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2014 General Elections and Some Specific Demands of people working in IT sector.

2014 General elections are few days away and  Techie community is lot more interested in elections than usual. Anti Corruption movement and Aam Admi Movement has played a large part in this trend. There is a complaint that issues that should be discussed are not being discussed and political discourse has stooped to a level of personal attacks and praising individuals. Most of the techies are of an opinion that policies should be discussed  than personal matters.Many apprehend that there is a concerted effort to playdown real issues and highlight issues that are of non-importance. Many  feels secularism is a non-negotiable trait of india and admits that price rise and corruption are the biggest issues in the election landscape.   As we all know IT sector is highly dynamic and is evolving with time. I am here bye making a humble effort to highlight few issues which directly concern people working in IT sector. We can obviously ask political parties to explain their stance on the same. Image removed. Purpose of this article is to start a discussion, this is not conclusive in any manner.   1)      Job Security and longevity of job is a matter of concern to most of the techies. In this scenario, there should be a thought to allocate some portion of the income tax received directly to a pension fund or should be disbursed as allowance when “job loss” happens.   2)      Schemes such as National Pension Scheme must be made mandatory for permanent employees. It gets larger tax benefit than 1 lakh cap of 80C.I am sure that people will be encouraged to save more for a happy future. companies also will support, as it helps to attract and retain talent.   3)      Many of the people working in IT sector spends a large rent amount or a hug EMI. We are looking at the EPF housing scheme of government with great hope. It will help reduce rent inflation to a larger extend.   4)      There should be an effort to join in ESIC scheme as it is india’s largest social security scheme. If it materializes it will be a huge relief from costly 5 star treatments which IT employees are forced to take. It also helps in dependant’s children to take admission in ESIC medical colleges.   5)      Labor laws is still a matter of question and debate but we should campaign for imaginative laws which will not be detrimental industry as a whole. We should also press government to introduce incentives in Tax for companies who provide more full time employment and discourage contract labor. Agenda of IT employee’s election campaign can be set only by us. None other will extend this favor.   ---------------Anoop Varghese Kuriappuram--------