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Damaged goods

Hundreds of Indian professionals claiming false software expertise are being sent home by US firms.

About one-tenth of the programmers going over to the US are being rejected and sent back to India, allegedly due to incompetence. This, despite the dearth of software professionals there.

According to recent reports, of all the foreigners sent back after claiming expertise in Enterprisewide Resource Planning, only a tenth were not from

T O D A Y

• Damaged goods • Software for publicity • BSL's software firm • Hughes licence issue

India.

While some people claim experience after a short stint at an institute, others say even people with little or no knowledge in the field try go abroad and then feel their way through.

While those in the business claim Hyderabad, with about 20 institutes that demand fees between Rs 100,000 and Rs 200,000, is the prime culprit, the problem is not restricted to this city.

Many of the centres claiming to provide expertise in ERP have not been authorised by firms like SAP, BaaN and PeopleSoft, says an expert, adding that fewer people are returned because, due to the acute paucity of professionals, some companies even train some inexperienced people on the job.

Many of those who apply to foreign firms are unemployed engineers or science graduates. But there still are many hucksters.

Some foreign firms realised what was happening and demanded interviews on phone with the candidate. Till agents began paying actual experts to claim they were the candidates and to answer questions.

Once the agent have carted off the "professionals" they are entitled to a hefty fee. Some firms have countered such trickery by taping conversations and accepting a candidate only if the voice matched, not all companies have taken such precautions.

Inexperienced software professionals are willing to take the chance, since the annual salaries promised sometimes exceed $ 80,000.

-Compiled from the Indian media

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