OOOOPS--! > Few of the zillions of engineers, including civil, Indian universities churn > out, could not relate their academic knowledge ( which is as good as any in > the world) to actual field work, the project delivery process, if their lives > depended on it.
Should have been : > Few of the zillions of engineers, including civil, Indian universities churn > out, could *** relate their academic knowledge ( which is as good as any in > the world) to actual field work, the project delivery process, if their lives > depended on it. On Aug 26, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Chan Mahanta wrote: > > Good to hear from you Santanu. I was afraid we lost you, like so many others > that have come and gone :-). Hope to hear more from you. > > Anyway, MY views are somewhat different. I posted the following comment to > NY Times which is awaiting clearance from the Moderator: > > _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ > > Of the many reasons cited for the appalling conditions of India's > infrastructure, lack of civil engineers is the least of the problem. It is > primarily rooted in two issues: > > *** A cultural, attitudinal one. The medieval, feudal attitude of Indians who > look down on manual labor that pervades even to this day, deprives the > profession and industry of hands-on, technically competent people who can > build intelligently and competently. Few of the zillions of engineers, > including civil, Indian universities churn out, could not relate their > academic knowledge ( which is as good as any in the world) to actual field > work, the project delivery process, if their lives depended on it. > > How do I know? I am an architect, trained in one of the most hyped Indian > IITs. > > *** The utter dysfunction of Indian governance: Corrupt practices pervade, > because no one, important enough is ever held accountable, be it for finance, > be it for lab-work, be it for poor quality work, be-it for non-delivery of > goods and services contracted out. Add to that the attitude of the > clerks-from-hell, the > legendary Indian bureaucracy, whose only contribution is to serve as > obstacles to every endeavor with their zeal for compliance with rules, > regulations and process, before anything can get off the ground, but who are > impotent to provide any help, relief , WHEN things actually go bad! > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Aug 26, 2010, at 11:07 AM, Roy, Santanu wrote: > >> The problem is not really one of production of civil engineers. The system >> produces enough of them. It is just that these people choose to enter the IT >> & related sectors rather than work as civil engineers because the perceived >> wages are significantly lower for the latter. Of course, government civil >> engineers can make a lot of money through graft and compromises - but >> clearly that is not enough to attract the bright young ones (who may even >> put some value on clean income). It is difficult to see how producing MORE >> civil engineers is going to rectify the situation. If anything, it will push >> down the wages for civil engineers in the private sector. The solution is >> clearly one of allowing compensation for civil engineers to rise >> competitively till there is no "shortage". As the public sector employs bulk >> of them, they need to act. >> >> >> >> On a slightly different and more general note, the Indian education system >> engages in a colossal waste of resources when it trains hordes of bright >> people in advanced science, engineering and technology disciplines at the >> best public institutions of the country - only to have the products enter >> the IT sector in jobs bearing no relation to their education and training. >> A significant proportion of these IT jobs can be performed by student with >> secondary school education and half to one year of training. Instead, we see >> students competing ferociously to enter the top engineering schools (in >> disciplines ranging from aeronautical to metallurgical engineering) only to >> signal their relative strength of innate "cleverness" or IQ to INFOSYS and >> other most coveted employers in the IT sector. >> >> >> >> Santanu. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: assam-boun...@assamnet.org [mailto:assam-boun...@assamnet.org] On >> Behalf Of Chan Mahanta >> Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 9:47 AM >> To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world >> Subject: [Assam] From NY Times - India's Civil Engineering Achievements >> >> >> >> >> >> India's Civil Engineering Achievements --NOT! >> >> >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/business/global/26engineer.html >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> assam mailing list >> >> assam@assamnet.org >> >> http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org >> _______________________________________________ >> assam mailing list >> assam@assamnet.org >> http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org > _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
