RajIv Gandhi sallai also know as IT corridor of Chennai consists

hundreds of IT parks. The development in the IT sector in Chennai has lead to a

drastic improvement in the Real estate options in Chennai. There is a vast

development of IT industries specially in IT corridors. Tata Consultancy services

(TCS) has planned to build Siruseri Industrial Park on Chennai's IT Corridor. Thus IT

industry has made Chennai, India's top leading industrial state. 3.3.11. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN COIMBATORE

Coimbatore's vision to become one of the major IT destinations of the country,

has started turning into a reality with some of the big companies in the sector,

bringing the city under their expansion map. Apart from companies such as Robert

Bosch, Cognizant, Cbay and Ford that are already present here, IBM, Polaris, and

Mphasis are also said to be exploring Coimbatore as an option for their operations.

Indian IT industry is consistent growth in both exports and domestic segments

and its ongoing expansion into new potentially high growth opportunities reaffirms

the continued confidence and global competitiveness of the Indian IT sector. A large

part of this growth will be driven from small towns and Tier II cities, especially in

Tamil Nadu. A number of IT and ITeS companies are expanding to newer locations as they

grow to deliver high-end services in the value chain, says a study carried out by the

National Association of Software Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Hewitt

Associates.


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Coimbatore being the hub of manufacturing industry, little is known on the

silent change that the city is undergoing in the IT sector. Today, the IT software

export from Coimbatore is close to Rs.150 crore. A large, talented manpower, a

conducive business environment, professional work ethics and a stable political

climate have made Coimbatore a natural choice for these organizations. Perhaps not

as much celebrated is the contribution of entrepreneurs from Coimbatore – small and

medium – usually in supporting large players by way of providing outsourced

services. These entrepreneurs have really been the powerhouse of innovation and

productivity and continue to provide momentum for growth.

3.3.11.1. Industry analysis

As per Gartner estimates, the total Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) / IT

enabled services (ITES) market worldwide will be around 234 Bln USD growing at a

compounded average growth rate (CAGR) of 14.4 % by the close of 2008.

Approximately, 21 Bln USD is the potential for Indian BPO companies.

As per IDC / SSKI estimates, the total market for IT services worldwide will

be around 814 Bln USD by the year 2008. Mckinsey estimates that the Indian

opportunity for IT services would be around 28 Bln USD by the year 2008.

As per STPI estimates, the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and

Karnataka are more popularly addressed as the Knowledge Triad, currently contribute

to around 60% of India's annual IT export turnover. They will continue to play a

dominant role in the emerging BPO businesses and IT services.

To address these opportunities and to gear up for global competition, some of

the imperatives for Indian organizations involve:

• Expanding products or services portfolio

• Reinforcement of quality in products and services

• Identifying niche areas for growth to expand existing client base

• Competitively pricing products and services.


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Competitive pricing at the same time retaining the quality of service is a key

challenge for the growth of the IT/ITES organization. AS per analysis conducted by

PwC the profitability margins could dip by as much as 65% if billings dip to USD 5/

hour, assuming that the current rate is 10 USD /hour. From this perspective,

Coimbatore offers resources that fulfill organizational requirements. Analysis shows

that Coimbatore as a business destination is suitable for IT / ITES organizations from

two standpoints.

• Tapping alternate quality talent at cost effective prices.

• Addressing new business opportunities through utilizing existing knowledge

base.

3.3.11.2. IT related fields for instance engineering design.

PwC has conducted a detailed primary research to validate the above

assumptions. Close to around 71 organizations from a sample base of 200

organizations have expressed their interest in setting up a base in Coimbatore. The

total employment potential based on the primary research has been set out in table

below. The evaluations have been conducted under three scenarios.

3.3.11.3. Critical success factors - supply side factors

Certain factors determine the sustainability of business during the start-up and the

day-to-day operations. For instance an IT /ITES business would require:

• Availability of talent

• Adequacy of real estate

• Availability of power

• Connectivity

As per forecasts and current availability status, Coimbatore adequately fulfils

business factor requirements. Coimbatore's strength to attract business lies in its:


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• Captive talent pool of approx. 20000 engineering graduates and approx. 28000

non-engineering graduates

• Enterprising community

• Salubrious climate

The table below represents the strengths and opportunities in Coimbatore.

As per the research conducted by PwC, Coimbatore is a suitable IT destination

and setting up an IT Park is feasible. As per the expansion plans of organizations in

the migration model with respect to Coimbatore, there is an immediate requirement of

approximately 0.6 million Sq ft quality IT park space to be gradually scaled up to total

workspace of 1.4 million Sq ft for 14000 professionals by the year 2008. The total

estimated export revenues arising from this inflow could be in the region of USD 113

mln by the year 2008. The revenue potential emerging from the domain opportunity

would be in the region of USD 50 mln by the year 2008.

To facilitate business needs of the IT/ITES organizations, general

infrastructure needs to be enhanced. The areas include improving the flight

frequencies and timing, upgrading the hotel infrastructure, establishing adequate

redundancy, power supply and support services.


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3.3.11.4. The major players in this field in Coimbatore are:

• COGNIZANT:

Meanwhile, the existing companies are expanding. Cognizant's growth here is

among the fastest in a tier-two city. It started operations in Coimbatore with 400

people and has more than 5,000 now.

• ROBERT BOSCH:

For Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, the phase two

expansion here is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. The number of

people employed will go up by 1,500 with the phase two expansion. The

Coimbatore Hi-Tech Infrastructure has about 125 acres notified as Special

Economic Zone of which close to 80 acres has been used. It is one of the largest

private SEZs in the State for IT, ITES and Hardware sectors. At the multi-tenant

facility at SEZ, about three lakh sq.ft of the six lakh sq.ft has been occupied. In

another 12 to 18 months, about 20,000 people would be working in the IT

companies in Saravanampatty area.

• KCT TECH PARK:

The KCT Tech Park has nearly two lakh sq.ft of IT space. It is expected to be

fully occupied in a few months. The Software Technology Parks of India facility

at the Kumaraguru campus (administrative block) has one lakh sq.ft. The growth

has been tremendous during the last four months.

• TIDEL PARK

The Tidel Park, which was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister M.

Karunanidhi in August 2010, has nine lakh sq.ft of IT space. Some of the local IT

companies have been making enquires and are also seeking space at this park.

Their requirements are for smaller areas (10,000 sq.ft or less) and efforts are on

to accommodate them in the non-processing zone. Thus, companies involved in

business process outsourcing can also look to Tidel.


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3.3.11.5. SLOW TAKE-OFF:

One of the reasons for this sector's slow take-off has been inadequate IT space.

In 2006, just about three lakh sq.ft was made available. Today, it has expanded to

nearly 30 lakh sq.ft. The economic slump has pulled down market sentiments,

however, with the economy reviving, enquiries have risen sharply. With big

companies coming to this city, occupying larger space, and providing more job

opportunities, has given confidence for other players to follow suit.

3.4. INDIAN WOMEN - CORPORATE WORLD AND INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY SECTOR WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE: HISTORY

Women have worked as long as men, as evidenced by cave drawings that

show women toiling in fields and over fires. As well, the Old Testament describes

stories of women collecting water at wells and tending flocks. In the modern era, the

phenomenon of women in the workplace is closely tied to economic and social trends.

When, for example, women were needed to support men in times of war, institutional

childcare to support working mothers was created. Evidence of this type of institution

exists from the Civil War, 1860, through World War II, 1945. These institutions

survived, intermittently during that time for the sole purpose of caring for the children

of widows who were forced to work.

The first of these federally-funded institutions was established in 1863, during

the Civil War, in Philadelphia by Hanna Biddle. She modeled the program after the

French institutionalized childcare programs which began in 1844 called “creches”,

which looked after the children of the poor to keep them off the streets of Paris. The

crèche was funded through charities, the run by wealthy Social Catholics. The crèche

looked after pre-school children and infants, freeing up older siblings for school. The

crèche offered better care for the children than they received at home because there

was formal training for employees and physicians who took care of the children, and

education to the mothers was available.

In the early 1900’s there was a resurgence of interest in institutionalized

childcare, this time, as a result of the influx of a working-poor, immigrant population

to the United States.


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The social benefit of institutionalized childcare was assimilation of 8

immigrants’ children into society. These childcare institutions continued during the

first and second world wars and operated post-war to support working widows. The

institutions often provided jobs for these women in the homes of wealthy patrons. The

patrons would subsidize the care of the women with handouts of food and clothing.

The social stigma for these women was difficult. Working women of this era, whose

children required this type of federally subsidized care, were seen as victims and

pitied by their communities.

The modern era also provides examples of professional working women, such

as, Florence Nightingale, considered the founder of the nursing profession, who did

not suffer the same indignities as most other young women. Since her father wanted

all his children to receive an education, young Florence was provided a tutor at home

who educated her in the classics and mathematics. This was not uncommon.

Many of the women professionals prior to the 1950’s were guided through

male dominated educational and work systems by esteemed, well-positioned fathers

who believed their daughters warranted opportunities for careers. If not for their

fathers’ clout, these women may have become well-educated socialites.

The knowledge industry created greater access for women, resulting primarily

from higher education and the ability to be evaluated based on knowledge

performance rather than physical capabilities, as was previously required in factory or

farm work. A more level playing field, coupled with factors such as changes in

marital patterns and smaller families, has contributed greatly to an increase in the

number of working women and, hence, working mothers.

3.4.1 THE PHENOMENAL INDIAN WOMEN

Colorful festivals, acute poverty, exotic people, dirt, heat, spicy food,

elephants, snake charmers, and a spiritually haven are some of the stereotypical

images that are associated with India. Other than the word 'exotic' there is not much

that comes to mind. Much of the mystery and fascination that surrounds India has

shrouded Indian women making awareness about them limited.


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There is still much poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and discrimination

when it comes to women, but there is a certain segment of them who are making a

mark in the corporate world, in media, in literature and for still many who are

unaware of their huge impact in the IT sector. Globalization has provided

opportunities for the educated, middle class women to build their own dreams and

excel in fields, which were earlier perceived as complete male domains. Indian

women are becoming increasingly visible and successful in the professional and

public sphere.

Whether it is Barkha Dutt, who has become an idol for several journalists,

Arundhati Roy, a Booker Prize Winner and a social activist, or Kiran Mazumdar

Shaw, who became the wealthiest Indian woman after the initial public offering of her

company, Biocon, they have all heralded the arrival of Indian women professionals.

3.4.2. MORDERN WOMEN VALUE TRADITIONAL IDEALS : Women today are independent, confident and have carved a niche for

themselves in various spheres of their personal and professional lives. While, we all

have been under the assumption that these 'up on their feet' women prefer nuclear

families and plan to go the concise way, a survey conducted by Shaadi.com, a

matchmaking website, reveals a trend completely at the other spectrum of the family

continuum.

