While industrial houses express concern about the shortage of skilled manpower, the study made by the Confederation of Indian Industry on `Mapping of Human Resources and Skills for Tamil Nadu - 2015' has added value to this perception by mapping the skill sets available at present, identifying skill gaps and suggesting measures to bridge them.

HR meet

Highlighting the contents at a session on `HR Conclave - Scaling through good HR practices' organised by the Coimbatore zone of CII, its Chairman Mr Jayakumar Ramdass, said the study envisaged the opportunity landscape in Tamil Nadu at 13 to 15 million new jobs by 2015, after considering the likely improvements in economic output and labour productivity.

`The opportunities are likely to emanate from the automotive, IT & ITES, textiles, leather, light engineering, construction and financial services sectors,' he said.

Over 75 HR professionals from the various companies around this region attended the session.

Mr John Chiramel, CEO, Intimate Fashions India (P) Ltd, released the HR Compendium (A collection of profiles of more than 100 HR professionals in the region).

HR Compendium

Mr A.N. Ramesh, Convenor, HR & IR Panel, CII Coimbatore, said the compendium would help enhance the interaction with industry.

Earlier, in his inaugural address Mr. Chiramel said the industry was under pressure because of the huge shortage of skilled manpower and the situation was more pronounced in the IT and ITES sector, where the attrition rate was high. `While the industry evolved strategies for recruiting, training and retaining its people to some extent, it lacks ideas for building people,' he said.