IT Boom or Boomerang !!

Today there is economic boom, infrastructure boom, telecom boom, entertainment boom, automobile boom… that boom... this boom and so on. I think all these things are inter related and the major reason is the growth in the IT sector in last couple of years... it’s the boom… the IT boom. In just last 2 years over 5 lakhs jobs have been added in IT sector contributing to the growth in all sectors.

Today I am writing this blog sitting in this office in Chennai’s IT corridor. Nobody in Chennai five years back would have imagined that there will be such a boom in the city. So the growth in IT sector today has made directly or indirectly other sectors to grow and in tern the economy has gone up. For example lets consider infrastructure, as the IT sector is growing and expanding manpower the number of IT parks are coming up in very fast pace. For the people the apartments, shopping malls, multiplexes are also coming up. So there is lot of jobs getting created as well as growth is taking place in Infrastructure sector. The governments both state and central are being compelled to provide good roads and infrastructure to meet the requirement. Today the number of express ways, flyovers, airports, metro train projects is being taken up to meet up the requirements.

Let’s consider other sector like telecom and entertainment. Today there is huge competition in telecom sector. Most of the service providers are coming with new… new plans… do u think there trying to target rural people? No! Obviously they are targeting the urbanites and mostly the IT people. So is the case of upcoming multiplexes and FM stations.

One more sector in upswing today is automobile sector. Today we find all kind of two wheelers to all kinds of luxury cars and what not. Again thanks to the high salary and easy loans at lower interest rates. Today on a average nearly 800 vehicles are added everyday in city like Bangalore and about 600 everyday in Chennai.

IT boom today as I said has increased the employment in the country. A Big software services companies today are providing life for 60000, 50000, 35000, 25000… people and the dependent families. There are many such companies today. The jobs have not been created in just IT sector but in all related sectors. In infrastructure sector huge… huge jobs have come up, so in telecom, entertainment, media and others. Today those who have built homes in big cities are making good money. All because of the demand that is getting created due to the job boom.

Just think for a while what would have happened if there was no such growth in the IT sector? All the other sectors which are witnessing growth would have been hit. If there was no boom all these things would have been slowed down and this would have hit the economy of the country. Today in campus selections alone 80% of students are getting placed across the country. With nearly 10% of people walking out with more than one offer in hand, if there was no boom only top collages would have had campus selection and in that only about 30-40% of students would have got offers. And the rest would have to struggle it out to get the jobs. In that case the boom in all sectors would have come down as the demand for infrastructure, entertainment, telecom and automobile would not be as much.

The Boomerang Factor

IT boom… Dhoom… dhamal… dhamaka.. whatever!! But it has created huge problem at other end. The boom has boomeranged which most of us not able to make out, as it’s the human nature to see always the good and the rosy picture.

Why I say it boomeranged because lets consider cost of living… in a city like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai… the cost of living has gone up like anything. For a common man or middle class family person it’s becoming very difficult to lead the life. The house advances and rent have shot up, people are demanding more money for small work. The small hotels are disappearing and big… big… plazas, shopping complexes have come up. The local textile shops have been replaced by Adidas, Reebok… showrooms. Do u think a common man can cope up with these kind of changes??

Let me tell a personal experience which happened after me coming to Chennai. The house in which I stay is taken for rent and we are 5 people of same company staying together. We 5 people are sharing all the household expenses. Our house in ground floor and there is one family who stay in first floor for rent. The house maid was working in that place before we came, now we hired her for cleaning purpose and she demanded 600 rupees per month, we agreed as we were sharing it was not a big amount, but the maid started demanding same from that family which dependent on one persons earning.. So we created problem for them.

This one case and similarly there are many cases where common man is suffering because of this boom. Higher salary and people sharing means they can afford to pay any amount but at the other side a normal man, or family where one person is earning are getting affected.

Automobile boom has got traffic jams, parking problems, polluttion and so on.

So Boom is good for economy but unless we do something to maintain balance between the higher earning people and normal earning people this kind of problem will continue. Today we are seeing robbery, harassement on software engineers and other workin people. There is notion among common people that we people are earning in lakhs every month and they try to resort to offence to get something out of us.

so as i said its necessary that we maintain a balance, else when the boom goes doom we will have face the boomerang effect.. and lets hope the boom stays for many more years to come