According to their annual survey of its members' matrimonial attitudes, the

number of women preferring to live in a joint family post marriage is way more than

those who prefer a nuclear family arrangement. The survey, conducted on a sample of

150,000 across India, Australia, UK, US and Canada, revealed that almost 54% of

women favored an extended family, alongside parents and siblings, while only 21% of

women showed their preference for nuclear family.

One can detect a growth of 14% in women opting for marriage in joint

families since the last survey conducted in 2004, wherein only 40% women wanted to

live in a joint family milieu. The survey points out that a support system is needed in

today's industrialized and globalized world. Dr. Rohan Kusumgar, consultant

psychiatrist, is of the opinion that, there are 3 main reasons as to why women are

increasingly opting for joint families post marriage.


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Firstly, is the need for internal security which comes only when you have

people to support you in any situation. Second, is the need for emotional bonding

when you are faced with a problem and third is the division of responsibility and

work. Highlighting the positive role of mother-in-law unlike the stereotypical

character she is believed to play, Binal Shah, currently working in a CA firm,

opinioned that she wanted to have time to herself on returning home from work. So

having a mother-in-law, who would help with the household chores as well as taking

care of kids. Also, as often is the case, if fighting between spouses occurs, a mother-

in-law would be a great guide and support system. According to Tula Santoki, an employee in the IT sector, the raison d'être for

her preference towards joint family system is the desire for, support to manage house,

handle kids and solve problems. Also, being engrossed in our work, we hardly get

time to get in touch with their kin, but when one thrives in an extended family they

learn to maintain close familial ties.

Bringing an altogether different perspective, Dr. Nehal Kumar, consultant

psychiatrist, felt that a few years back the trend was completely opposite, modern

women opted for nuclear families. However, the changing preference now is because

people have lived the ill effects of a small family set-up with nobody to take care of

children, cost factor and increased stress in nuclear family. This survey which throws light on the way matchmaking trends are evolving

has a positive takeaway; the immense globalization and escalating estrangement is

giving way to reestablishment of traditional values. 3.4.3. THE VISIONARY OF TODAY’S COMPETITIVE MARKET Success often comes to those who have the aptitude to see way down the road.

Success is a matter of attitude. It is a matter of futuristic thinking and planning and is

about doing things carefully. Relying on the same, Indian women are becoming

increasingly visible and successful in the professional and public sphere. The Indian

women have proved their footage in the male dominated business arena. For a nation

where the only identity of a woman some time back used to be that of a homemaker,

hogging the corporate limelight has been a journey to empowerment and strength.


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Today innumerable women are filling colors of success in their life and

moving a step closer to their dreams of being self dependent. Many of them are

entering the corporate field as financial advisors, investment bankers, chartered

accountants etc. and doing their job with unmatched excellence and poise. From the

confines of four walls to outer space, the Women of today are busy writing the golden

tale of emancipation. Call it her urge to prove herself equal to man or even better or

the plain conviction that she has left marks on the tallest of peaks and the deepest of

oceans.

Any discussion on the status of women in India tends to conjure up pictures of

Illiteracy, exploitation, discrimination and low life expectancy. Although this is still

true for many Indian women, another reality is driving the new India and relates to a

booming nation, powered by female business leaders. Though they are not the

majority Indian women professionals are definitely on the rise and are paving the way

for future generations.

Despite, these numerous barriers and tangible obstacles women are, today,

entering the field of business in increasing numbers. Although, Women are

increasingly making their mark in the typically male dominated workplace, they

comprise a very meager portion of the entrepreneurs in India. The woman in India

still need to be courageous, risk taking, challenge seeking and above all they are

required to be independent. They need to break themselves free of the confines of the

four walls of a home, which is the traditionally recognized role of women in our

country, and to come out of the cocoon of a subservient living provided by male

family members.

This requires a change in cultural ethos and training the male mindset to

recognize women as equals and not inferior to them through a multi pronged action at

legislative, administrative, legal, social, educational and cultural levels. Three crucial

things for aspiring Indian women executives: • BE COURAGEOUS

Do not worry about the fact that you are a woman and chances are that others will

not worry about it either. Very often the problem is not external if it’s not internal.


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• FIND AND USE EXTERNAL SUPPORT

Today Woman Entrepreneurs have a lot of external support – special funds,

working capital loans, network groups – find them and use them well. Banks like

SIDBI, Women Co-operative Banks are Women friendly.

• MANAGE YOUR GUILT WELL

If women also have a family to look after. Guilt is not good for her, as well as her

family and business. She will realize that fulfilling her dreams is what she loves to do,

and her family might as well realize this too. The family may look at her to keep the

home fires running – but the flip side is that she may not have to be the bread earner!

Enjoy this freedom and do something that women truly want to do.

3.4.4. FACTORS AFFECTING DECISION TO WORK Despite the inequalities in terms of the division of household and childcare

duties and the impact on workplace and career opportunities, women and men are

often driven by the same ambitions when looking for work. A certain survey showed

the below results for the factors affecting the decision to work between the male and

female community with and without children.


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The most important factors when looking for a job are the same among both

men and women: a decent salary and reward opportunities are at the top of the list,

however job quality, career prospects and challenge are also important. This shows

that women have similar ambitions to men, and would like to have the same

opportunities and pay as men. For these most important factors, there is little

difference depending on whether or not the parents have children.

However, there are some other areas where there are more distinct differences

between men and women, and also a difference depending on whether or not they

have children. These variables are related to work-life balance, and finding a job that

is suitable to also meeting childcare and housekeeping commitments. For example,

74% of women without children said that suitable working hours are important when

they look for a job, compared with 64% of men without children. Among parents with

children, this rises to 82% of women and 66% of men.

Similarly, flexible hours, work/family combination and either a company

kindergarten or employer contribution to childcare are more important to women than

to men when they look for a job. This is particularly the case among parents with

children.

3.4.5. WOMEN AND THE CORPORATE WORLD

During the past decade, the environment for multinational corporations has

been quite volatile, with numerous challenges for the firms operating in this arena.

However, throughout this period there have emerged a number of women executive

leaders who have been recognized for their contributions to organizational excellence

and leadership. Invariably, a few years back women power was frowned upon and

they were not so welcome to hold and glorify the top positions of different corporate

houses. Despite this impressive increase of women in the workforce, they continue to

be underrepresented in managerial positions in the information technology (IT) field.

As more women enter the labor market, the focus has shifted from “women oriented

toward homemaking versus careers” to “traditional versus non-traditional careers and

identifying career patterns of women”.


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This shift reflects the changing career expectations of women in information

technology. They are more likely to remain in the workforce for significant parts of

their lives. This trend results in more women pursuing lifelong careers in their chosen

occupations, which should result in more women reaching top-level positions.

3.4.6. THE STATE OF REPRESENTATION OF TECHNICAL WOMEN IN

THE INDUSTRY THE NUMBERS AT DIFFERENT CAREER STAGES

Studies of technical careers in various industries have identified 4 archetypical

career stages. Those 4 steps have been broadly defined as:

• Apprenticeship (Step 1, entry level): Works under supervision and

demonstrates competence as a part of a larger project

• Individual Contributor (Step 2, mid-level): Responsible for defined projects,

works independently, increased technical competence and reputation, develops

a network

• Mentoring, Contributing through others (Step 3, Senior level): Increased

technical impact. Acts as a mentor, manager, or leader for stages 1 and 2.

Represents the group/project within organization. Broader business

perspective

• Setting strategic direction of organization (Step 4, Executive level):

Represents organization and vision to external and internal constituents. Power

and influence in the name of the organization. Prepares future leaders.

The proportion of women in technical careers drops significantly at stages 3 and

4, from 20% at the first stages to less than 3% at the highest stage.


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3.4.7. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PREFERED DESTINATION FOR

WOMEN

Girls in India go for softer skills such as Electronics and Communication and

Computer Science. This has led them to the IT destination. Hence, approximately one

third of the employees at Indian software companies are women. In fact, NASSCOM

puts the figure at 38%, which is higher than their western counterparts.

3.4.7.1 CAREER ORIENTED WOMEN IN MODERN INDIAN SOCIETY –

PRIVILEGES AND PROBLEMS

Indian women live in a noninterventionist society. The phenomena of

democracy and open education has bridged the abyss of inequality between the sexes

to a great extent. Modern education has allowed women to come out of the confines

of their home and, take active part in society and to work shoulder-to-shoulder with

men in every field. It is not to say that she has forgotten the valued customs but, she

has simply realigned herself. Nature has placed more compulsions on woman by

virtue of her being a mother. Financial independence is the key to self-reliance and

this is what drives women towards it.

Modern living has become costly and has become one of the reasons for her

accepting a job. It is especially true for the lower and middle class where, women

seek employment to sustain their family incomes. The women of the higher class too,

ardently seek jobs not because it easily gets them higher position, but they do it

chiefly to improve their social prestige and to uphold lavish lifestyles. Women also

look for employment to become more acceptable from a marriage viewpoint. It has

been seen that the groom’s family favour employed girls in comparison to sitting

girls. Earning women would be helpful in running the family seems the obvious

conclusion. But it is however not the end case.


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The pressure to adjust personal and professional lives sometimes becomes

agonizing with the result that one of them suffers. The working women may be

subjugated at their work places, face problems due to overtime or work at night hours

where security becomes an issue. In such case, profession doesn’t become a cathartic

gate but a bondage; this could then, never be the purpose of her employment because,

it doesn’t make her contingent. Nothing can take away the privilege of women to take

up jobs of their choice. Parents are now giving equal attention to the education of girls

and boys.

Daughters have been found to be dashing and achieving in their academic

fields. The Indian women today stand second to none. The society should learn to

respect her. At home the husband should learn to share the burden of running the

household. The wife should be treated like a co-partner.

The men have to give up their authoritarian role, as whatever he has, is also

contributed by his wife’s earnings. This feeling, if it gains ground would make life a

more pleasurable experience. After all, modernism in its essence is to exercise one’s

own choices freely in the good of all. Employment in the context of women can bring

good results only when they exercise it prudently. The liberty of modern social setup

should not lead to unopposed behavior. The power of social choices given to her, call

for virtuous use. The balance between personal fulfillment and social responsibility

must be achieved pleasantly.

3.4.7.2 MARRIAGE - A BOON OR BANE FOR WORKING WOMEN

Some of the women give up working, when their kids are really young

because, it is the mother who can play a significant role in shaping the lives of her

children. The foundation to a good life can be built when they are young and this can

only be attained when the mother whole heartedly, takes care of her children to this

pursuit by living at home and not going to work.


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Today, in most Indian households, the wife is a working woman. Rising cost

of living, children’s educational expenditure and the need for greater savings are some

of the primary reasons why a woman no longer wants to be tagged as a housewife, but

become a working member in the family.

Besides, women have become far more ambitious and are excelling in the

various professional roles, which they do not hesitate to pursue after their marriage. In

a middle-class family, with in-laws, there arises a need to have a double-income

structure.

