Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Vodacom’s Maziv deal gets makeover ahead of crucial hearing

      18 July 2025

      Cut electricity prices for data centres: Andile Ngcaba

      18 July 2025

      Takealot taps Mr D to deliver toys, pet food and future growth

      18 July 2025

      ‘Oh, Ani!’: Elon’s edgy bot stirs ethical storm

      18 July 2025

      Trump U-turn on Nvidia spurs talk of grand bargain with China

      18 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Samsung’s bet on folding phones faces major test

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      OpenAI to launch web browser in direct challenge to Google Chrome

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025
    • In-depth

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

      10 July 2025

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | Samsung unveils significant new safety feature for Galaxy A-series phones

      16 July 2025

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025
    • Opinion

      A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

      15 July 2025

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » IT services » What South Africa can learn from India’s IT boom

    What South Africa can learn from India’s IT boom

    By Duncan McLeod6 July 2022
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Harish Lala

    India has valuable lessons that it can impart if South Africa wants to build a fast-growing IT services industry, with education and skills development a priority to reduce the impact of the flight of talent to developed markets.

    That’s the view of Harish Lala, senior vice president and regional head for Africa at Bombay-listed Indian software and services giant Zensar Technologies.

    South Africa, Johannesburg-based Lala said in an interview with TechCentral, is seeing an escalation of emigration of IT talent to other markets. This, he said, is something India experienced in the early 1990s, just as the technology industry there was starting to emerge.

    “Even if you have a brain drain in India now, the IT industry doesn’t feel it…

    Despite the loss of key talent to markets including the US and Europe, India still managed to grow a significant IT services sector – to the extent that it became, and still is, the “software engineering hub of the world”, Lala said.

    That didn’t happen by accident. “The Indian IT industry invested a lot in building new capacity,” he said. There was a big focus on getting schoolchildren interested in technology as a career, which paid off handsomely. Today, India churns out between 600 000 and 800 000 tertiary IT graduates per year.

    “Even if you have a brain drain in India now, the IT industry doesn’t feel it, because there is more and more talent coming into the industry every year.”

    Zensar alone, Lala said, has hired 2 000 new recruits, representing 20% of its workforce, in the past 10 months. “South Africa, unfortunately, doesn’t have that sort of scale.”

    Mature

    Because India’s IT industry is now so big and mature, it has even begun to lure back expats who’d left the country for opportunities abroad. This talent is helping grow the sector even further.

    South Africa, with the right collective initiatives in place, can achieve the same, he said. But this will require getting children in grades 8 and 9 excited about technology subjects and keen to embark on careers in IT.

    “Every company in future will be a technology company at the core. The awareness of that fact at the ground level [in South Africa] is not good.”

    Part of the reason for India’s success in IT services was that the private sector in 1988 created an organisation called Nasscom – the National Association of Software and Service Companies – whose sole focus is the development India’s technology industry.

    Nasscom, which is headed by a rotating chairman – usually the chairman of one of the country’s IT companies – interacts with government, education institutions and other stakeholders to help develop the sector. The creation of this body, Lala said, brought “a lot of new ideas to the table”, providing the impetus for significant growth.

    Among its current initiatives is a programme to promote 10 000 Indian start-ups in 10 years.

    According to Lala, South Africa has a big opportunity to follow India’s lead, particularly when it comes to developing the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, for which the country has particularly strengths, and then graduating to IT outsourcing.

    Zensar’s South African office already provides IT services to European markets and has been doing so for the past 18 months. It has about 30 people servicing this role. “It’s the same time zone and there’s no culture barrier. South Africa might not be as cost-competitive as India, but it is cost-competitive compared to many countries. This could create a lot of new opportunities. We are trying this model internally and our first experience has been great. It should grow very nicely in the next few years,” he said.

    The challenge is to increase the supply of skills.

    Raw talent produced by the computer science departments at South African tertiary institutions, including universities, is often not be aligned to the needs of the market. “The finishing school layer is missing in South Africa, and that’s an opportunity for the industry [to develop a solution].”

    A challenge for South African companies is that when they develop skills, those skills often leave once they have built up some credibility. South Africa has no choice but to “get past that hump”. Everyone, he said, has to invest, even if those skills end up leaving. “There is no other way to do it, to be honest.”

    About 12% of Zensar’s total revenue comes from South Africa. The company has a 1 600-strong workforce in the country. Lala described South Africa as a strategic market for the company.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media



    Harish Lala Nascomm Zensar Zensar Technologies
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleApple devices to get ‘Lockdown Mode’ to fight spyware
    Next Article China accuses US of ‘technological terrorism’
    Company News

    Vertiv to acquire custom rack solutions manufacturer

    18 July 2025

    SA businesses embrace gen AI – but strategy and skills are lagging

    17 July 2025

    Ransomware in South Africa: the human factor behind the growing crisis

    16 July 2025
    Opinion

    A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

    15 July 2025

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.