There is real competition in the IT industry and success of any company cannot not be taken for granted, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said while  discounting the talk about the India advantage.

Indian IT sector exports have taken a beating this year with growth falling 12-14 per cent in 2008-09 from a compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent-plus till the previous year.  It has been projected that growth in the sector is going to be a huge challenge in 2009-10.

Speaking at the fifth India Innovation Summit 2009, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry,  he pointed out that the BPO (business process outsourcing) exports from the Philippines this year would be almost on par with that of India's. He added that five years ago, BPO exports from the Philippines were around 10 per cent of India's BPO exports.

Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan struck a similar note saying the sector had to be always on its toes and there was no scope for complacency about the lead it enjoyed vis-à-vis the competition.

Both Premji and Gopalakrishnan said that over the short term they did not see promising prospects for engineers. The IT industry's growth rate is going to be ''very muted', according to Gopalakrishnan.

Premji said that in a recent interaction he had with vice-chancellor of Chennai-based Anna University the latter said that around 40 to 50 per cent of the graduating engineers from some 300 affiliated colleges in 2008-09 would fail to find jobs. The corresponding figure for the current financial year is expected to rise to 80 per cent, Premji quoted him as saying.

Premji said that the carry-over of such a large number of unemployed engineers would lead to falling salaries.     

He said the supply-demand situation had drastically changed and engineers no longer enjoyed the security and flexibility of few years back when they had four-five job offers on hand at any time and could change jobs overnight.

Gopalakrishnan said that employment opportunities for new graduates would remain limited but said that a continuous improvement in quality of education was needed. He added that once the economy recovered growth would return and there would be a surge in demand for engineers.

Meanwhile, the Azim Premji Foundation, founded by Azim Premji is understood to have sold three lakh equity shares of the IT firm for Rs11.75 crore in the open market.

In a filing with the BSE, the foundation said that it sold 2.38 lakh shares on the NSE and 62,000 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The foundation works in active partnership with the government and other relevant sectors of the society to make a tangible impact on key social issues.