Even though some women are not very keen on working as she is not very

well-qualified, she has to grab a job to provide financial support, as it is difficult to

run the house with just the husband’s salary. Besides, the job gives women a sense of

self-independence.

Though this may be the popular trend, not all married women opt for the

working role. Whether to work or not, after marriage, is a woman’s personal choice. It

is always a good idea for the woman to follow her career pursuits, even after her

marriage, as it allows her to live her dreams and aspirations, paving way for her

financial independence, as well as, enabling her to contribute substantially to the

income of the family, in this process.

3.4.7.3. SPOUSES AT HOME AND COLLEAGUES AT WORK

There has been a steady rise in the number of working women in recent years.

Many a time it is also noticed that the husband and wife are working in the same

office. Some organizations encourage the idea of spouses working with each other as

colleagues while, for others it is a nonnegotiable no. Of course, there are both pros

and cons associated with this practice. It would be convenient for the couple working

in the same company; as they spend more time with each other.


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They could cut down on travelling costs as they commute together. If the

female has any problems the male is easily accessible and being in the same

organization they can guide each other on work issues better. However, it is better for

all concerned that they do not generally interfere in each other’s work and give each

other the much needed space, which in fact would strengthen their relationship.

This trend is catching up well with working couples. Couples working

together need to know where to draw the line between their personal and professional

lives. It is after all not advisable to take work related problems home. Similarly, if

they fight on some personal issues they should not carry those arguments to the office

for the purpose of taking revenge. They should leave their personal relationships

behind and treat each other like colleagues while at work. Actually, it all depends on

the maturity level of the particular couple. In recent times, most progressive

organizations are allowing husbands and wives to work together. Couples working

together for the same company has become a healthy trend. It is noticed that a sense

of belongingness among such employees has increased compared to others.

They are more satisfied by maintaining work - life balance. However, if they

are working in the same team and apply for leave at the same time then it becomes a

problem. Often, ego clashes between them hurt the organization’s productivity.

Before taking such decisions they should clearly think if they are prepared to see each

other all day and night. Conflicts in the organization can heighten to such an extent

that it may ruin their personal relationship. In order to reduce stress and strike a

balance between their personal and professional lives working together in the same

office is good. However, it is important that they behave in an unbiased and

professional manner so that there is no scope for controversy. If this arrangement

works out well it is good for both of them as well as for the organization.

3.4.7.4. JUGGLING WORK AND FESTIVITY


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Deadlines at work to meet, a marriage at home as well as the upcoming festive

season keep women on their toes. Critical needs at work as well as social gatherings at

home and outside with their relatives and friends during the festive season can take a

toll on their time.

But, managing time between work and social bonding should be the key to a

happy and successful work and festive season. If women are planning to take some

days off from work, they should do so only after consulting their colleagues at work

and seniors. They must see whether there are any important assignments or meetings

coming up during the festive season that might want their personal attention.

Many working women, mostly who stay in joint families, often have the

trouble of juggling their work when dealing with the festive season. They need to

fulfill the needs at home. There is also a pressure from the family as it is the woman

who is supposed to be the hostess during the festivities at home and at social

gatherings. So, they may find it difficult to juggle work pressure during that time.

It is very important for the ladies to gain support, cooperation and confidence

from their family members, as it is essential to give enough time to both the activities

and not neglect one for the other. Many organizations also allow women to have the

liberty of working from home for a few days. And, with today’s technology anyone

can work from anywhere at any point of time. The key here is to be open to one's

seniors as well as to one's family.

It is essential to take timeout for oneself with a need to sit down and think for

themselves so as to prioritize their festive days as to which are more important and

cannot be held without them and on those days when women can share their

responsibilities with their relatives, spouse, parents and friends, doing justice to their

official work too.

There has to be a balance of both. One neither can keep working and ignore

one’s social and home life, nor can one expect to have a job and not allot time for it.

The time has come to think and decide upon their priorities to maximum enjoy a

wonderful festive season.


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3.4.7.5. EFFECTS OF LONG WORKING HOURS ON INFORMATION

TECHNOLGY PROGRAMMERS

It is a well known fact that the job of IT programmers almost always involves

working long hours. Many a time the project requires collaborating with people in

different time zones. In such cases employees have to stay back beyond normal

timings and finish their work. But all work and no play surely has a negative effect on

the physical and mental well-being of such employees. Long hours spent in office

compel some of them to think only about their careers thereby neglecting their

personal lives. For women employees, working long hours are all the more stressful.

In our society, it is the woman who has to bear the major brunt of household work. At the end of a long working day when she cannot fulfill family expectation

she feels incompetent. This gives rise to a conflict with her partner and children.

Working long hours has a negative impact on the organization as well. Employees

who are physically and mentally tired would be unable to put in their best. They

cannot come up with innovative ideas.

As a result, the productivity and profitability of the company gets affected

adversely. In order to minimize the ill-effects of long working hours, organizations

can impart proper training so that the work can be completed within the stipulated

time. Moreover, companies can recruit sufficient number of employees and organize

regular health check up campaigns for their well-being. It is sad but, true that the

culture of working long hours is harmful for the employee as well as the organization.

Therefore, the need of the hour is to take some realistic measures from both sides to

overcome this growing problem. After all, it cannot be denied that the output would

be much better when one has been in a relaxed frame of mind rather than by working

overtime.


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3.4.7.6 HEALTHY LIVING FOR WORKING MOTHERS

Women apart from juggling their domestic chores and office work should find

time for their Power Yoga classes at least thrice a week. It is a part of the ever-

growing brigade of health-conscious working mothers who are considering health as

the biggest asset in their life and are leaving no stone unturned to always be in the

pink of health. Rising cases of osteoporosis and different kinds of cancer in women,

has led women to take care of themselves, especially the working women. As a

working woman and a mother, they need to be on their toes all the time and it is very

important that they eat well. They even consult a dietician to keep a track of their food

habits and ensure that their food intake contains enough nutrients. Also there are

many women who visit dieticians, nutritionists and health experts to lead a healthy

and active lifestyle. Apart from a daily intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially

green leafy ones, women should also have plenty of fluids in the form of juices.

Women should avoid smoking and drinking. Working late-nights and endless meetings, take a toll on their body. Besides,

which they have to take care of their children. In a few families children are well-

taken care of by their in-laws and husband. To stay healthy, they make it a point to

never miss their morning jog/walk and their yoga sessions, apart from getting 7-hours

of sleep. Working mothers have complaints of not being able to balance domestic and

work life. They have to eat well and exercise. When the body is fit, the mind is

relaxed. Working mothers need to spend 15-20 minutes every day on themselves to

just relax and do nothing. Also, they need to unwind with their spouse and children

more often than not and avoid getting bogged down by office work. Women right

from packing off their children to school in the morning, to preparing themselves to

go to office, are constantly on their feet, putting themselves under tremendous stress.


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Prayer sessions have made them a lot more mentally agile and has given them

the strength to cope up with stress to a large extent. Thanks to many New-Age

techniques such as yoga and meditation, besides, learning from nutritionists,

dieticians and health care experts, working mothers are now exploring every

opportunity to keep themselves physically active and mentally healthy to lead a more

purposeful life, amidst the hectic lifestyle that they lead.

3.4.7.7 WORK-FAMILY ENRICHMENT: BENEFITS OF COMBINING

WORK AND FAMILY

Work-life balance is an issue of paramount importance to individuals,

organizations, families, government and society. Techno-economic changes have

increased the pressures on organizations and employees alike. It highlights the

inherent incompatibility between the role requirements of work and non-work life

(e.g. family). The underlying reasons are that work and family constitute two different

domains and have different set of demands and investments in terms of time, energy

and behavior.

Moreover, the increasing number of women in the workforce, nuclear families

and dual earning couples has made work-life balance a crucial concern for employees

as well as organizations across industries and occupations. The need for a balance

between work and personal life has become an integral element of expectation by

employers from employees.

Career success today is defined not only in terms of promotions and lucrative

assignments but also by the ability to balance work and non-work life. In this regard

helping employees to have a healthy work-life balance has become a challenge for

employers and human resource professionals. The level of work-life balance

significantly influences various individuals, families and organizations with relevance

to various outcomes such as employee health, employee commitment, job satisfaction

and family satisfaction.


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Time and energy being limited when invested in one domain is likely to

reduce the time and energy available for other domains. Hence, participation in

multiple roles leads to negative consequences such as stress and poor health.

Stress, a negative emotion and behavior arising from one domain (e.g. work)

often transfers to the other domains (e.g. family) affecting the performance in the

target domain resulting in work-life imbalance or work-family conflict. The conflict

and stress inherent in managing work and family responsibilities found to be

counterbalanced by the socio-psychological benefits that stem from participating in

work and family roles.

More recently, theoretical and empirical research on the other possibilities of

interconnectedness between work and family particularly, the extent to which work

and family can positively influence each other or benefit each other is gaining

popularity among researchers. Participation in multiple roles (e.g. work and family) is

found to be beneficial for employees, and these benefits are found to outweigh the

difficulties.

Positive affective states, attitudes, values, skills generated in one role are

found to positively influence the other role. The increasing emphasis on the positive

interaction between work and family is consistent with the emerging trends in positive

psychology and positive organizational behavior that focuses on the strengths and

optimal functioning rather than on weaknesses and malfunctioning of individuals as

well as social systems.

Working men and women in India do experience more work-family

enrichment than work-family conflict although there was no significant gender

difference in employee perceptions of work-family enrichment. Support from family

members and supervisors, nature of the job, work-life balance policies and family-

friendly culture of the organizations emerged as the significant predictors of work-

family enrichment. Work-family enrichment was found to positively influence

employee job satisfaction, psychological well-being, organizational commitment and

organizational citizenship behavior.


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Organizations do vary in their policies and practices with regard to work-life

balance. Some of the common work-life balance policies and practices across

organizations were found to be flexi-time and maternity leave with benefits.

Understanding the level of work-family enrichment of employees will

definitely help organizations develops strategies or take initiatives to help employees

effectively manage their work and non-work obligations. This, in turn, will ensure

employee commitment and extra role performance. Assessment of the perceived

organizational family supportiveness will help employers evaluate the effectiveness of

the existing culture and practices of their organization. They have taken risks and

have come out successfully as well. They have reached the space, swam across the

English Channel and have even become the Prime Minister and President of the

country. But, sometimes they still get to hear that women are not given what they

deserve at their workplace. This is due to the existence of a phenomenon called “glass

ceiling” in the corporate world.

The glass ceiling may be defined as an artificial barrier in a women’s career

which deters them from reaching senior positions or attaining high salary levels. This

particular term was first coined by Hymowitz and Schellhardt in a 1986 Wall Street

Journal Report on corporate women. While the word ceiling is used to indicate that

the advancement of women in their careers is limited the term glass is used because

the ceiling is not always visible. The barriers commonly include salary inequality for

the same work, discrimination in promotions, and lack of policies to maintain work-

life balance.

