BENGALURU: In early 2002, Tripurari Mishra took a train from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh after an argument with his father and found his way to Bengaluru, where he started his career as a security guard. Ambitious and bright, he burnt the midnight oil to learn software coding, a most useful skill in India’s technology capital. Today, he is a project manager at Mindtree and an example of how India’s information technology industry has been a magnet for those looking to get ahead in life.In the 12 years since Mishra’s life-changing train journey, the software industry has been through a severe downturn, losing some of its charm, but it has grown from $2.7 billion to $108 billion. Companies are using intelligent tools and automation to reduce dependence on humans. And the technology capital of India is now Bengaluru, not Bangalore. But the IT sector and Bengaluru are still a land of opportunity, drawing thousands of young people from across India. Among them is Ajay, 23, who symbolises the “rags to riches” hope that the software industry engendered. Until last year, Ajay worked for nearly 20 hours daily — from waiting tables at a bar to scootering around as a McDonald’s delivery boy.He was discovered by a Mindtree employee Jibin Joseph in October last year at the apartment where Ajay also worked as a watchman. “I saw him reading a Java programming book and wanted to learn more,” said Joseph. The next day, Joseph had a chat with colleagues at Mindtree, and Ajay was then invited for rounds of interviews at the company. “When I was told I will have to work for eight hours every day at Mindtree, I couldn’t believe — I was so used to working for 16-20 hours daily,” said Ajay.In August 2010, Ajay made it toPESIT, an engineering college on the outskirts of Bengaluru. By the time he finished engineering degree in February 2012, he had built a robot as part of his engineering project and even spent months developing Android phone applications. When Wipro, India’s third-biggest software company, offered Rs 3.5 lakh in annual compensation, he thought life would change. But the offer never translated into a job because the economic slowdown kept delaying the actual joining date in 2013. Which is when he was forced to do three jobs, working almost without a break. All that earned him around Rs 17,000 every month, just enough to pay rent, fees for his sister’s school and take care of the medical expenses for his mother.Mishra and Ajay are not isolated examples. After three decades and several crises, the Indian IT industry continues to be a draw for young people seeking to enter the middle class. Bengaluru’s startups have also begun to hire in the thousands, yet the IT sector holds a lot of allure.Subroto Bagchi, Mindtree’s cofounder and chairman, said the Indian IT industry is the “baseline” on which another high-tech startup activity is taking shape. “It is an industry where people are valued for what they know and not who they know,” Bagchi said.Startup mentors and investors such as former Yahoo India R&D centre head Sharad Sharma and Freeman Murray are working together to ensure software coding hacking become the ultimate credential for job-seekers.On December 6, the two are launching a new initiative called “RSPCT.IN”, which will hold hackathons, software code challenges and startup pitching sessions to identify engineering talent. Several software product companies who are part of the think-tank iSPiRT will be there to hunt for talent.“Our goal is to have 30-40 of the people who participate walk out with the jobs at the end of the day,” said Sharma. The trend of people joining India’s technology industry without high profile IIT degrees is nothing new but it’s now gathering momentum. Sangeeta Gupta, vice-president at software industry grouping Nasscom, said there are more companies pursuing this as a mission — of bringing talent from economically backward families. Gupta cited Chennai-based Zoho, an office software maker that competes with the likes of Microsoft and Google, and has a focussed program to hire government school dropouts. These students are handpicked, trained in software coding and deployed in teams developing business software. “It’s a great start,” she said.According to Bagchi, in Mindtree this year, nine employees in a company of 13,000 got the coveted ‘Chairman’s Award’ for excellence. Of these, only one had gone to an IIT; the rest came from engineering colleges in small towns. And four of them had a rural upbringing. “When you build a company with such people, it impacts a different kind of work-culture. In celebrating such people, we create a virtuous cycle and build a certain DNA that then replicates,” Bagchi said.Sarthak Gupta, who completed his diploma in computer programming at a private institute in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, remains hopeful of finding a job by early next year. Gupta, whose father helps his friend run a tiny medical store in Raipur, is saving money to send him to Bengaluru by February next year.“We have been saving money; when it hits Rs 50,000, I will start the journey,” said Gupta. The idea is to get a job at a McDonald’s outlet or as a delivery boy for an ecommerce company in Bengaluru where one of his friends works. “Such jobs will give me some time to explore IT jobs,” he said.Gupta has already figured out the exit plan as well. After spending few years in “an IT job,” he plans to return to Raipur where several government organisations are on the lookout for employees to run technology systems.Bagchi is of the view that the context in which the industry has been spoken about in recent years has not adequately reflected the impact it is having on the lives of its employees. “We have made news on SEZs, visa regime, discussion on who made how much money, boardroom intrigue and such stuff,” he said.