Media Coverage

No takers for computer courses

By Neharika Mathur in New Delhi

Dr.The dotcom bubble burst a long time ago. Now it's come full circle - computer training centres across the Capital are closing down. Even reputed companies like NIIT, Aptech and Arena Multimedia are shutting shop. It may be attributed to the high costs of learning and shrinking job opportunities. The threat of abolishment of H1-B visa, which used to provide almost 50 per cent computer-savvy Indians the opportunity to migrate to the US, hasn't helped matters.

Computer training institutes place the blame on individual franchisees. "It is up to them to attract enough customers," says an official from Arena Multimedia. But customers are not too happy.

Says Neeraj Gupta, a resident of Munirka, "This area has seen a lot of ups and downs as far as these institutes are concerned. In the past seven years, institutes ranging from Arena Multimedia, First Computers and NIIT have opened and shut outlets here. Their periods of operation ranged from a few months to a few years, depending on how popular the institute is. NIIT used to be a landmark for almost six years, but even it has shut down." The reasons?

The Arena Multimedia head office gives a curt reply, "Our courses are for programming, not general computer literacy. And there we do have monopoly." But what about the centres which have been closing down? "These are all franchisees and must have closed down due to individual problems." Officials at South Extension's Aptech centre do admit they have had to reduce their rates to net more students. To compound the issue, schools have taken up computers as a compulsory subject. At the plus two level, one can even do languages like C++. So people are no longer interested in spending huge amounts for the same qualifications. There also are government-run centres with subsidised rates and qualified teachers, which seems to have found favour with the college-going crowd. "Who would spend thousands of rupees on a computer course at a private institute that can be done for Rs 500? Also, the government centre is bang opposite our college at South Campus," says Prateek Gupta, a student of RLA College. Prateek is pursuing the computer course only because it means an additional diploma. "There is hardly any demand for only computer-qualified professionals now. We have to go in for MBAs and engineering courses to enhance our chances."

Jeevan Asija, director of Bytes Infosys India Ltd, a C-DAC training institute, is more forthcoming. "There are multiple reasons for the popularity of these institutes taking a nosedive. But the biggest reason is the overcrowding of the market by such institutes. They had kept profit margins at 300 per cent, but the charms have all disappeared. Institutes used to promise instant placement after a three-year course, but these were back-office jobs paying a paltry Rs 2,000 a month," he says. Asija says the approach is completely wrong. "In India, imparting education is akin to a religious act and educational institutes are looked up to as temples of learning. But these institutes sell themselves as shops selling commercial goods." Another reason for the dwindling interest in computer training is the large number of people with computers at home. Says a teacher at an Aptech institute in Malviya Nagar, "The new students are already familiar with the basics because they have the machines at home. Windows, the most popular software, is extremely user-friendly and easy to master. The rest they can learn through on-the-job training." Chakresh Jain, the CEO of CAD Studio at South Extension, admits the popularity of computer training institutes has taken a dip. "Earlier, even large companies did not have well-equipped computer labs. But now there has been a lot of on-the-job training. We have had to reduce the rates of some of our courses because of competition from the unorganised sector." Asija still feels it is not a crisis situation. "If we offer reasonable rates and provide sound training, there is no reason for people to ignore us. We should stop talking and start delivering."

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)organized a three-day training cum workshop from 25th to 27th June 2003, in Delhi for the technical professionals working in all the nine CoIL-Net Resource Centres in India. CoIL-Net is a special package developed by the Ministery of Communciations and Information Technology (MCIT). Government of India, for the net sueers and common people of the Hindi heartland stages - Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttranchal, Madhy Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajsthan. The entire database is in Hindi. There are nine CoIL-Net centres and each one has been assigned a specific task. The area covered by them are E-education; E-health; E-business; E-Herbs etc. But the experience of IGNCA is different from the others as the Centre is working on cultural heritage. The data available on cultural heritage cannot be kept in a universal model. Since the basic aim of CoIL-Net is to make available database to all, IGNCA worked out a model, with a little innovation and appropriate use of the available technology. This Training cum Workshop is a benchmark in this direction.

The Inaugural session began with the chanting of Manglacharan by Dr. Ajay Mishra, Dr. Om Vikas, Senior Director, (MCIT), Government of India, graced the occasion with his presence as chief guest. Dr. Om Vikas also participated in discussion on all three days of the workshop and shared his experience with the participants as a curious learner. three senior officers from MCIT, Dr. Pradeep Chopra, Additonal Director, Dr. P.K. Chaturvedi, Additional Director, and Shri Manoj Jain, Assistant Director attended all the sessions of the Workshop.

Dr. Pradeep Chopra explained the significance and use of XML for the database. he stressed that, "Instead of knowing what is XML, as scientists we must ask why XML? If we are able to answer this question the very purpose of organizing this workshop is met. We should also work in cooperation with one another to ensure that the project is successfully over within the stipulated time frame", he concluded.

Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra, Co-Investigator, IGNCA, shared the experience of the CoIL-Net project of IGNCA. The Cetnre has achieved wonderful success. We have digitized 2400 page of text and a huge quantum of audio, video material, graphics, sketches etc. The Centre has also made a format of guidelines for collecting and documenting the data from various cultural pockets. This format of guidelines was distributed among the participants of all the Resource Centres during a workshop in the BHU, Varanasi, in the month of May 2003 with a response sheet to offer their opinion about it. We have received acknowledging comments from most of the Centres. The laurels and appreciation we have received are the true indicators of our success.

Prof. Indira Nath Choudhri, Member Secretary, IGNCA congratulated the IGNCA team of CoIl-Net for achieving the target. He also urged people to think in terms of coordinating thoughts with action and adopt measures to sustain the tradition of philosophic orientation of India and other countries in our region. Senior professors IGNCA, Prof. G.C. Tripathi, Prof. R.K. Bhatrtacharya and Dr. L.M. Gujral also interacted with the participants during the Workshop.

At present, all the Centres had created their database in HTML which is a presentation based programme. Cascading style sheets used in HTML are not powerful. As a result it was a very difficult task to address individual elements in this technical language. An alternative language was therefore immediately required to arrange all the information in a universal and web enabled pattern. Instead of what a document looks like, the XML describes what a document means. This excellent technical ability of this language makes it an appropriate language to be sued universally by all. C-DAC, a Pune based IT Company has the required professionals who could sensitize and train the computer professionals of all CoIL-Net Resources Centres.

Among those who participated in this workshop were: Dr. Om Vikas, Dr. Pradeep Chopra, Dr. P.K. Chaturvedi, Shri Vijay Kumar, Shri Manoj Jain and Shri Somnath Chandra, Dr. Rajendra Sahu, Shri Parag Dewan and Shri Paras Mahrotra, Shri Akash Saini, Ms. Kanupriya Bansal, Ms,. Pratishtha Mathur, Shri Naveen Gupta, Shri Ratna Shankar Mishra, Shri Ahri Abhisheki Singh, Shri Anurag Srivastava, Prof. D.P. Singh, Shri Mahendra Prasad, Shri Abhishek Mitra, Shri Anshuman Sinha, Ms. Hema and all technical members of Cultural Informatics Lab (CIL) of IGNCA. The trainers came from the C-DAC Pune and Delhi.

The workshop concluded with drawing up of a detailed plan, to make the project target oriented and time bound. The MCIT officials appreciated the work done by IGNCA and also requested IGNCA personnel to help other Centres in achieving their target.