Generally consultancies won’t get any requirements from their clients who

specify, a salary range which is different for men and women applicants for a

particular position. This is of course a good sign. But some female employees in the

IT sector who were interviewed did complain of gender wage gap in-spite of the fact

that they possessed equivalent education and experience as compared to their male

counterparts. The gap in salary can be attributed to the fact that women are new

entrants in many occupations and are therefore denied the increased pay that comes

with experience. Organizations today are encouraging women to apply for open

positions. They are also implementing very liberal policies to help them maintain

work-life balance.


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Flexible working hours or telecommuting are some options to support women

employees. Women are well represented in almost all companies and they do not see

the existence of any glass ceiling that should hinder the progress of a women

executive. Whether a glass ceiling truly exists at work has now become a debatable

topic.

However, women executives should ignore such phenomenon, take risks,

voice their opinion assertively and climb up the corporate ladder. After, all it is all

about survival of the fittest in the corporate world.

3.4.7.8 CONTROLLING EMOTIONS AT WORK

It is the basic characteristic of humans to be emotional more so the

womenfolk. No matter how much balanced they may consider themselves, they still

react emotionally in a number of situations. Such impulsive behavior often results

from stress and are definitely not appropriate in the organizational context. Female

executives go through a lot of pressures in the professional and personal front.

They may not be comfortable working in a particular office but due to

financial needs they become compelled to do so. In such cases, they may not be able

to control themselves and give vent to their feelings in negative ways. No matter how

much they tend to be rational their emotions will prompt them to act. They might feel

irritable, frustrated or even angry. But they need to be careful enough so, that their

emotions do not get the better off them.

Ups and downs are a fact of life and they have to accept them as they come.

However, concentration on work becomes nearly impossible when women are passing

through an emotional turmoil. In order to cope with such a situation, the best way to

get out of it is to talk to someone they rely on. It can be their husbands, their

colleagues or even their children if they are grown up.


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Do not overdo to please everybody. Women have to learn to say ‘no’ when

they cannot stretch any further. Also they have to maintain a disciplined lifestyle.

When they cannot control their temper walking out of their cubicle and spending

some time in the company’s games room or library could be helpful. They can go for

a long drive with their family on weekends. In fact the less tiring they feel, the less are

their chances of reacting harshly with their co-workers.

When they have some problems in their personal life they tend to vent it out at

work and vice - versa. Women go through difficult situations at home and work. But,

they should be careful enough and particularly manage well their negative emotions at

work. This will help them maintain good relationships with their co-workers and

enable them to climb up the corporate ladder as well. Moreover, it will to some extent

take away the label that womenfolk are more emotional than men.

3.4.7.9. MANAGING MULTIPLE ROLES

In this highly competitive world, working women juggle many

responsibilities, demanded by their various roles. Striking a balance between their

work and family roles are essential for the physical and mental well being of female

employees. It has become high time that organizations address their needs so that they

can easily overcome this role conflict. Women wear multiple caps of being a mother,

wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, supervisor, among others. In each of these

roles, they are expected to perform to their level best. Everyone has high expectations

from them. If the kid is not getting good grades they are to be blamed.

If the food is not ready in time for dinner, again it becomes a women's

responsibility. If guests are arriving women are expected to stay back at home to

attend to them.


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Again, at work no excuses will be accepted for not completing the

assignments as per the set deadlines. They have to be perfect as a homemaker as well

as a career woman. Indeed majority of women particularly married ones who are

entering the workforce have been facing this role conflict. In today’s fast paced

environment there is no point sitting and cribbing on such issues. A good way to do justice to their various roles is by effectively managing their

time and gaining a little support from their family. Nowadays, shops in major towns

offer home delivery services. They can order their grocery items and other stuffs

using this service thereby, using that time in doing something else. If their family

permits, they can also go for home delivered food once in a while. Delegating

cleaning and washing responsibilities to a maid would also relieve them to some

extent.

Nevertheless managing multiple roles is highly stressful and often it so

happens that women executives develop various health problems like headache,

backache or eye strain. Some of them even fall prey to depression because of their

inability to manage everything at the same time.

However, a psychologist points out that the mindset of working women is

changing and often each additional role brings increased self - esteem leading to a

feeling of physical and mental well-being. Organizations, too are lending a helping

hand to encourage them. Some companies offer flexi - time policies to all their female

employees, help them out in paying bills and have crèche facilities for their kids

within their company premises. Times are surely changing. Managing multiple roles

is of course difficult but, not impossible. It is all about doing the right things at the

right time and meeting everyone’s expectations.

3.4.7.10. MOTIVATING WOMEN EMPLOYEES


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Motivation is a state of the mind when they have a strong desire to do certain

things. Motivated employees put in their best and produce excellent results. It is

important that employers identify and use the right motivational technique based on

the employees’ personality traits. Moreover, some recent researches indicate that

female employees do not always get motivated by using the same tactics as their male

counterparts.

It is the responsibility of the HR professionals to understand the psychology of

the workforce before implementing any motivational strategy in the organization. A

female executive working in the IT sector with long working hours and pressure from

the home front, get completely drained at the end of the day. They are on the verge of

quitting their job. The company should realize their difficulties and offer them the

option of working from home for three days a week. They would be much more

motivated by this gesture. It is a fact that a motivated employee sticks to the

organization, thereby reducing the rate of attrition. Males and females vary in their

needs. Hence, the techniques used to motivate male employees may or may not work

in case of female employees.

While promotions, salary, insurance benefits, career development,

opportunities for further education are primary considerations for men, women get

motivated by family friendly policies like flexi time or work from home option (in

addition to the above mentioned techniques). Women are traditionally family oriented

and are more emotional than men. They sometimes have a feeling of being ignored at

home and work. Taking this into consideration if you simply present a flower bouquet

or gift vouchers on special occasions or send an e-mail wishing them on birthday, it

will have a great impact on her.

Ensuring workplace security and safe mode of commuting also helps motivate

the female workforce. This holds true particularly for media professionals or those

working in BPOs or the hospitality sector because they have to work in night shifts.

Motivation is the key to creating a high performance workplace. It is all about making

their organization a fun place to work so that the highest quality results are delivered.


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3.4.7.11. ADAM OR EVE - AT THE WORK PLACE

There has been a steady rise in the number of working women in India.

Whether it is literature, business, politics, IT, or media female employees are no

longer a rare species in any of these spheres.

But the fact remains that these women, no matter what position they hold, they

still have to confront with their male counterparts at the workplace. In order to sail

smoothly in a man friendly corporate world, it is important that women deal with the

situation tactfully without blaming their biological status.

Although times are changing even today, some men have ego problems with

women sharing the same workplace as them. There has also been a perception that for

a female employee, a job is just a time pass, after all they do not need to support a

family! It is the responsibility of the women executives to resolve such issues either

with the help of their female colleagues or those male colleagues who are supportive

enough. They must develop a positive mindset and never suffer from an inferiority

complex because they belong to the fairer sex. Being themselves and not just a

woman, leaving all their inhibitions behind would put them on equal footing with

men.

In fact, every women whether working or otherwise has a lot of strengths

which can be used to their advantage. It is good to put forward their viewpoints in an

assertive and confident manner. If they are justified in what they are saying it will be

appreciated for sure irrespective of whether they are male or female. It is a universal

truth that women are more emotional than men. In spite of this, they should, never

let others take advantage of them by exploiting them emotionally. They should not

ask for any favors or expect special treatment from anybody just because they are

women.


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Any personal differences fostered by men against women or vice- versa

should be kept aside in the interest of the organization. In the workplace, people

should judge each other by their performance and professionalism only. Cooperation

and not confrontation should be the buzzword in the corporate world. After all gender

conflict will ultimately hurt the progress of the organization in the long run.

3.4.7.12 WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Times have changed. From the time the husband earned, and the wife stayed at

home, to the time now when the husband earns and the wife earns too. But, the wife

still cooks, washes and runs the house. So, it becomes difficult for her to balance work

life and home. Often, working women drop out of the work force when they are

doing well, simply because they wanted to stay at home with their children, or care

for an ageing parent, or for both reasons.

And then there are women who have children later in life because they want to

work for reasons of personal satisfaction or for the money. Experts believe that the

key to personal work-life balance lies in time management and realistic expectations.

The working women should refuse to take on too much. They should adopt a sense of

priorities.

If they have children, they should teach them to share responsibilities. But the

same is not applicable for their spouse. Surprisingly, a survey in the UK revealed that

a majority of men want a 50/50 partnership with their wives both at work and home.

They no longer see themselves as macho men. They want to spend more time with

their children. Has the Indian man kept a pace with the times? Can you achieve a

work-life balance? It’s a high level question, difficult to answer in this male

dominated country.


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3.4.7.13 WOMEN AS BOSSES

Women today have moved out of their homes and are occupying prestigious

positions in the corporate world. Names like Indra Nooyi, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw,

Anu Aga have become role models for one and all. Such achievements present a

promising picture for female employees across sectors. Women are more sincere and

detail oriented. They are also more accessible, understanding and compassionate. This

perhaps comes naturally to them. They can make people feel at home easily. When

employees are relaxed and comfortable they can carry out their duties efficiently. Men

on the other hand have a laid back attitude and are more assertive.

However, in Indian society we cannot really afford to write off male bosses

because it is they who have been ruling the corporate world from time immemorial. It

has been only in recent years that more and more women are coming to power. There

has been a lot of debate on whether men are better leaders than women or vice versa.

In fact this whole business of managing or leading is perhaps not gender dependent.

How effective one is as a boss depends entirely on one’s competence and not

on the gender. Moreover, it becomes important that one should not suffer from an

inferiority complex, working under a female boss. If women are occupying a superior

position today it is the result of their hard work and they deserve it. Everyone should

respect them and not dump them as good for nothing. There should never be any

issues accepting a female boss. This attitude is indeed a positive sign for women in

the corporate world.

The argument regarding which gender scores better as a boss still continue. A

woman does have certain limitations, but the fact is that they are no less as a leader

than their male counterpart. How well one performs as a boss perhaps depends on

one’s personality and not on the biological status that one belongs to.


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3.4.8. INDIAN WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

1.Akila Krishnakumar

Head of India for SunGard Technology Services

Akila Krishnakumar is the chief operating officer and the country head of

India for SunGard Technology Services. She plays a central role in managing

SunGard’s global product delivery model, working with more than 60 SunGard

business units across the globe. Ms. Krishnakumar began her career with Wipro in

customer support and application development before moving on to manage the

regional professional services for ICL-Fujitsu with focus on ERP and banking

solutions.

She joined SunGard in 2004 following the acquisition of an Indian product

development center, a business she helped to start in 1993. During this period, Ms.

Krishnakumar has built and led product development teams in banking, higher

education and the public sector.

Ms. Krishnakumar has extensive experience managing global product

development, where a key success factor is balancing the physical constraints of

globally dispersed teams with the need to bring development teams as close to the

customer and the market as possible to continually improve customer satisfaction. Ms.

