The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the nodal body for the software industry in the country, has urged the government to ask the banks to restructure the education loans.

Som Mittal, president, NASSCOM, said, "The government should instruct the banks to be more lenient and restructure loans."

As per the consortium study, it is expected that nearly 451,700 engineering students will graduate in a month's time. The sagging job market, with limited job opportunities and lower packages are set to make the loan repayment challenging for the students who are expected to graduate in about a month.

Considered as the software industry lobby, the organisation is also working to establish a partnership between the academic institutions and government, to enable the students in getting wider training opportunities in the government-endeavoured projects.

Earlier, IBA had asked the banks to consider the tenure of education loans to assist the borrowers to cope up with the current economic downturn.

Some banks, including Catholic Syrian Bank, Indian Banks, City Union Bank, Central Bank of India, to name a few; have been already working to restructure education loans, after receiving proposals from the students. The Indian Bank rephrased as many as 7,801 education loan accounts, with a total outstanding amount of Rs 99.24 crores on receiving the student requests.

A statement made by S. Balasubramanian, chairman, City Union Bank, stated that most requests for restructuring lined up from the engineering IT students - "Most students, especially those who want to get into the IT field, have been witness to job offer withdrawals in recent months. As lenders, we are proactive to the situation. We have received some queries on restructuring of educational loans and we will proceed on a case-by-case basis."

NASSCOM was set up in 1988 at Mumbai, as a not-for-profit organization to serves the business and trade requirements of the Indian software industry. The organisation is registered under the Indian Societies Act, 1860. Headquartered in the national capital city, New Delhi, the organisation has regional offices in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata.