The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has proposed outsourcing some Russian IT projects to India due to a shortage of developers in Russia
A representative of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation proposed outsourcing some Russian IT projects to India due to the shortage of qualified personnel and development teams in the Russian market. This proposal was made by Deputy Head of the Far Eastern Main Directorate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Denis Davydov at the Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia.
"There is, of course, a lot of talk about the current significant shortage of personnel in various industries, especially about the shortage of engineering and technical specialists in Russia. But, for example, in India, the unemployment rate of graduates in technical universities has almost reached 30% in recent years. At the same time, the current wage differential, especially if we talk about purchasing power parity, encourages the idea that there could be some effects of cooperation here," Davydov said.
Davydov recalled that Russian companies have quite a lot of accumulated experience in interacting with other countries in the IT sphere. "This is an outsourcing mode, when a team of specialists and developers remains in the host country, and the results of the activity are actually controlled remotely," he explained.
"In principle, we can think about such a mixed interaction option, when the development effect is carried out externally, and then the developed drawings and models, moreover, with the conditions of digitalization in the modern standard, are transferred and embodied in metal here on site. From the point of view of the prospects of state regulation, it seems to me that here we could look at the idea of outsourcing, taking into account the fact that many of our industries are now actively digitalizing," Davydov said.
The representative of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation emphasized that this is a "debut idea that requires further development and a more attentive, careful look." According to Davydov, socio-cultural factors, and above all, the language factor, may become barriers to the implementation of such a proposal.
Director of the Research and Forecasting Department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Alexander Morozov, who moderated the session at the Bank of Russia Financial Congress, agreed that international outsourcing would help Russia attract the missing personnel to perform certain jobs.
"How to do this: through a subsidiary company, or in some other way - this needs to be discussed. It seems to me that this is still much easier than trying to transport specific personnel by plane, who are not adapted to life in Russian conditions and will feel uncomfortable, from very exotic countries. Therefore, I think this idea will be continued," Morozov explained.
According to Sber, the Indian IT outsourcing market continues to grow every year. The country has several leading companies that dominate this area, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro, LTIMindtree and Tech Mahindra. The main areas of outsourcing work in India are software development and testing, technical support and maintenance.
According to estimates from the government, universities and businesses, the Russian IT industry lacks between 740,000 and 1 million employees, and by 2030 it will be necessary to train and prepare more than 2 million people.
