One Delhi IITian becomes a politician, another Delhi IITian becomes a writer, and many other trained engineers have joined the bureaucracy as IAS officers. Even, some have joined the entertainment industry as singers, actors or film producers.

India's civil engineers cannot even build a properly aligned flyover track. They build bridges that collapse before the inauguration. Many trained engineers join politics because they are unfit to work under pressure and scrutiny on high-valued engineering projects or complexes.

Read in Hindi: नवाचारों में इसलिए पिछड़ रहे हैं भारतीय इंजीनियर...

Something is rotten in the state of India's engineering world. The current state of engineering education, manufacturing, innovation, skill development and quality content is neither satisfactory nor futuristic or forward-looking to global standards.

According to an exporting company owner, “In terms of engineering education, India has made significant progress in recent years, but there is still work to be done towards achieving global standards in terms of quality and employability. In the engineering sector, India needs to strengthen its manufacturing sector and focus on innovation and skill development to produce products that meet global standards.”

India needs to focus on innovation and skill development in its academic institutions to develop high-quality materials and provide education that meets global standards. “We have to train and prepare all recruits to suit our specific requirements to produce devices and equipment for the international market because engineering students who come for employment after studies have limited practical knowledge,” says a senior engineer.

With millions of engineering graduates entering the job market every year - over 1.5 million - many face an uphill struggle to secure positions that recognise their potential. Unfortunately, most of these graduates come from institutes outside the orbit of the Indian Institutes of Technology, which often lack the rigorous training and innovative mindset required in today’s global economy.

This gap in the quality of education provided by many engineering institutes across the country results in a workforce that is ill-prepared for the demands of their roles, often leading to the perception that Indian engineers primarily work as ‘cyber coolies’ for multinational corporations.

This pathetic label limits the talent pool of service providers, which undermines the innovative capabilities that could be harnessed if engineers received better training and education. The inability to bridge the gap between concepts and practical applications makes ideas incapable of being transformed into tangible products. Projects that require creativity and problem-solving become tricky and difficult tasks for our engineers.

The engineering infrastructure in India also plays a key role in this story. R&D institutions are often inadequately developed and underfunded, resulting in a huge gap between theory and practice.

"There are several reasons why Indian engineering companies spend relatively little on Research and Development. Many firms often prioritise cost-cutting and price competition over innovation. Instead of developing innovations in-house, companies often rely on importing off-the-shelf technologies, which is seen as faster and more cost-effective than investing in R&D. Indian companies, especially family-owned ones, tend to avoid riskier ventures, preferring safer investments," according to a successful engineer turned entrepreneur.

"Shareholder expectations and market pressures often push companies to focus on immediate profitability, leaving little room for long-term R&D expenditure," explains a consultant.

In addition, India often witnesses a disconnect between industry and academia, which limits the development of cutting-edge, industry-relevant innovations. An entrepreneur says that, unlike global counterparts, Indian companies have historically adopted low-cost and cost-saving technologies instead of opting for new risky innovations.

Often there are allegations that engineering skills are being wasted in the manufacture of fake, duplicate products to make quick profits. In contrast, when Indian engineers are compared with their global counterparts, who are trained to think beyond the boundaries of textbooks, the difference becomes self-evident.