Nasscom, the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT software and services industry in India, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the University Grants Commission to strengthen professional education in line with the sector's requirement for skilled professionals.

The MoU will help further catalyse the interface between the academia and industry. This is part of Nasscom's IT workforce development initiative.

According to a Nasscom release, given the growing demand for skilled professionals, there is an increasing need to keep the academia abreast of the skill set requirement of the industry.

Nasscom and UGC will jointly undertake a Faculty Development Programme for upgradation of the skill sets and knowledge base (in the area of emerging technologies, project management skills related to IT) of the existing technical faculty in partnership with IT industry.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said in the release, "Some of the established IT firms already have programmes in place for industry-academia interface. Nasscom and UGC will develop case studies on these programmes, which can be emulated by other firms to strengthen the industry-academia collaboration."

As part of the MoU, Nasscom and UGC will also partner to set up Techno-Business Skills Development Centres to encourage development of technical and business skills, entrepreneurship and setting up of knowledge-based enterprises by fostering better linkages between academic institutions, IT industry and R&D institutions, through establishing a physical-operational base within the academic premises.

Under the TSD programme, students will be working on live projects of IT companies and getting trained on their processes, so that they can be considered for employment at a later stage, which will not only benefit these students but would also provide a value proposition to the IT Industry.