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Tuesday, June 13, 2023

IITs and the future of engineering: Why there’s hope amid the gloom

 

In a recent interview with The Indian ExpressDirector of IIT-Madras V Kamakoti noted the lack of interest in core engineering among IIT graduates. His concern is valid, though narrow. I offer a broader view.

My position is that all graduates, IITians included, must remain free to chart their career paths. Yet, IITs represent only a tiny part of Indian engineering education. Engineering, and STEM in general, is difficult and requires prolonged discipline. Excellence has a price. Nationally, we have many colleges of poor quality producing mediocre graduates. Neither those colleges nor their graduates aspire to excellence because the present job market does not demand excellence in sufficient volumes. But the international picture is changing. The demographics of international competition offer promise for future Indian engineers. Perhaps we can raise our national game to claim that opportunity. Let us now consider these points in detail.

First, should IIT graduates be allowed to take non-core jobs? Society juggles conflicting goals through hierarchies of principles. For example, if abused spouses are not allowed to leave marriages, then some social structures retain stability. Stability is a good principle, but freedom ranks higher. Similarly, if all engineers from IITs are forcefully retained in engineering, then some national goals might be served. However, the freedom of students to choose career paths ranks higher. We must protect that freedom.

Now, no employer shares profits beyond necessity. An employer pays what it must to attract the workers it needs to make the profits it can. So, why are some non-core salaries so high for IIT graduates?

The optimistic answer is that core engineering imparts transferable skills. For example, core engineering teaches many sub-topics, each with different simplifying assumptions, equations and approximations, models and applications, empirical truths backed by simple experiments, and attention to practicality. In contrast, mathematics in its essence is freed from the world. Physics is concerned with truth more than functionality. Economics lacks comparable controlled experiments (you cannot have two identical countries where you test two different tax regimes). And so on.
The pessimistic answer is that the IITs’ entrance exam is merely a label for talent, and the IIT education is irrelevant to both students and non-core employers.

But the answer does not matter. We must look beyond IITs. India has a demographic wave. We have 25 million 20-year-olds alone. On that scale, the IITs are tiny. On the national scale, the AICTE recognises thousands of engineering colleges. Many graduates from these colleges have been dismissed as “unemployable”. The real problem is worse. Even if these colleges make their graduates more employable, there are not enough employers. If two million people apply for one million jobs, salaries will drop. The unemployed will offer to work for less, and employers will agree. For most colleges, improving quality makes no business sense. For most students, career prospects remain unchanged even if they study harder.

Sadly, unemployment seems harsher for non-engineers. Out of India’s 140 crore people, only three crore report salary income in their tax returns. The UPSC alone sees roughly a million aspirants for a thousand successes. Nationally, a million man-years are spent competing for 30,000-odd man-years’ worth of subsequent careers. That is desperation, not aspiration.

Now let us look beyond the nation.

Start with China. After decades of repressive policies, it has relatively few young people and proportionately fewer women. China is now spurring population growth, but babies born today will take 20 years to start work. In Western Europe, several native populations are declining as well. Brazil is big and has many good universities, but Brazilians mostly speak Portuguese.

Now look at the US. When I was a student there, they allowed “practical training” wherein graduating foreign students were given a year to find work. This helped many people stay on permanently. That period of practical training is now three years for STEM graduates.

Have American students moved away from STEM? I think not. Enrollments in four-year STEM degrees in US universities have been rising steadily for many years. Many of those students must be Americans. Then why extend practical training to three years for foreign STEM graduates?

The driving force must come from employers. This suggests employers are not getting excellent STEM graduates in sufficient numbers. Why? Have US universities deliberately lowered standards? I hope not. A second possibility is more insidious. In US universities, external funding drives careers. Professors work only on research that is funded. Funding has shifted from core subjects to newer topics like AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning). Many formerly respected professors of classical subjects now feel unappreciated even as they teach old courses which attract no young teachers. The younger faculty members are pursuing new-age topics and, frankly, are not rewarded for learning the old things well. One student I know who went to study mechanical engineering at a great US university shifted to mathematics after he saw the engineering courses offered. I fear that commerce may have compromised the once-strong discipline of America’s great universities.

Let me clarify that AI and ML are great advances. But there are innumerable people who merely use AI/ML software in mundane ways. These people, I suspect, have not learned core engineering skills at the level that the US industry needs. One cannot remain hazy on voltage, current, electronics, metal, stress, strain, force, mass, etc., and then shift the thinking to AI. Not if one wants to lead.

This brings up my closing point — one of hope. If the wealthy of the world keep the softer jobs, then others will step in to claim the rest. Those remaining jobs lie at two ends. At one end are humble low-paying jobs. At the other end, I hope, is engineering.

Who will do that engineering? With the Chinese shrunk in number and Brazil lacking English, India

 Chatterjee is professor of mechanical engineering at IIT Kanpur and author of Build and Sustain a Career in Engineering (Notion Press)ight do it. India’s next generation might well aspire to core engineering as a rewarding career plan.

