Hyderabad: It boomed because of Satyam and is now preparing itself for doom, thanks to Satyam again. Hundreds of software training institutes that came up on the Ameerpet-Erragadda main road in the past decade are now shutting shop. Owners of these coaching centres say they are reeling under the worst crisis ever — the recession and the Satyam fraud disclosure.
“After all this, our owners are thinking of shutting shop,” says Kurra Srinivas, administrator of V S Technologies that has been operating on this street for the last six years. “Earlier we had a minimum of 10-15 students in each batch of both SAP and Oracle modules. But now it has dropped to a maximum of 2-3. Even inquires have dropped drastically. As against 100 inquires we used to get every day, we now receive at most five enquiries. Business has dipped by a good 80 per cent for us,” he rues.
Small wonder then that this stretch of road that once teemed with IT job aspirants with many young locals dreaming of landing a job in home-grown Satyam, is now wearing a deserted look. “Where are the students? How can we sustain these establishments,’’ questioned an irate owner, who felt Raju’s fraud disclosure came at the wrong (recession) time.
A visit to this area (which was once a Satyam supported ecosystem), on what would have once been a busy weekday morning played out the worst nightmare of the owners of coaching institutes—just a handful of students, empty classrooms and a photocopier who could never enjoy his tea hot in the past seven years, brooding over his steaming cup now.
Much like the owners of coaching centres, photocopier Abraham L too is prepared for the worst. He says his photocopy business has dipped by a good 50 per cent. “I hear that most of the students who used to come to my shop regularly have gone home,” he says, adding that he fears he may have to shut down his photocopy business for lack of funds.
Most of these training institutes peddling courses in SAP and Oracle had sprung after Satyam started its computer business in Hyderabad in the late 1980’s. This area, which was once used to cultivate wheat turned into an IT hub when the Satyam effect had many going the IT way and the demand for techies suddenly soared to a new high.
It not only attracted Indian students but also pulled a large overseas crowd because of the nominal fee. “A course that would cost you a minimum of Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 in Delhi or Bangalore will cost you just about Rs 10,000 here. And the faculty too is great,” says a student. Techies in the city also vouch for the “authentic’’ certificates the coaching institutes would give them for even half-completed courses that helped them bag jobs. All this would be part of folklore now, they say.
Complaints of bad times are afloat on the street with C H Mahesh complaining about a 40 per cent decrease in his software and hardware installation business and K Laxmi cribbing about fewer takers of his fruit juices these days.
The hostels for these young students are also half empty. Kaushal Kumar a SAP module student who lives in a boy’s hostel on this street says occupancy in his hostel has dipped by a good 40 per cent. “Not everyone has the resources to sit and wait. There seems to be no demand for us in the market since the global meltdown and thanks to Satyam, it will fall further in the coming days,” says the IT aspirant from Delhi.
Courtesy: TimesOfIndia
