HYDERABAD: The number of jobs in the IT sector is all set to double to about 10 lakh over the next three to four years in Hyderabad region, Murali Bollu, president, Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (Hysea), and founder and chief executive officer of ZenQ said here on Monday. The IT industry currently employs nearly 5.5 lakh people in the Hyderabad region.“Going forward, looking at the amount of construction that is happening in the Hi-Tec City-Gachibowli area, within three to four years we expect additional 50 million sft to be added. So, it is reasonably guaranteed that the entire workforce is going to touch 10 lakh in three to four years,” Bollu said on the sidelines of the curtain raiser event of the 27th edition of its Annual Innovation Summit & Awards 2019 to be held in the city on August 1.According to Bollu, a chunk of the new jobs are expected to be created in the areas of emerging technologies such as AI, ML, data sciences, AR/VR and Blockchain (especially in the fintech sector), among others.He added that the fresh grads who are equipped with skills in these emerging technologies are commanding a good premium in salary packages.“Many companies are now paying different pay scales to freshers who have just Java and DotNet skill sets versus the ones who have skills in future technologies. While the ones with the basic skills are drawing anywhere between Rs 3-3.5 lakh per annum, those with futuristic digital skills are drawing around Rs 6-6.5 lakh pa,” he said.Sesha Rao, managing committee member, Hysea, pointed out that even the booming startup ecosystem is also set to boost job creation in the city.Hysea is bullish on the growth prospects of IT sector as the existing players, global as well as domestic, are expanding their operations rapidly in the city and at the same time the state has been successful in attracting newbies due to availability of talent as well as good infrastructure. In fact, IT exports from the state grew 17% to reach Rs 1.09 lakh crore as compared to Rs 93,422 crore in financial year 2017-18.