Krishnakumar frequently speaks at industry forums about the IT services industry and

emerging market needs. She is widely recognized as one of the top women technology

leaders in India. Akila is much known and appreciated for her inclusive and uniform

gender based policies and strongly believes in the capability of women in the sphere

of technology.


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2.Kalpana Margabandhu

Leads the Web Sphere mission in IBM

Kalpana Margabandhu represents IBM in the CII Women’s Empowerment

Committee. With over 25 years of industry experience, she leads the Web Sphere

mission in IBM India's Software Lab. She strongly believes that for the progress of

women in the technical field should be a global priority. Kalpana is the Chairperson of the award-winning program, Indian Women’s

Leadership Council (IWLC). This program’s concern is not restricted for women to

just take on higher managerial posts but also technical jobs thereby enhancing their

technical, professional and personal development. Margabandhu believes diversity

can only enhance an organisation. With more women and minorities in its

management ranks, she says, the company has sharply increased the amount of

business it has done with a number of small and mid-sized minority and women-

owned companies in the US. She leads Adapters, WPG (WebSphere Partner

Gateway), WDI (WebSphere Data Interchange) and AIM (Application Integration

Management) development in India. Along with being a member of AP Women’s Council, ASEAN Women’s

Council, India Leadership Forum, and WIT (Women in Technology) Executive

Steering Committee. She has done Masters in Engineering from the Indian Institute of

Science, Bangalore. Hard work, focus on excellence and a positive attitude are

Kalpana's motto for success. She identifies, being accepted as the single largest

challenge to leadership in a predominantly male work environment. Kalpana’s

passion reflects in her words as she says “Though it may take some time, if a woman

has the required competence, and the will to stand up for it, she will be accepted as

the leader…”


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3. Revathy Kasturi

CEO at the Laqsh Job Skills Academy

A dynamic entrepreneur, and successful IT professional. Revathy Kasturi is

the founder and the CEO at the Laqsh Job Skills Academy. She was awarded the

Woman of the Year by Business Today for the year 2001. She has been on the board

of NASSCOM as an Executive Council Member for 6 years. She is also a charter

member of TIE Bangalore and is actively working on Fostering Entrepreneurship

Amongst Women through TIE for Women.

Kasturi started her career at Wipro in 1983 where she rose to become the

Chief Executive - Finance Solutions Division; heading a global software business of

$50 Million with 850 people operating out of 3 Development Centers. She then

founded Tarang Software along with some of her colleagues from Wipro, nurtured

and created a stable venture. She was the president of Tarang Software Technologies,

a global IT services company focused on e-learning and payment systems with 300

employees.

Prior to this Revathi Kasturi was Managing Director Novell - Asia West. Her

responsibilities included developing Novell’s business in India, Singapore, Malaysia

and the rest of South East Asia.

Revathi has over 27 years of experience in the IT Industry and has led

businesses engaged in Enterprise Software Development, Systems Integration,

Customer Support as well as IT hardware. She has intimate knowledge of the Finance

Industry having built and implemented solutions for Securities, Banking and

Insurance segments for well over 14 years. She received her Bachelor's degree in

Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in 1980.


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Revathi has been a speaker on various subjects related to Technology,

Leadership, and Entrepreneurship at both International as well as local events. While

Kasturi has moved on and is currently the CEO at the Laqsh Job Skills Academy,

Tarang remains a success story that would motivate a lot more women to try their

hands at entrepreneurship.

4. Dr. Nita Goyal

Co-Founder and Vice President of Tavant Technologies

Her strong sense of perseverance is reflected in her achievements, nurturing,

her carefully set goals and ambitions with utmost dedication and honesty. Doctor Nita

Goyal, is the co-founder and vice president of Tavant Technologies. She is also the

first woman to graduate in computer engineering from one of the Indian Institute of

Technology (IITs). She graduated in the year 1987 from IIT Kanpur.

She has an extensive experience in database applications, language design and

application development environments. She has presented papers at numerous

international conferences, published papers in international journals, and contributed

to a popular textbook - "Exploring Artificial Intelligence." Nita has a Ph.D. from

Stanford University in the field of artificial USA.

Tavant, a company offering global IT services and solutions, was born in

2000. Tavant Technologies is a collaborative commerce software solutions company

that enables manufacturers and brand owners to manage, streamline and enhance

multi-level distribution channels. Few years ago, she also developed Social Way, a

website addressing environmental issues by encouraging people to share items, and

suggest the ways to reduce the carbon footprint.


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5. Padmasree Warrior

Motorola - Chief Technology Officer

Padmasree Warrior joined Motorola in 1984, as one of the only few women in

its Arizona facility and she served in a broad range of roles over the course of her

twenty-three years at the company, eventually achieving the position of Chief

Technology Officer in its Semiconductor Products Sector, which became Freescale

Semiconductor. When named Motorola's CTO in January 2003, Warrior became

Motorola’s first female executive and in 2005 she was promoted to executive vice

president.

On December 4, 2007 she left Motorola to become CTO at Cisco Systems.

Padmasree Warrior was born and raised in the city of Vijayawada in the southern state

of Andhra Pradesh, India. She went to school at the Children’s Montessori School and

Maris Stella College in Vijayawada. Warrior received a bachelor’s degree in chemical

engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, from which she was recently

recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award. She holds masters in chemical

engineering from Cornell University and serves as an advisory board member at both

schools. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by New York's Polytechnic

University.

6. Srinija Srinivasan

Srinija Srinivasan is vice-president and editor-in-chief of Yahoo Inc. “Ninj” or

“Ninja” as she is known, was recruited by Jerry Yang and David Filo to organize the

content when they started the Internet company. Srinija Srinivasan holds a B.S degree

from Stanford University in Symbolic Systems and passed out with distinction.


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Vice-President and Editor-In-Chief of Yahoo Inc

She conducted course work in Japan and is proficient both in written and

spoken Japanese. Apart from this her professional and academic accomplishments

include summer intensive in Japan as researcher and programmer for Fujitsu

Laboratories. She published research papers in highly-acclaimed journals including

Government Information Quarterly and the Journal of Technology Transfer. Srinija

has appeared in top publications both locally and nationally, including The New York

Times and Fortune, was named one of "The Net 50" by Newsweek, and was selected

as one of the "40 Under 40" by San Francisco Focus for their second-annual brain

trust.

Prior to joining Yahoo! as the company's fifth employee, Srinija Srinivasan

was involved with the Cyc Project, a ten-year artificial intelligence effort to build an

immense database of human commonsense knowledge, via two companies:

Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) and Cycorp. At

Cycorp, Srinivasan independently managed the company's California-based office,

and helped develop the Cyc technology into innovative areas such as database

browsing and integration. Srinija manages Yahoo! Inc's team of Surfers and is

responsible for the design and maintenance of Yahoo!'s overall classification and

organization scheme, the foundation stones of Yahoo's system.

7. Hema Ravichandar

Hema has 27 years of experience as an executive, a consultant and a Strategic

HR Advisor behind her. She was Senior Vice President and Group Head HRD -

Infosys Technologies Ltd. and the Infosys Group, globally until July ’05.She designed

and drove the HR Agenda for Infosys as it scaled up from 250 to 39,000 employees in

the Group. This included leading efforts for screening more than a million resume

annually.


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Senior Vice President and Group Head HRD - Infosys Technologies Ltd.

She has vast experience in Human Resources Development, Change

Management, Leadership & Management Development, Off-shoring HR Processes,

Diversity and Anti- Sexual Harassment Initiatives and Immigration Scenarios. She

Designed and drove large scale HR interventions aimed at Future Proofing the

organization - Broad Banding, Role-based organizational paradigm, Compensation

Restructures, defined and institutionalized HR Business Processes for P-CMM, Six

Sigma and ISO certification and Incubated and led the HR Consulting Group in

Infosys with extensive client interactions specifically in the area of off-shoring HR

Processes – value-added Client Advisory, defining HR processes and mentoring client

HR teams.

Achievements/Milestones:

§ HR Professional of the Year Award – 2005 (2)

§ Outstanding HR Professional of the Year Award – National HRD Network -

2004

§ Lister, 25 Most Powerful Women in India List of Business Today – 2004

§ Lister, Successful Women Professionals of the Year List of Dataquest – 2004

& 2005

§ Lister, 25 Hottest Young Executives of the Year List of Business Today –

2002

§ Led Infosys HR to win : In India & In USA

§ Business Today- Hewitt’s Best Employer of the Year–Ranking#1in

2001&2002

§ Dataquest Best Employer Rankings in 2001 & 2002 and in top 5 2003& 2004

§ Business Today – Mercer Best Companies to Work - Ranking # 2 for 2004

§ Computer World’s Top 100 Companies to Work For – 2003 and 2004

§ ASTD’s Excellence in Practice Citation for Training Interventions

§ Optimas Award for Training Innovation for Progeon


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She is involved in individual social responsibility activities in the area of

nurturing merit among under privileged children and fostering use of senior experts

(www.senior experts.org) and she aspires to stay engaged on emerging HR issues on a

pan industry basis.

8. Shalini Kapoor

Executive-Architect IBM, India.

Shalini is the leader of Mobile Industry solutions at India Research Labs. She

is leading innovations in the area of emerging market solutions, social commerce and

smart planet solutions. Some of her technical innovations have addressed the

grassroots of the Indian population hence she has been the change agent in IBM.As an

Executive architect she has designed solutions for complex integration projects,

catered to several client engagements, provided architectural guidance to repeatable

solutions and led creation of Center of Excellences within several System Integrators

through focused technical programs for them. In her journey at IBM she has

technically led multi-million dollar deals and influenced client decisions in favor of

IBM technologies.

Shalini is the first woman in IBM India to be Senior Certified Architect and

one amongst the only 5 Senior Certified architects in India..She is a Distinguished

Lead Architect, as certified from The Open Group. She is a member of IBM Academy

of Technology and Co chair of IBM Technical Experts Council leading the

Hyderabad chapter. She has received several performance awards and is identified as

Techgen which is the IBM pipeline for Senior technical executives. She is a computer

Science engineer and Masters in Information Systems.


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Shalini indulges herself in creative pursuits including writing and reading

while she is not doing school projects for her 2 sons aged 9 years and 5 years. Her

husband is Executive Director Finance, Dell International. She attributes her success

to the balanced upbringing provided by her parents. She is a self made woman with a

sense of high achievement and positive attitude.

9. Rajani Seshadri

Vice President and Global Head-Telecom Pre-Sales Tata Consultancy Services

Rajani has over 25 years experience in the industry. Her experience in

building the business, delivering large scale transformations, coupled with thought

leadership has enabled her to be a strategic business consultant to CXOs of large

telecommunication companies and enabled them to achieve key business results -

Cost efficiency, Operational excellence and Innovation. Prior to the current

assignment, she led the TCS Telecom Europe Business for three years and in a career

of over 20 years with TCS has played a number of roles in Business Development,

Delivery and Process and Quality.

