IT hub wakes up to traffic, pollution woes

10,000 vehicles off the roads; 2 lakh

man hours and 1 lakh litres of fuel saved

Hyderabad, September 21:  

The IT industry is known for its innovative, time saving, efficient solutions for a wide variety of challenges.

Now it appears that the sector has woken up to another challenge – traffic and environmental pollution that diminishes the quality of life of its employees.

The industry in Hyderabad employs 3.5 lakh and the city is among the top-5 in the country that accounts for $100 billion worth of IT exports.

But it has just realised the pressure it’s exerting on the city traffic and the impact of the additional carbon emissions to the environment.

A survey found that about one lakh man hours are being wasted each day with employees struggling to get to the offices, negotiating tough traffic.

So, as a start, about 11,000 IT employees are now taking public buses on Thursday to get to their offices in the Hi-Tec City-Gachibowli IT Hub of Hyderabad. Thousands of others car-pool, walk or cycle to their offices as part of an initiative by HYSEA, which represents firms that export IT services worth $10 billion.

“About 40,000 litres of fuel is being wasted each day, resulting in 96 tonnes of additional emissions of carbon dioxide. The numbers are staggering considering the small area,” Ramesh Loganathan, President of HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters’ Association), told BusinessLine. And what it achieved over the month is encouraging.

Benefits aplenty

Most companies in the IT corridor reported reduction of up to 20 per cent of cars. Over 10,000 motor vehicles are off the roads each Thursday. The city is free of about 273 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Enthused by the response to the Car-Free-Thursday initiative, the association is now planning to expand the scope.

It is going to ask companies to discourage staff coming in cars on Thursdays. It wants them to introduce parking fee and introduce a system of allowing cars with even or odd numbers.

The association has decided to lend its voice to the World Car Free Day that is slated to happen on September 22.

Hyderabad is among the 1,000 cities across the world that consented to join the movement.

In association with the Cyberabad police, Road Transport Corporation and other stakeholders, the HYSEA has come out with a vision document ‘Re-imagining Transport in Our Cities’.

“The idea is to promote sustainable transport and make Hyderabad a congestion-free and pollution-free smart city,” the document said.

The industry, with the help of the IT department of Telangana, is planning to develop necessary infrastructure to encourage the staff to use cycles.

“To begin with, we are asking hundreds of Car-Free-Thursday initiative volunteers to use cycle at least for a day or two to get to their offices,” Loganathan said. 

Original link

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/it-hub-wakes-up-to-traffic-pollution-woes/article7674697.ece?homepage=true

(This article was published on September 21, 2015)

Nasscom targets to create 1 m cyber security HR

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/telangana-police-planning-separate-cadre-for-cyber-security/article7640827.ece

In a pilot in AP and Telangana, will offer 12 courses in the space to engineering students

Hyderabad, Sept. 11:  

Cyber security has never really been popular as a specialisation in the Indian IT industry. This segment has failed to catch the imagination of job seekers in the absence of proper appreciation for aspects related to IT security.

The Data Security Council of India (DSCI), an arm of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), is hoping to change this.

It is about to roll out certified courses in 12 different aspects of security.

From January 2016, some 15 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will offer certified courses, supported by Nasscom.

Recognising the acute shortage of skilled professionals in the country, the council has set a target of producing one million cyber security experts by 2025 to meet the demand from the industry.

“We are currently finalising the courseware and the duration of the course. This is going to be an elective,” Vinayak Godse, Senior Director (Data Protection), told BusinessLine.

The DSCI is planning to scale this up to hundreds of colleges across the country after studying the feedback from the pilot in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

400 qualification packages

Nasscom has identified over 400 qualification packages (QPs) for a cross-section of job roles in the IT and BPO industries. “In the security area, we have identified 12 job roles such as app security and network security. We are planning to train about 1,000 students to begin with,” said Nandkumar Saravade, DSCI Chief Executive Officer.

Nasscom, which has been tasked with preparing a report on the challenges on the cyber front, will complete it by October. “It will cover the aspects of skills, industry requirements, policy changes and technology development to bolster security. We will submit the report next month,” he said. With cyber attacks becoming complex and intense, the Telangana police are planning to raise a separate cadre to help cyber sleuths in the State.

DGP Anurag Sharma told BusinessLine that the police department would put the idea before the government and impress upon it the importance of having such skilled manpower.

(This article was published in Business Line (businessline.in)on September 11, 2015)