Courtesy: Indian Express



Akhand Bharath

 



*How many of us know that ..* *Q: Partition of India was done ??? times ?* *Answer- SEVEN times in 61 years by the British rule.* *Afghanistan was separated from India in 1876,* *Nepal in 1904,* *Bhutan in 1906,* *Tibet in 1907,* *Sri Lanka in 1935,* *Myanmar (Burma) in 1937* *and...* *Pakistan in 1947.* *India's Partition of Akhanda Bharat* Unbroken India extended from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean and from Iran to Indonesia. India’s area in 1857 was 83 lakh square kilometers, which is currently 33 lakh square kilometers. *Sri Lanka* The British separated Sri Lanka from India in 1935. The old name of Sri Lanka was Sinhaldeep. The name Sinhaldeep was later renamed Ceylon. Sri Lanka’s name was Tamraparni during the reign of Emperor Ashoka. Mahendra, son of Emperor Ashoka and daughter Sanghamitra went to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism. Sri Lanka is a part of united India. *Afghanistan* The ancient name of Afghanistan was Upganasthan and Kandahar’s was Gandhara. Afghanistan was a Shaivite country. The Gandhara described in the Mahabharata is in Afghanistan from where the Kauravas’ mother was Gandhari and maternal uncle Shakuni. The description of Kandahar i.e. Gandhara is found till the reign of Shah Jahan. It was a part of India. In 1876 Gandamak treaty was signed between Russia and Britain. After the treaty, Afghanistan was accepted as a separate country. *Myanmar (Burma)* The ancient name of Myanmar (Burma) was Brahmadesh. In 1937, the recognition of a separate country to Myanmar i.e. Burma was given by the British. In ancient times, the Hindu king Anandavrata ruled here. *Nepal* Nepal was known as Deodhar in ancient times. Lord Buddha was born in Lumbini and mother Sita was born in Janakpur which is in Nepal today. Nepal was made a separate country in 1904 by the British. Nepal was called the Hindu nation of Nepal. Nepal was called as Hindu Rashtra Nepal. Until a few years ago, the king of Nepal was called Nepal Naresh. Nepal has 81 percent Hindus and 9% Buddhists. Nepal was an integral part of India during the reigns of Emperor Ashoka and Samudragupta. In 1951, Maharaja Tribhuvan Singh of Nepal appealed to the then Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to merge Nepal with India, but Jawaharlal Nehru rejected the proposal. *Thailand* Thailand was known as Syam until 1939. The major cities were Ayodhya, Shri Vijay etc. The construction of Buddhist temples in Syam began in the third century. Even today many Shiva temples are there in this country. The capital of Thailand Bangkok also has hundreds of Hindu temples. *Cambodia* Cambodia is derived from the Sanskrit name Kamboj, was part of unbroken India. The Kaundinya dynasty of Indian origin ruled here from the first century itself. People here used to worship Shiva, Vishnu and Buddha. The national language was Sanskrit. Even today in Cambodia, the names of Indian months such as Chet, Visakh, Asadha are used. The world famous Ankorwat temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu, which was built by the Hindu king Suryadev Varman. The walls of the temple have paintings related to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The ancient name of Ankorwat is Yashodharpur. *Vietnam* The ancient name of Vietnam is Champadesh and its principal cities were Indrapur, Amravati and Vijay. Many Shiva, Lakshmi, Parvati and Saraswati temples will still be found here. Shivling was also worshiped here. The people were called Cham who were originally Shaivites. *Malaysia* The ancient name of Malaysia was Malay Desh which is a Sanskrit word which means the land of mountains. Malaysia is also described in Ramayana and Raghuvansham. Shaivism was practiced in Malay. Goddess Durga and Lord Ganesha were worshiped. The main script here was Brahmi and Sanskrit was the main language. *Indonesia* The ancient name of Indonesia is Dipantar Bharat which is also mentioned in the Puranas. Deepantar Bharat means the ocean across India. It was the kingdom of Hindu kings.

CourtesyL Rajeiyer from twitter

Gayathri Girish - Concert No 03

This concert was at Cleveland, USA at Thyagaraja Araadhana 2023 on 15th April 2023 accompanied by Karthik P. Iyer of IL (violin) and
Vinod Seetharaman of MI (mridangam). Please click below

Gayathri Girish - Concert No 03


Thank Sri B. Manjunath


Don't be surprised !!!

 Don't be surprised by the picture.

It is true that once you could go from Calcutta to London by bus
Because then the world's longest road was from Calcutta to London
And this route used to walk as well.
Not Indian or English but Sydney
Albert Tour and Travels Company has started this service.
Lasted almost 25 years since early 1950s
Had to shut it down later for some reason.
The rent was just from 85 pounds to 145 pounds.
Starting from Kolkata to Banaras, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Kabul Kandhar, Tehran, Istanbul to Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Vienna to West Germany and Belgium, this bus used to reach London.
During this time, it used to run about 20300 km and crossed 11 countries.



May be an image of 7 people, trolley and text that says 'LONDON CALCUTTA LONDON INDIAM'
C

V. K. Manimaran

This concert was at Cleveland, USA at Thyagaraja Araadhana 2023 on 14 th April 2023 as T.M. Thiagarajan Memorial Concert, accompanied by B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin) K.V. Prasad (mridangam) and
N. Guruprasad (ghatam). Please click below

V. K. Manimaran


Thank Sri B. Manjunath