As a business leader, she builds strong professional connections with key

CXOs and brings a deep understanding of customer needs, strong domain skills and a

sharp focus on solving problems at both, the tactical and strategic levels. An advocate

of quality, she has been instrumental in institutionalizing policies and frameworks,

positively influencing TCS’s process excellence journey and enabling simplification

of its governance models. She has spearheaded the SEI-CMM, TL 9000 and Business

Excellence initiatives contributing substantially to transforming the telecoms business

for TCS. She is also an architect of TCS’s People Practices formalized when the

company was assessed at Level 5 of the SEI-People CMM model.


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As an active coach over the past ten years, she has groomed many young

leaders, who now lead businesses within TCS. As the MMA Outstanding Woman

Manager of the Year in 2004, she is often invited to speak at events that seek to

encourage women leaders both within the company and in external forums, on topics

ranging from telecom, leadership, women empowerment and diversity. She is a

member of the CII National and Regional Committees on Women Empowerment.

10. Revathy Ashok

Revathy Ashok has had successful leadership experience of over three decades

spanning variety of industries - Private Equity, software and IT enabled services,

manufacturing, infrastructure and real estate, international trading organizations in

senior management positions handling wide variety of portfolios, namely, raising

capital, business development, finance, commercial and other strategic general

management functions. She has experience in managing publicly listed and venture

funded entities, subsidiaries of Global MNCs and joint ventures of which last four

years were spent in real estate private equity. She has extensive experience joint

venture negotiations, structuring, equity financing, syndicated debt and investor

relations.

With her experience in helping set up companies from scratch and growing

them to scale, Revathy has a strong passion for working with emerging companies

and the start up eco systems. She frequently mentors entrepreneurs on their start up

ventures and has her own consulting practice. She is an active member of the Indian

Angel Network and has so far made four investments and is also currently involved in

helping IAN set up an incubator. As Managing Director, Head – Finance of Tishman

Speyer India, a large US based Real Estate Private Equity Fund with USD 53 Bn

assets under management she helped set up their operations in India and oversaw the

investments in excess of USD 150 Mn over four years.


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During her tenure with Syntel and the Microland Group as Group CFO

responsible for all their financial activities across the globe, she has dealt with leading

international and domestic financial investors and has successfully raised capital from

marquee investors. As Director Finance and Business Development, she was

responsible for setting up Tyco Electronics (erstwhile AMP) in India and played a key

role in the growth and financial success of the Group over the years being part of the

Top Management team responsible for providing strategic direction for the Group’s

rapid growth and expansion in India and was responsible for setting up two Joint

Ventures for the group, a wholly owned subsidiary in the Middle East and integrating

Tyco’s worldwide acquisitions in India.

Revathy has held several senior Board and Advisory positions. She is

currently an independent member on the Board of Welspun India, on the advisory

Boards of start ups and an honorary member on the board of Academy of Theater

Arts. She is a Charter Member, Secretary and Member of the TiE Governing Council,

Bangalore and a Member of the CII SPECIAL INITIATIVE ON CHAMPIONS

NETWORK working to establish linkages between large corporate and the high

potential entrepreneurial eco system.

In 2005, she was named as one of the 10 most powerful women in the Indian

IT industry by Dataquest. Revathy is a speaker at several industrial forums including

lectures at the Indian Institute of Management and other institutes. She earned a

bachelor’s degree in science from Mount Carmel College and is a gold medalist from

the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. She wants to use the tremendous

wealth and breadth of leadership and management experience behind her to

strengthen the start up , early stage eco system that would help create the next

generation leaders. Revathi wants to give back to society in the areas of education,

skills development and women’s empowerment.

3.5. CAREER AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

In addition to helping people acquire job-related knowledge, skills, and

abilities, employers have a stake in helping employees develop from both career and

personal perspectives.


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Career: While most people think the term career means “advancement” in an

organization, a broader view of career defines it as an “individually perceived

sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work-related activities and

experiences over the span of a person’s life.

Career development: A career development system is a formal, organized, planned

effort to achieve a balance between individual career needs and organizational

workforce requirements. For example, the organization has certain needs for staffing

and employees have needs to effectively utilize their personal skills.

Career development practices are designed to enhance the career satisfaction

of employees and to improve organizational effectiveness. It may be difficult,

however, to completely integrate individual and organizational career efforts because

the rate at which an individual grows and develops may not be parallel to an

organization’s needs. For example, many of the baby boomers in the workforce are

interested in advancing their present positions, yet are finding those positions to be

scarcer given the thinning out of management jobs in organizations due to

downsizings. With all of the recent changes in organizations (e.g., downsizings,

mergers, divestitures), it has become even more important to try to integrate the needs

of the employers with those of the employees.

Career development in an organization requires an examination of two

processes: career planning - how individuals plan and implement their own career

goals and career management - how organizations design and implement their career

development programs.

Career planning: Career planning is a deliberate attempt by an individual to become

more aware of his or her own skills, interests, values, opportunities, constraints,

choices, and consequences. It involves identifying career-related goals and

establishing plans for achieving those goals.

Career management: Career management is considered to be an organizational

process that involves preparing, implementing, and monitoring career plans

undertaken by an individual alone or within the organization’s career systems.


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3.5.1. CAREER STAGES AND CAREER MOVEMENT

• Pre-entry and entry. The interview process, becoming acquainted with the

organization and being pre-socialized into it.

• Basic training and initiation. Going through whatever probationary period

and rites of inclusion that mark new membership in the group.

• First regular assignment. A critical time for the new member. Success here

will be crucial for later success. The individual is made to learn the “ropes”.

• Second assignment. This point miffs the fully accepted member. Granting of

tenure. The individualist is made a “permanent” member.

• Termination and exit. Any rites of passage from inside to outside the

organization occur at this stage.

• Post-exit The individual is no longer a part of the organization.

Besides passage through these stages, Stein considered three types of career

movement. A person could move in the vertical direction, up and down the hierarchy.

The second type of career movement is lateral, that is, movement across the functions

performed within the organization-for example sales, marketing, and production.

Many job rotation plans provide this lateral movement in preparation for future

movement either vertically or radically. Radial movement, the third type of career

movement, occurs when the person becomes more or less on the “inside” of the

organization. While vertical career movement is “up and down” the organization’s

hierarchy, and lateral movement is “ side to side” across one level of the hierarchy,

radial movement is “from out to in” or “from in to out.”

The person moving radically inward is becoming more of an organizational

“insider,” moving closer to those that have organizational power. Radial movement

may be combined with vertical career movement as an organizational member

becomes one of the dominant coalition or ruling elite. The recently developed First

Nations Career/Life Planning Model offers practitioners a culturally appropriate

model for career counseling with First Nations youth. Originated by McCormick and

Amundson (1997), preliminary research has shown that the experience of the model is

congruent with First Nations worldview and values as well as provides an insightful

and motivating experience for youth participants (Neumann,McCormick, Amundson,

& McLean, in press).


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3.5.2. IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING CAREER DEVELOPMENT:

Today’s competitive business environment has forced organizations to

restructure and downsize, resulting in fewer hierarchical levels and traditional

promotional opportunities for employees. At the same time, there is increased

pressure to improve productivity at the risk of falling prey to larger corporations. The

creation of new technologies requires individuals to update their skills or else they

become outdated. A number of organizational change initiatives could have

unintended and undesired consequences for individuals. These include the following:

• Downsizing - jobs are cut from the organization.

• Delayering - jobs are reclassified more broadly, yet old reporting lines exist

to maintain managerial control.

• Decentralizing - responsibilities are reassigned from the corporate centralized

function to functions in each location or at lower levels.

• Reorganizations - company may be refocusing around core competencies.

• Cost-reduction strategies - the same work is dine with fewer resources.

• IT innovations - how the work is done is altered due to advances in

information technology.

• Competency measurement - skill sets required of employees are redefined or

measured in different ways.

• Performance –related pay - pay is linked to performance and used as a

motivator.

The Coca-Cola and Ford career systems require training for all managers in

how to conduct career development discussions with employees in the context of a

performance appraisal. The intent is to make managers more accountable for the

development of their employees.

3.5.3 CAREER ANCHORS

In addition to these stages, another concept that can help people understand

their jobs is that of career anchors (Schein, 1975). Career anchors are distinct patterns

of self-perceived talents and abilities, motives and needs, and aptitudes and values

that guide and stabilize a person’s career after several years of real-world experience

and feedback.


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Just as boats put down anchors to keep them from drifting too far, people put

down anchors to stabilize their career decisions and keep them within constraints. As

people reach their late-twenties and thirties, they have to begin making decisions

about which jobs to pursue and how to balance personal and work life. To avoid

erratic or random decisions, they develop these career anchors. If they sense that a job

or job situation is not consistent with their talents, needs, and values, their anchor will

pull them back into situations that are more congruent with their self-image. Research

has identified five specific patterns of anchors (Robbins, 1993) as follows:

• Technical/Functional competence: This anchor focuses on the actual content

of a person’s work. An integrating set of forces that describes an individual

who enjoys being an expert or specialist in a specific area of knowledge.

Someone with an accounting degree might find jobs outside of accounting as a

challenging one, yet inconsistent with his/her basic occupational self-concept.

• Managerial Competence: An integrating set of forces that describes an

individual who chooses to influence, guide and develop others. This anchor

emphasizes holding and exercising managerial responsibility. These people

seek situations where they can be analytical, and can utilize their interpersonal

skills, and exercise power.

• Warrior/Adventurer: An integrating set of forces that describes an

individual, who craves for variety in tasks and activities, prefers adventure,

and enjoys serving as a corporate “trouble-shooter”. These people are driven

by an overarching desire to create something that is entirely of their own

making. For creativity-anchored people, starting a new business, working in a

research laboratory, being a major player on a new project’s team, and

indulging in similar activities are important to their self-worth.

• Entrepreneur/Creative: An integrating set of forces that describes an

individual who prefers to be creative, innovative and challenged.

• Autonomy: An integrating set of forces that describes an individual who

prefers remaining free from corporate constraints, and also flexible and

autonomous.


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The overriding factor for some people in career decisions is to

maintain their liberty. They seek to minimize organizational constraints. These

people, not surprisingly, prefer small, organic types of organizations to work.

• Security: An integrating set of forces that describes an individual who is

concerned about the future and wants to create a lifestyle or a set of

circumstances to assure his/her finance or geographic concerns. For some

people, a key factor in career decision-making is work stability. A new

position with great opportunities and challenges but little job security would

be incongruent with these people’s needs. They prefer job and organizational

stability, employment contracts, good employment benefits, attractive pension

plans, and the like.

