This document discusses the state of engineering education in India. It notes that while the number of engineering institutes and seats have increased dramatically since 1947, there are still large numbers of vacant seats each year. It praises the IITs as islands of excellence that helped build India's infrastructure and industry but argues they need to become more interdisciplinary. It also criticizes the overproduction of engineering graduates without sufficient focus on quality and skills, arguing this has devalued engineering degrees. Overall it calls for higher investment in engineering education with a focus on maintaining quality over quantity.

1. Excellence in Engineering In
India part 2
An Initiative of
Shivnandani Industries Pvt Ltd
&
Jagdamb Janaki Nawal Janaki Society
By
Col Mukteshwar Prasad(Retd),
MTech,FIE(I),FIETE,FISLE,FInstOD,AMCSI

2. India as Engineering nation
year Engg
institute
s/campu
ses
Capacity/s
eats
Vacant seats
Tamil
Nadu
MP Maharastra Gujrat
1947 38 2500
2007 1503 5.83 lakhs
2013 3800 17 lakhs
Vacant
seats
80000 70000 50000 7800

3. Creation of IITs
• Nehru’s non focus on primary education was more than redeemed by creation of IITs
– Light house of meritocracy
– Islands of excellence
– Stirred overseas youth migration now called brain circulation rather than brain
drain
– IITs created engineers who built
• Power plants
• Dams
• steel plants
• roads
• Supply chain for IT industry and corporate India (Via IIMs)
• For further prosperity and progress our challenge is not only labour, capital and
infrastructure
– But need for knowledge and intelligence to mate with imagination and
innovation
– New recipes so vital lies on intersection of interdisciplinary subjects and
thought worlds
– Excellence can only thrive in stand alone institutions out side higher
educational control

4. Creation of IITs
• Convert IITs in multidisciplinary campus which will be
– More vibrant
– Creative and effective at
• Research and teaching
– Adding MBA has diluted IITs and are not comparable to IIMs hence
need for re focus
– But for process of creativity –Reading of Biography of Michelangelo by
Irving Stone is a necessity for an engineer
– Biography of Duke of Marlborough by Winston Churchill for MBA
– Must offer undergraduate degree in medicine,law,philosophy, literature
because life is not solving a sum but painting a picture
• Country can not sustain greatness without great university like Nalanda and
Taxila
• No university can sustain without research
• No research is truly creative or impactful without being informed,influenced,and
shaped by multiple discipline
– Turn IITs in multiple disciplinary university

5. India as Engineering nation
• “Capacity created in anticipation of demand remained unutilized because
economy failed us”
• “Engg education was ramped up to a rate that was not sustainable .Also quality
was not maintained”
Ranjan Banerjee,Forbes Marshal Chair Prof at IIT Bombay
• All colleges are not equal
– Quality of teaching staff
– Curricula update to industry requirement
• AICTE pre requisite as below are huge
– Land
– Buildings
– Labs
– Library
– University of affiliation
– Hiring teachers
In a business plan improvement comes in 5th and 6th year
In a large Private Engg Colleges facilities and teachers are fudged
Comparatively situation in State run Govt Colleges are worst due to
work/maintenance by PWD,resatrictions and politics in hiring teachers and
inadequate funds and unsaid unethical pracices

6. India as Engineering nation
• Antidote is higher investment in higher professional education
• Stop looking at commercial phenomena and look at quality
• Industry is mark driven
– Neither student nor employer appreciate skill of engineer
– Hence since higher role is not appreciated students study for marks
– University exam and marks mania is rampant
• Engg colleges do not train engineers but mass manufacture
• IT service hiring never placed premium on acquisition of Engg skills and
slogan “We can do it cheap” has done greatest damage.