While most tech firms and startups are going easy on tech hiring, companies like Bharti Airtel, MakeMyTrip, Flipkart, Uber, PepsiCo, Mastercard, EY, Deloitte have gone into overdrive in hiring STEM talent prompted by the need for innovation and technology transformation in the current economic environment to stay ahead of competition, their HR heads told ET.

Most of these companies are also working towards increasing the number of women in STEM, to improve gender diversity scorecard.

Aon India, a global professional services firm that also tracks talent and HR trends, also concurred. “STEM talent will continue to find place in other sectors (besides IT services) even though there is a slowdown in the tech sector. These skills are being sought by non tech sectors and hence we don’t see a lull in hiring for STEM talent,” Roopank Chaudhary, partner at Aon India, told ET. Most STEM hiring is taking place at entry level.

“This year we are considering hiring more STEM talent, especially those from strong science and mathematics backgrounds. In the coming quarters, the STEM talent hiring is going to increase,” said Amrita Padda, chief people officer, Bharti Airtel.

With the evolving economic context and increasing need for businesses to innovate and leverage technology to sustain market leadership, STEM talent has a pivotal role to play, said Pavitra Singh, CHRO, PepsiCo India.