Thus, career anchor-perspective has both selection and motivational

implications. It can explain why dramatic changes in career focus are so

difficult for people to make. They require a great effort and are not likely to

occur very frequently. The perspective also explains why individuals may

have very different reactions to similar jobs. Any understanding of how job

characteristic will affect an individual who has to consider the dynamic

relationships between the job’s task attributes and the career anchors of the

person in that job.

3.5.4. STEPS IN CAREER PLANNING

• Building career paths (or ladders) for each category of employees. For

example: Software Engineer - Senior software engineer - Technical Leader –

Manager – Director - Senior Director - Corporate VP – CEO. These charts

should clearly mention: The job description – based competencies needed for

each post. The basis of advancement – whether time – bound or ‘as and when

vacancies arise’ or ‘seniority – cum-merit’. Fast track, if any, meant for

excellent performers.

• Preparing a manpower plan showing the nature of positions at different

levels, the type of people manning those positions and future replacement

needs.


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• Identifying employees (through performance and potential appraisals) who

have the necessary ability and willingness to climb up the ladder. For this

purpose, employees may be classified into four categories. Learners are those

employees who have high promotability but low performance at present.

Participants of training programs and recently promoted managers who have

not yet fully learned their new jobs are common members of this category.

Stars are those employees who are high both in performance and promotability.

Solid citizens are persons who though high in their current performance are low

in promotability.

i. Their low promotability may be either due to personal reasons or due to

organizational reasons. Among personal reasons one may include the

employee’s lack of ability or desire to move to a higher position or the lack

of skill in organizational politics.

ii. Organizational reasons may include: availability of fewer jobs at higher

levels, preference for outsiders, necessity to retain an individual on his

present post, and so on. Deadwoods are those employees who are low on

both the scales.

iii. It should be noted that out of the four categories, employees in the first two

categories (i.e., learners and stars) are on an upward track, while employees

in the last two categories (i.e. solid citizens and deadwoods) have reached

career plateaus, i.e. points where the likelihood of additional hierarchical

promotions is very low.

• Exposing employees to different functions and roles to enable them to

choose a career of their interest befitting their skill and competence. Exposure

should be coupled with counseling to help those employees who are unable to

make choice independently.

• Formulating and implementing training and development plans to impart

training to motivated employees interested in their advancement (i.e., learners

and stars).

• Periodically reviewing the career plan by finding answers to the following

questions: Are the job descriptions proper? Are the future manpower

projections valid? Are the training programs enabling employees to climb up

their career ladders? Has any square peg been put in a round hole?


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3.5.5. ADVANTAGES OF CAREER PLANNING

It creates awareness in the employee about the different paths of advancement

available to them. It convinces the employee that in order to advance one must

develop himself or herself in the required manner and that they cannot advance

merely by luck or through connections. It assures the employee about the

organization's concern for them and increases their loyalty. It reduces labour turnover.

The employees are encouraged to remain in the organization. It improves

organization’s image in the labour market. It reduces dependence on external sources

of recruitment.

3.5.6 FOUR COMPETENCIES IN CAREER MANAGEMENT

Career management assumed new dimension in the current scenario of

downsizing and flat organizational structure. The successful self-career management

supported by the organization requires four competencies.

• Optimizing career prospects. This competence involves the ability to envision

future opportunities, and having determined broadly defined goals, to create and

make one's own chances. It represents a form of well-considered opportunism. To

undertake optimizing process successfully, a particular set of skills and behaviour

needs to be brought into play. These skills include :

i. The ability to take a goal directed approach to career planning,

ii. To anticipate future business and life changes,

iii. To promote one’s own career interests,

iv. Making use of formally assigned or informal mentors,

v. Projecting a positive self-image by gaining attention for one’s achievements

and

vi. Working alongside the staff who are seen as high performers.

• Career planning - plying to your strengths. In career planning of employees, four

steps are involved viz.,

i. Review how far their work is using their skills and satisfying their needs and

interests.

ii. Identify their own development needs and what is required for effective

performance,


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iii. Obtain data from the experience of mentors, partners and other work

colleagues and

iv. Anticipate future changes and prepare for job opportunities that might arise.

• Engaging in personal development. Employers are no longer able to guarantee

lifelong continuity of employment or upward career progression. Therefore, more

attention is to be paid to personal development rather than career development alone.

• Balancing work and non-work. The concern to balance work and non-work is

clearly a function of career stage. Being able to define one’s own work priorities and

maintain one’s motivation in the absence of externally defined checks on

performance become increasingly important. The issue of balancing work and non-

work is problematic because of the competing demands of work and personal life.

The competence to balance work and non-work is required by all those in the

workplace because the relationship between the two is never static, but ever

changing.

3.5.7 THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Career development program involves three main ingredients: (1) assessing

employees in assessing their own internal career needs, (2) developing and

publicizing available career opportunities in the organization, and (3) aligning

employee needs and abilities with career opportunities.

• Career need assessment: A person’s career is a highly personal and

extremely important element of life. The basic stance of the organization

should be to permit each person to make her or his own decision in this regard.

The role of the personnel manager is to assist in this decision-making process

by providing as much information as possible about the employee to the

employer.

• Career opportunities: Realizing that employees have definite career needs,

there naturally follows the obligation of charting specific career paths through

the organization. Low-ceiling jobs, where there are limited opportunities for

significant progression, should be identified and made known to possible

applicants. Employees heavily affected by the “security career anchor” may

find these jobs to be highly acceptable.


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• Need-opportunity alignment: when employees have accurately assessed

their career needs and have become aware of organizational career

opportunities, the remaining problem is one of alignment. Greater emphasis

should be given to the more individualized development techniques such as

special assignments, planned position rotation, and supervisory coaching.

Special attention should be allocated to career progress and counseling. It will

be recalled that modern MBO programs incorporate personal development

objectives in addition to the more basic work objective.

3.5.8. DEVELOPMENT AS A SUCCESSION – MANAGEMENT TOOL

Many companies in the United States are experiencing or are about to

experience a shortage of top-level talent. One of the contributors to this growing

problem is the demographic makeup of the country. The second factor stems from

today’s highly competitive business environment:

The greater leadership demands being placed on senior executives now than in

the past is leaving a declining number of managers who have the capability to assume

true executive roles. To meet this challenge, it is likely that more emphasis will need

to be placed on growing internal talent. This means more of an emphasis on

succession planning, the creation of high-potential talent pools, and the accelerated

development of these high-potential employees.

3.5.9 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND CAREER SYSTEM

Since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, considerable time, effort,

litigation and financial resources have been devoted to creating equal opportunity to

members of what is now a very diverse labor market. Many equal employment

opportunity (EEO) laws have been enacted during this period. But beyond removing

artificial barriers to employment opportunities, firms can use high-quality career

management and assessment systems to enhance equal opportunity for all employees.

In firms with a variety of career management and assessment systems, all

employees, including women and minority group members, have access to

opportunities to enhance their careers and attain outcomes such as senior management

status and the accompanying compensation. They are more likely to have

opportunities that are equivalent to the opportunities provided to males.


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3.5.10. ESSENTIAL SKILLS REQUIRED FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT

3.5.10.1. Effective Leadership--An IT Perspective

"You can't teach what you don't know, and you can't lead where you won't go"

Today's education world is information and communication intensive, and

Information Technology (IT) professionals need to be empowered with the

knowledge, skills, and abilities that technology offers. Even with the enormous

potential and academic advantages that innovation and improvement of

communications afford, without the direct participation and support of an institution's

leadership, this power cannot be pushed to its full potential. IT leadership requires not

only many of the characteristics common to all leaders, but also requires special

abilities and insights into technology's impact.

According to Retired General Colin Powell (1996), leadership in the new

millennium will be essentially the same as that of Thomas Jefferson, George

Washington, or other great leaders of yesterday-it will require that people have a

vision of where they want to lead, how to choose the right people, and how to

accomplish objectives that flow from visions. Powell goes on to state the one major

difference affecting leaders of the 21st Century - the transformation occurring in our

nation's industrial, political, societal, and economic realms.

Accordingly, this transformation is occurring due to the fast-paced and

globally centered information and technology revolution. All leaders positioned

within this new era must be able to use the powerful tools offered by this global

revolution.

3.5.10.1.1 An Emerging IT Leadership Paradigm

Some people see the leader as a motivator, while others define a leader as one

having extraordinary vision and decision-making power. Several noted authors in the

field offer sound definitions of leadership. Senge (1990) defines leadership in this

manner: Leaders are designers, stewards and teachers. They are responsible for

building organizations where people continually expand their capabilities to

understand complexities, clarify vision and improve shared mental models--that is,

they are responsible for learning.


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Dede (1993) states that the true nature of leadership is exemplified by four

attributes: envisioning opportunities; displacing cherished misconceptions; inspiring

others to act on faith; and encouraging followers. Cronin (1989) presents a list of

important leadership qualities: intelligence, wisdom, judgment, self-confidence, etc.,

The National School Boards' Association (NBSA) (1998), stresses that the IT leader

must foresee leadership ability in others, as technology mentorship has become

increasingly important.

Dubrin (1997) defines leadership as the "key dynamic force that motivates and

coordinates the organization in the accomplishment of its objectives". Dubrin further

states that leading is an art that is influenced by example or persuasion to effect

action. Bennis and Nanus (1985) argue that leadership is "the pivotal force behind

successful organizations" in developing a new vision. White (1997) states that the

most effective future leaders will build upon the skills of the past and present. White

adds that to successfully lead others in the midst of constantly changing

environments, leaders need to capitalize on the best strengths of past leaders, while

staying flexible to explore unexpected byways, and taking calculated risks. IT leaders

will be learners who constantly test themselves, because learning is a pivotal force

and the gateway to survival for the future.

The changing nature of the workforce, one that is increasingly diverse and

facing new issues such as downsizing and declining corporate loyalty, requires a new

type of leader--one who can unite a nation lacking confidence and one who can

become flexible and mindful of the constraints of living in an increasingly borderless

environment brought about by advanced telecommunications.

According to Capowski (1994), leadership for the IT era must focus on

encouraging and sustaining corporate nurturing and provide an atmosphere where

innovation is encouraged and creativity is rewarded.

A view of leadership offered by Burns (1978) argues that leadership is better

understood as a political relationship emerging from the "chaotic, reciprocal

interaction among people with potentially conflicting goals, values and ideals" --all of

which impact the new technological era in which we are immersed. Thus, IT leaders

should focus on ways that organizational structures and systems, human nature, moral

order, value development, effects of personal choice, and personal similarities and

differences have upon ability to effect change.


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A new definition of leadership, stressed by White (1997), is that effective

leaders will identify productive areas of confusion and uncertainty that exist in

society, will demonstrate that they do not have all the answers but are willing to learn,

and will be able to "act differently, think differently, and seek inspiration from

different sources" than leaders of the past. A combination of inherited leadership traits

combined with effective leadership training, deep insight into new technological tools

and advancements and their impact on the future, strong corporate nurturing, and

repeated practice could yield the best result--a well-rounded, skilled, and instinctive

IT leader.

