Recently we hired a Ph.D. from one of the top IITs to work on a hardware-oriented project. He was totally ignorant and out of his depth about engineering with no hands-on experience.  But being a smart person learned to work with his hands. However, the greatest shortcoming we found in him was his lack of imagination; and inability to think on his feet and to create solutions for solving real-life problems.  This was partly because his thesis work was in applied engineering mathematics.

This is what is happening in IITs and other top engineering colleges where the Ph.D. students are mostly working on very theoretical problems and are thus becoming applied mathematicians. It is not the student’s fault because such problems are suggested by their professors.

Besides postgraduates, IITs are producing undergraduate engineers who only know how to pass exams with very little hands-on experience of real-life engineering problems. By getting such theoretical training the student’s analytical skills maybe getting enhanced but they lose vital touch with reality.

As one of the professors from an IIT told me they seemed to be teaching undergraduates to prepare them to get admission into M.Tech program and teach M.Techs to get into Ph.D after which they ultimately join IITs and different colleges to teach again the same theoretical and applied mathematics type of material.

It seems they are following the Kabir’s saying अंधे अंधा ठेलिया दोनों कूप पडंत (a blind leading a blind makes both fall into a well).

Present scenario

To build a great country and become "Atmanirbhar Bharat" (a self-reliant India), as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, puts it, we need great engineers who will do excellent R&D in hardware engineering and solve problems that are unique to India rather than solving some esoteric US or western world problems.

Since most of the engineering teaching is geared to make the students pass exams and become applied mathematicians the students end up taking jobs in companies focused on software,  data analysis, banking sector, stock exchanges, and similar activities which are far removed from hardcore engineering. In fact, this year about 70 per cent of M.Tech students in one of the leading IITs have taken up jobs in software companies.

This sorry situation in Indian engineering education is not the students' fault, but a skewed and faulty education system that focuses only on the numbers.

Thus, a professor gets promotion based on the number of papers in prestigious journals (doing the most esoteric work which is far removed from reality) and the number of M.Tech and Ph.D students he/she has guided. The quality of work or how it will help the country is never in the picture. Thus, there is no incentive for the professor to teach any hardware-oriented material.

Generally, in a country where there is a big budget for R&D, M.Tech and  Ph.Ds production is useful.  In India there are few avenues for M.Tech and Ph.Ds to be employed in hardcore engineering. Besides the Government of India also gives very little money for such R&D projects. Hence one cannot understand why we produce so many M.Tech. and Ph.D graduates. No wonder they end up doing non-core engineering jobs.

Students who do not get good-paying jobs opt to get M.Tech and Ph.D. from IITs since such a degree is a passport for getting high-paying jobs. Also, M.Tech and Ph.D. students. are presently given very handsome fellowships.  And life in IIT, and other college hostels nowadays is very enjoyable with good food, pleasant living conditions and excellent extra-curricular activities. 

No wonder quite a few Ph.D. students get their Ph.Ds. in 7 to 8 years. There could be other reasons for this long Ph.D. duration, but the nice living conditions and stress-free environment help in extending the time they take for getting their Ph.Ds.

Recently there is a window of hope in the startup ecosystem that is being spearheaded by IITs and other colleges. India today boasts of having the third largest number of startups in the world. However, more than 80 per cent of them are e-commerce and apps-based ones, with less than 20 per cent in really hardcore engineering or agritech sectors and are not doing very well. This number has to increase and nurtured for Atmanirbhar Bharat.

So, what can be done to improve the situation?

Possible solutions

It is a societal problem where the focus is only on money. Hence the students opt for the highest-paying jobs which are non-core and software related. This is further exacerbated by the low availability of well-paying jobs in hardcore engineering either in government or private companies.  That is because there is hardly any culture of R&D in the Indian industrial ecosystem.  What happens as R&D in these companies is very superficial with minor improvements in the existing product for which they do not need M.Tech or Ph.Ds.

The R&D culture of the US, other Western nations and  that of Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan or China, needs to be adopted in India. This requires massive increase in R&D funding in India. Presently it is less than 0.7 per cent of GDP and one of the lowest in the world. By comparison, South Korea spends 4.81 per cent of its GDP on R&D. After all modern civilization is an outcome of excellent R&D and hence to become a great nation, we need to increase it.

Absorption of increased R&D budget will require an overhaul of the engineering curriculum. Some of the approaches could be :

(1)    Sound hands-on and experimental projects and courses to be introduced in the undergraduate curriculum.

(2)    More focus on designing interesting and useful experiments and performing them.

(3)    More courses to be taught in humanities as also teaching ethics of work. This will give the engineers well-rounded education besides making them aware that money is not everything in life.

(4)    Focus on recruitment of professors who have few years of industrial experience. Most of the faculty presently is composed of recently passed M.Tech. and Ph.D. graduates who are trained in applied mathematics.

(5)    There is a need to have a one-year project in undergraduate degree program which helps the students to work on real-life challenges. Both theoretical and experimental work needs to be done in these projects.

(6)    Undergraduate students are smart and if the professors and the system expect them to solve real-life problems, they can do it. We have seen many times in our Institute that the raw engineering students who joined us learned to do the work with their hands because it was expected from them. Naturally, this requires good teachers and lots of effort on their part to device a curriculum to focus on solving real problems. For students, it will also be more enjoyable than passing boring exams and quizzes.

The curriculum change will not take place from inside the system - there are too many vested interests involved. IITs have tremendous autonomy and flexibility in making the curriculum. However, it has not done so to create engineers who will make the country Atmanirbhar. Thus it has to be prodded from the top, i.e., the Government of India. 

There is therefore a need to create a task force to affect such curriculum changes by having knowledgeable people in it from academia, corporates, and civil society and keeping in mind the autonomy and the flexibility that the IITs have enjoyed.

(The writer, an IIT and US-educated Indian engineer,  a 2022 Padma Shri award winner, is the Director, of Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. Views are personal. He can be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com)