Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's top software services exporter, is planning to raise its billing rates by 3-5% for existing contracts which will be renewed shortly. The new contracts that the company gets will be billed at rates that are 5-10 per cent higher, S Ramadorai, MD & CEO of TCS, said here.TCS also unveiled its latest initiative to enlarge and develop a suitable talent pool available to the IT industry. The TCS Talent Transformation (TCS T2) aims to transform science graduates into global software professionals by graduates from disciplines other than engineering into the global technology services industry. The programme is designed to be a hi-tech, hi-touch learning module that aims to transform B.Sc./BCA degree holders into best-in-class IT professionals. Around 500 science graduates are currently undergoing the pilot program at TCS' Chennai facilities. "We will train 2,000 science graduates over the next year under this programme," Ramadorai said.Designed as an intensive 7-month residential transformation programme, the curriculum will include formal lectures, projects and assignments, quizzes and interactive sessions. The selected graduates will undergo courses in the principles of software development and IT, develop an understanding of core technologies underlying IT systems as well services like package implementation as well as new technologies like Java, .Net as well as TCS' proprietary tools, frameworks and quality processes.Ramadorai said: "students after undergoing the training programme of seven months at the company will take home lower salaries than entry-level engineering graduates". However, there is a possibility that we may restructure the training programme later, he added."About one million graduates pass out of colleges every year in the country but our focus currently is on about two lakh science graduates," S Padmanabhan, global head human resources TCS, said. He said this initiative would produce industry ready professionals who will be as good as fresh engineers. According to Nasscom, India will face a shortage of about500,000 skilled manpower by 2010 in the information technology and IT enabled services sector.
