Indian IT industry growth, in numbers!

From the following BBC article, these numbers caught my fancy:

BBC NEWS | Business | Earning IT money the Indian way:

1991: 56,000
1997: 160,000
2000: 284,000
2003: 650,000

These numbers (source: Nascom) shows the rapid explosion of IT industry as a major field of employment in India. I still remember the hype of H1B jobs and over-night recruitment agencies who would base themselves in a plush hotel and interview hundreds of candidates over a weekend - most of them were pure body-shopping brockers who would get someone from India to some place in the USA and score their recruitment fee of USD $10,000 or more with an average cost of 2500 per head.

Before 2000, everything to do with IT was always outside India. There were raving discussions about how someone I knew or someone I used to share a room with is earning thousands of rupees per hour and driving Honda and enjoying skiing!

These figures shows how it has changed. There's still a healthy compitition between candidates to find a job outside India, as they could really use some time out, saving some money, but more so, enjoying a different (mostly very comfortable) life style too. However, with about 15 time more chances of finding a decent role and a more than enough salary in India itself, I am the IT-gold-run-to-west is losing its charm.

Good news for anyone who left India anyway - For someone like me, who have lost everything that used to close to heart (food, culture, friends), there is hope to come back and integrate to the new India once again! Absolutely brilliant!!