Why Core Engineering matters more than it gets now?

 Why Core Engineering matters?

Today we are known best in international fora as people who are good at IT and ITES jobs. India gets most of its foreign earnings through workforce employed in such jobs abroad. It started in 1995s and though many would not have given a prediction that this would be by far the wealth creator for India, it has belied all and has been our primary source of wealth generation, especially foreign exchange. I would put all the investment from foreign firms in India into such related services.

Will it last for more years? – YES definitely so.

Will it give our nation a great voice in the international arena? – Question remains.,

Let’s stop a while and go to look towards China , which focused on building products, at the same time we were focused in IT and ITES. The Chinese were not a great IT services nation, and their products in 1990s hardly gained international reputation. They were prone to failures and as a brand they had very low value. Look where they are now? They have improved by leaps and bounds and built infrastructure and invested heavily for future, sacrificing (made compulsion due the policies of their Government) Whatever one might say that they lack a vibrant democracy while we are blessed with the voice of people, it might all seem good to feel.

Now that we boast of our collective will of people, the transition is slow but definitely towards the positive, needless to say our growth has been slower and focused mainly on IT and ITES and not that much on products.

Coming to products, we have made very good strides in the automobile sector. Here also a vast majority of auto makers are actually foreign companies with the Intellectiual property of the products owned by them and NOT Indians.

Where are we in leading the new technologies, patents/IP, and mass productionising for new areas? – were are miniscule in that area, and that I am sure is going to dominate the world in the future? So are we concerned? Are we taking steps in every walk of economic activity right from school , college education to R&D focused private enterprises?

We have demonstrated a rover on moon, buts lets also note that China has sent humans to space two decades ago and we have not reached there yet, they had sent a rover to land on far side of moon and that has a life of years. Yes we have a lot mode distance to cover. Wea re capable but we have to build strong, build reliable, build more, and build safe. We have to brand well, and we need more than IT and ITES alone. We have to mature into a well rounded industrial economy, that has its roots in education.

Lets see on Education front.- How many colleges offer state of art core engineering subjects that are in mechanical mechatronics, civil, and electrical and Elecctronics engineering? Are students coming out from colleges in these fields do find great careers or students who graduate from IT and ITES related ( so called non core) engineering? I could see a 75:25 focus heavily tilted  towards Itan ITES courses. We proudly call ourselves as “ great Engg, in the filed of AI, Big data, cloud computing, AR, VR, IOT etc, all centred on writing excellent algorithms and programs in various computer languages. We pride our wards who excel in these merely because these students who are armed with these new skills in IT and ITES are having the potential to settle abroad , earn more and ultimately make our families rich.

How many colleges really encourage core engineering studies? They are driven by demand centric allocation and if the demand is more in IT and ITES areas what service these can do for core engineering?

When we will be able t own the intellectual property for new age transportation technologies, using hydrogen fuel, products that offer clean electricity by using cold fusion technologies etc. One main reason we get to know is that our development on high power cryogenic engines depend a lot on advanced metallurgy, in both processes and production capacities. Where are we advanced in these? One Chandrayaan does us proud. But though our progress is on a hectic pace now , we are decades behind the best in class.

Lets get on to machinery

Lets ask ourselves that will we trust an Indian machinery maker or Chinese or European or American machinery ? While most machinery are pressed into service in big factories, will those factories be happy to buy Indian or foreign machinery? While the Europeans have a CE mark for safety, the Americans UL , the Chinese a CCC mark, what make is mandatory for importing machinery in India? Are we  not concerned about safety and best practices?

Are students from college taught amongst core engineering , the best practices on Industrial safety, the dictates of a plethora of safety standards?

We are taking pride in inviting apple to set up factory in INDIA, use our labour and give us employment? When are we going to be concerned to design own a brand as powerful as apple or Samsung or LG? can we hear some Chinese names like Xiaomi, Oneplus names in this list or some Indian companies? We have to catch-up. Simply focused on more and more of IT and ITES is NOT ENOUGH. This has to have the encouragement from governments, education , syllabus and our mindset to promote Indian brands.

Come on INDIANS or BHARATHIYAS, Lets do the core engineering, and give us and our country a fillip in world arena.