Introduction Information Technology (IT) is defined as the design, development, implementation and management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. Today, it has grown to cover most aspects of computing and technology. The reason why it has catapulted in importance is due to the improving accessibility, awareness and utility of technology. It is a common fact that a country’s IT potential is paramount for its march towards global competitiveness, healthy GDP and defense capabilities. IT professionals perform a variety of duties ranging from data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, to the management and administration of entire systems. With the already high penetration of conventional personal computer and network technology, coupled with the growing convergence of information, communication and entertainment, the industry is now keenly focused on the integration with other technologies such as mobile phones, automobiles and televisions etc, thereby increasing the demand for such jobs. The largest firms globally include IBM, HP, Dell and Microsoft. In India, it is important to make the distinction between IT and ITES (IT enabled services). We shall focus on the IT industry here by limiting the discussion to electronics hardware manufacturing and software development and services. Despite the unprecedented global economic downturn, the Indian IT industry has weathered the storm well, and will achieve sustainable growth going forward. India is expected to witness an average 8% salary increase in 2010 and ~50% of companies have strong hiring plans, according to a survey by global HR consultancy Mercer, giving yet another indication of the high confidence levels among the country’s corporate houses after the economy staged a faster-than-expected recovery from the slowdown. While the larger players continue to lead growth, gradually increasing their share in the industry aggregate, several high-performing small and medium enterprises have also stood out. Growth Potential The strong demand for electronic hardware and software in India has been fuelled by a variety of drivers including the high growth rate of the economy, emergence of a vast domestic market catering to the new generation of young consumers, a thriving middleclass populace with increasing disposable incomes and a relatively low-cost work force having advanced technical skills. Indeed, the Government has also identified growth of this sector as a thrust area as there remains great expectation for significant growth given the fairly low levels of penetration of technology among the 1.1 billion population; There were only 60 million Internet users in 2009, 7 million DVD players and personal computers were sold in 2008-09, and 11 million new mobile subscribers were added every month in the same period. In this scenario there is now a big opportunity to step up the production to gain higher global share besides meeting the domestic demands. The Indian IT sector has also built a strong reputation for its high standards of software development ability, service quality and information security in the foreign market- which has been acknowledged globally and has helped enhance buyer confidence. The industry continues its drive to set global benchmarks in quality and information security through a combination of provider and industry-level initiatives and strengthening the overall frameworks, creating greater awareness and facilitating wider adoption of standards and best practices. Future Prospects The industry is likely to continue growing from strength to strength, as local players incorporate best in class practices from global counterparts whilst retaining their edge in terms of lower cost of labor and focused governmental investments. New graduates with degrees in related fields such as electrical engineering and computer science can hope to achieve significant professional growth and a healthy remuneration from companies looking to hire the best talent available, given the high proportion for those who leave to pursue jobs in this sector overseas. Industry and organizations A great variety of software companies and programmers in the world comprise the software industry. Software can be quite a profitable industry: Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft was the richest person in the world in 2009 largely by selling the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office software products. The same goes for Larry Ellison, largely through his Oracle database software. Through time the software industry has become increasingly specialized. Non-profit software organizations include the Free Software Foundation, GNU Project and Mozilla Foundation. Software standard organizations like the W3C, IETF develop software standards so that most software can interoperate through standards such as XML, HTML, HTTP or FTP. Other well-known large software companies include Novell, SAP, Symantec, Adobe Systems, and Corel, while small companies often provide innovation Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system (OS) market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of OSs. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Microsoft would come to dominate other markets as well, notably the office suite market with Microsoft Office. Primarily in the 1990s, critics contend the company used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws. Known for its interviewing process with off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?", various studies and ratings were generally favorable to Microsoft's diversity within the company as well as its overall environmental impact with the exception of the electronics portion of the business. Microsoft Board of Directors • Steve Ballmer : Chief Executive Officer • Dina Dublon : Former Chief Financial Officer, JPMorgan Chase • Bill Gates : Chairman • Raymond V. Gilmartin : Former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Merck & Co., Inc. • Reed Hastings : Founder, Chairman and CEO, Netflix, Inc. • Maria M. Klawe : President, Harvey Mudd College • David F. Marquardt : General Partner, August Capital • Charles H. NoskiExecutive : Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bank of America Corporation • Dr. Helmut Panke : Former Chairman of the Board of Management, BMW AG History Paul Allen and Bill Gates (respectively) on October 19, 1981 in a sea of PCs after signing a pivotal contract. IBM called Microsoft in July 1980 inquiring about programming languages for its upcoming PC line; after failed negotiations with another company, IBM gave Microsoft a contract to develop the OS for the new line of PCs. Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.[3] They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975 with Gates as the CEO.[4] In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft".The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979. Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix.[6] However, it was DOS (Disk Operating System) that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC-DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft secured the marketing rights to MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for other OSes to run, resulting in IBM PC compatibles. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC OS vendor.The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft