Pundits say joblessness of our IT professionals has to do with the knock-on effect of the economic down-turn in the west, notably the US. It is evident that our software companies have been way too dependent on foreign companies and clients for their business. The latest quarterly results of the top two IT majors - TCS and Infosys - make a telling point. That is, TCS revenue from India represents merely 7 percent of their global earnings; and the figure is 1.2 percent in respect of Infosys.

Nandan Nilekini was heard telling the BBC that he considered India's economy basically strong ; and that the global econmic downturn would drive our IT companies to come up with new business models. Which, I reckon, means that our IT majors would do well developing business within our economy, instead of chasing high-paying foreign clients. This inward-looking strategy would help them redeploy, rather than retrench IT professionals. This calls for a mindset change on the part of our IT majors as well as their high-paid employees. Proposition 1) software companies need to scale down their profit margin to the level acceptable to domestic enterprises ; and 2) IT professionals working for Indian clients would need to accept lower pay and perks.

As part of their business development strategy; and as an aspect their corporate socio-economic responsibility our IT companies could educate medium, small-scale, and also trade and service sectors about benefits of IT applications. The uninitiated segment of these sectors can be made to realise a) that the computer can do for them a lot more than they think it can, by way of process re-engineering, data warehousing, and supply chain management; and b) that all this can be done at a price they can afford.

The catch is in the acceptance of a meaningful profits/pay cut by our IT companies and their army of underutilised professionals .