3.5.10.1.2. Essential Qualities of the Effective IT Leader

In describing the qualities of an effective leader, Winters (1997) admonishes

that organizations are in need of "bold, visionary and spiritually-grounded leaders

who are prepared for the challenges of the 21st century" (p. 1). Among a list of

desirable traits, she characterizes a leader as being one who has the audacity to take a

stand on the unpopular or unheard of, takes a creative position for the well-being of

his/her team, empowers others to become a part of a vision, and exhibits the faith and

stamina to effect a change simply because it is right. An effective leader is a model

for the rest of the organization: i.e. a "self-achiever" whom everybody admires, an

innovator and an early-adopter of IT.

Leaders must be able to cope with complex technological change in their

organizations (Kotter, 1993). Kearsley and Lynch (1994) admonish that general

leadership skills are not sufficient in IT enriched environments. They state that

"specific technology-related knowledge is required" , and it must directly relate to the

tools, medium, strategies, and competencies found within this culture. Not only must

the IT leader possess the competencies to use and evaluate these tools, but he/she

must also have the insight into the impact these tools will have on the future of

organizations. Horgan (1998) stresses the ability to develop a shared vision for

technology within an organization. Kinnaman (1996) further admonishes that IT

professionals must be "empowered and expected to investigate the enormous potential

of technology" to bring about innovation and improvement with direct participation

and support of an institution's administration.


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Alter (1999) and Avant (1996) stress that today's IT leader must possess

analytical and listening skills as true listening involves insight into what will work

today, tomorrow, and in the future. The IT leader must take the initiative to try new

methods without fear of failure--an enormous task facing the IT leader when deciding

on solutions to technology-related issues within their scope of influence.

According to McAdams (1997), agility to succeed in a rapidly changing world

requires cooperation, organization, enrichment of ideals, and strong commitment to

change-all important skills that the systems-level thinking IT leader would do well to

adopt.

According to the current literature, IT leaders for the new millennium--a world

of vast technological advancements and high tech tools--should possess the following

characteristics:

• VISION--a knowledge of the future and how to get there (Powell, 1996)

• INTEGRITY--absolute dedication to doing what is right (McAdams, 1997)

• TRUST--ability to nurture the "leader" in others (Dede, 1993)

• SELFLESSNESS--an idea that their existence is to serve their followers

(NSBA, 1999)

• COMMITMENT--passion as seen through caring, concern, and building

perpetuation (Horgan, 1998)

• CREATIVITY--seeing the world as a series of opportunities with fewer

barriers than possibilities (White, 1997)

• OPEN-MINDEDNESS--always ready to try new ways of doing things (Kotter,

1993)

• TOUGHNESS--knowing in their heart-of-hearts what is needed and

demanding that it be done (Cronin, 1989)

• ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE--keeping abreast of what's going on--

connected (Elgin & LeDrew, 1999)

• ABILITY TO LISTEN--knowing how to keep quiet yet informed (Alter,

1999)

• CALCULATED RISK-TAKING--open to possibilities, questioning

assumptions and taking a stand (Capowski, 1994)


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• INNOVATIVE--without fear of failure (Avant, 1996)

• VISIBILITY--a sense of community (Fitzgerald, 1996)

• INQUISITIVENESS-constant questioning and probing for answers

(Rosenbach and Taylor, 1993)

• INTUITION-possesses new insights and different perspectives (Bennis and

Nanus, 1985)

• ACTION-ORIENTATION--willing to do something for the good of the

organization (Kinnaman, 1996)

• CANDIDNESS--ability to be forthright yet still have compassion and empathy

(Winters, 1997)

• TENACIOUSNESS--inability to give up or let others do so (Lambert, 1998)

• ABILITY TO NETWORK-a team builder (Wunsch, 1992)

The IT leader must be a self-achiever and should be motivated to become a

proactive leader and role model. Changes in technology often produce a "chaos

situation" where change management in the use of instructional technology in

teaching and learning becomes increasingly important (Fitzgerald, 1998). The IT

leader must be ready to embrace that change.

The field of IT leadership will be of extreme importance in the new

millennium as technology (equipment, software, hardware, and infrastructure)

continues to advance rapidly and change becomes imperative. The importance of 21st

Century IT leadership can best be summed up by Fitzgerald (1998) in the following

passage from Living on the Edge: Complex events, and chaotic developments and

trends in our modern world are confronting business leaders with a compelling

mandate for change of unprecedented proportions. And not just any old change will

do...In this world of turbulence and flux, no change short of profound transformation

will suffice. It seems certain that the "new realities" of chaos, complexity, and

discontinuous change are here to stay.

Globalization, fierce competition, the remarkably diverse workforce, the

continuing explosion of information and technology, economic and social upheaval

are only a few of a plethora of signals from the marketplace we must begin to heed.

The message is clear: If survival is the aim, change is the game-change not only in

how our work gets done, but in how we think about our work, our enterprises,

ourselves and our lives.


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3.5.10.2. STRESS

In our observation, stress is a self developed pain by thoughts. When a person

expects more than what he actually deserves for his work, or when a person thinks it

is beyond his capability, and still continues to do it, he gets a mental illness. This

illness could be stated as stress. There are chances for this stress to break a person,

both, internally and externally, and so, it is wise to adapt ways to handle it, at the right

time. The two main classifications of stress are Eustress and Distress. This

classification is shown clearly in fig 1, below.

• Eustress is a positive stress. It is caused by continuous success and when

expectations become higher. This develops the sense of urgency and alertness

needed for survival when confronting threatening situations. Hence, stress to

hold their position becomes more.

• Distress is a negative stress. It is caused due to disappointments, failures,

threats, embarrassment and other negative experiences. This can result in

distrust, rejection, anger and depression which eventually may turn out to

manifest as headaches, stomach upsets, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, high blood

pressures, etc. And this can have harmful effects over one’s physical, mental

and spiritual health.

3.5.10.2.1. DO’S AND DON’TS TO COME OUT OF STRESS

Do’s:

• Yoga

• Relaxing Exercises

• Cultivate hobbies


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• Alternative solutions

• Adopting problem solving techniques

• Listening to good music of favorite genre

• Spending more time with kids and pets

• Going for a long walk

• Light scented candles

• Curling up with a good book

• Having a conversation with old friends

Don’ts:

• Taking more sugar, chocolates and sweets

• Intake of excess caffeine (coffee), sodas, tea

• Consuming alcohol

• Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or computer

• Taking out your stress on others like lashing out, angry outbursts, physical

violence

• Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing problems

• Chewing tobacco, cocaine, heroin and other drugs

• Shopping and gambling sprees

3.5.10.3 MENTORS-THEIR ROLE IN CAREER PLANNING

A mentor is someone older and more experienced, who is willing to provide

career guidance and social support to a younger protege.

The mentor contributes to the development of young managerial talent in the

organization, experiences satisfaction through helping another and through the

protégés career successes, and receives confirmation of his importance and status

from the protégé. The protégé obtains career benefits that may include sponsorship

within the organization, increased exposure and visibility to senior management, help

in receiving challenging assignments, being coached in “learning the ropes” of how to

achieve in the organization, and protection from others in the organization who might

want to harm the protege’s career.


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There are also social support benefits for the protégé. These include the

friendship and counseling of the senior person, a role model to emulate, and the

security of being accepted as an important organizational member. The benefits for a

junior member in an organization are so strong and varied that it would be wise to be

open to developing such a mentor-protégé relationship. But there are potential costs as

well.

First, a typical mentor-protégé relationship goes through the four phases of

initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition. The separation phase is one with

potential for conflict as the protégé seeks independence and more equal relationship

with the former mentor.

Second, mentors may have enemies in the organization who dare not confront

the senior person. They may instead attack that person’s protégés who are less able to

defend themselves. Third, potential female protégés confront distinctive mentoring

problems.

These systems rest on the premise that although everyone gets developed, only

a select group qualifies for accelerated development. Because this type of

development is expensive and intense (e.g., it includes “stretch assignments,” expert

feedback and coaching, and special assignments), companies need valid tools for

identifying people who will receive this talent-pool designation. This talent-pool

designation should not offer any presumption of upward mobility – staying in the pool

and subsequent promotions need to be based on performance and achieved

development. Thus, high-quality performance management and appraisal practices

will be needed.

3.5.11. GLASS CEILING

The term glass ceiling refers to situations where the advancement of a person

within the hierarchy of an organization is limited. This limitation is normally based

upon some form of discrimination, most commonly being gender and race. This

situation is referred to as a "ceiling" as there is a limitation blocking upward

advancement, and "glass" (transparent) because the limitation is not immediately

apparent and is normally an unwritten and unofficial policy. The "glass ceiling" is

distinguished from formal barriers to advancement, such as education or experience

requirements.


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3.5.11.1 Breaking the glass ceiling

Ann Morrison and others (1987) determined six lessons for success by

interviewing 76 women and analyzing their experiences. The executive women must

channel her efforts to meet each of these issues.

• Learn the Ropes - It is imperative to listen to others, to network, and to determine the

rules and expectations necessary to your organizational survival.

• Take control of your career - Instead of relying on the system, human resource

professionals, or a mentor, it is necessary that you take control of your own career.

Seek out and ask for the jobs that will lead to the top while avoiding critical career

mistakes.

• Build Confidence - Develop the self-confidence that will allow you to acquire the

confidence of others. It may be necessary to take on risky assignments (and make sure

they succeed) and to become successful at outside activities.

• Rely on others - No one can do the entire job alone. It is important to develop and

use a network of supporters in your career. These include mentors, bosses, and role

models as well as subordinates.

• Go for the Bottom Line - A focus on results will not be wasted. The right actions

must be taken and with good results. While a sole emphasis on performance is not all

that is required to achieve success, it is a strong prerequisite.

• Integrate Life and Work - It can be difficult to compete with others who devote a

majority of their time to work without doing the same.

Sacrifices may be necessary in order to achieve success, with career coming

first and other life responsibilities fitting in to the remaining time.

3.5. GOALS FOR SUCCESS

Success is a measure of how well your achievements match your life and

career goals. There are several important points to consider about success. First, in a

career, how much progress has been made up the hierarchy.


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The person wishing to reach the top must be willing to work extremely hard

and put in long hours, to travel, often be willing to relocate, and sometimes to work

on weekends and in the evenings at home.

They need to be able to supervise others and to relate effectively with client

users. They have to be ready for promotion and effective performance at the new

level means that the new skills needed must be learned before promotion is attained.

3.6. CONCLUSION

Major road block for women who aspire to achieve and succeed in

organizations are the constraints imposed upon them by society, family and women

themselves. These constraints are referred as myths fostered and sustained with

preconceived ideas and unsupported evidence, which generate guilt in women. This

study may also lead to the development of a hierarchy of factors that assist and

barriers that hinder women’s career development. This study also develops an in-

depth understanding of the impact of career development on life changes of women

executives in information technology sector.


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