BANGALORE, INDIA: Touting open source as one of the fastest growing technologies, vice president, Novell Technical Learning, MaryJo Swenson, said, "There is rapid adoption of open source technologies and with the highest growth rate of 65 percent Y-o-Y, we see India as an area of large opportunity."

The Suse Linux proponent recently awarded Genovate, an IT training company, the 'platinum partner' status. The partnership would enable Genovate to undertake dedicated account management, business planning and the opportunity to co-engage with Novell on major customer opportunities. Through this partnership Genovate will offer Novell Commercial Training, the most technical instruction program offered by Novell.

The demand for the technology, according to Swenson largely stems from government organisations and with many large organizations opting for the easy to deploy software, the training requirement is equally huge. "A single (open source) project required 500 trainees," she said referring to a project with the Government of TamilNadu, a southern Indian state.

With an estimated growth rate of 35-40 per cent for training in open source technologies, Anton Ravindran, group CEO and founder, Genovate expects to ready 1500 certified professionals in the next twelve months.

Boasting a growth rate of 70 – 80 per cent Y-o-Y, Genovate plans to invest around $3-5 million to open two more centers in the next two months in addition to eight centers across the country.

In response to query on the effect of the recession on the training industry, Ravindran said, "I don't believe there is a recession. Or at least, it's only a sub-prime crisis. If at all, its all the more important for people to work on building their skill sets during such time so as to better equip themselves, opines Ravindran. With the IT training market pegged above Rs 2000 crore and growing fast, there's no doubt why the recession is the least of his worries.

According to IT magazine, Dataquest, the domestic IT training market has recorded a growth of 46 percent year-on-year at Rs 2,135 crore in 2006-07, with corporate training and exports being the key drivers.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Genovate, currently operates in Mumbai, Cochin, Trichy, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, Mangalore, Baroda, Hyderabad and Bangalore.