Engineers' Day: Tamil Nadu leads in producing engineers in India
Today (September 15) is Engineers’ Day. It is observed to mark the birth anniversary of one of the best engineers of the country M Visvesvaraya, who was a diwan of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom and is credited with pioneering engineering works.
On the occasion of Engineers’ Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes for Visvesvaraya and also hailed Indian engineers who are contributing to nation-building.
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“Greetings to all engineers on Engineers Day. Our nation is blessed to have a skilled and talented pool of engineers who are contributing to nation building. Our Government is working to enhance infrastructure for studying engineering including building more engineering colleges,” he said.
“On Engineers Day, we remember the pathbreaking contribution of Sir M. Visvesvaraya. May he keep inspiring generations of future engineers to distinguish themselves,” he added.
Greetings to all engineers on #EngineersDay. Our nation is blessed to have a skilled and talented pool of engineers who are contributing to nation building. Our Government is working to enhance infrastructure for studying engineering including building more engineering colleges.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 15, 2022
Every year, lakhs of engineering graduates pass out from various institutions across the country. In 2019, a survey by NASSCOM said India produces 15 lakh engineering graduates every year.
When it comes to the number of engineering seats per lakh population in a state in the country, Tamil Nadu tops the list, according to the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).
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“198 engineering seats were available for every 1 lakh people in India. Of all states, Tamil Nadu has the highest per capita seats with 705 for 1 Lakh Tamil Nadu citizens,” said India in Pixels which presents stories about India in numbers.
Recently, more than 500 engineering institutes participated in the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) process and nearly 1.5 lakh seats were available in the state under the government quota in 2022.
The engineers’ Employability Test report by SHL, which gives data-driven insights, shows that the states with the highest per capita seats also produce the most unemployable engineers.
According to the report by SHL in 2019, over 85% software engineers in services and 97% of software engineers in product are unemployable in India. About 95% Indian graduates (and 98% Chinese graduates, 82% American graduates) don’t have good coding skills.
Colleges in India do not teach conceptual and problem-solving skills. Rote learning is still a major issue. One of the main reasons for poor employability is that a majority of those entering engineering don’t have basic numerical skills or aptitude, it said.
CTO of SHL, Varun Aggarwal said, “Delhi has less than 100 engineering colleges but they are quality institutions. In Tamil Nadu, the ratio of college seats per student is uneven. Having a very high number of colleges also may lead to a decline in quality.”
When it comes to employability across domains and cities in India, Delhi produces the highest percentage of employable graduates while Chennai produces the most unemployable graduates across domains, the report said.
“Only 3.84% of engineers are employable in software-related jobs at start-ups. Around 3% of engineers possess new-age skills in areas such as AI, Machine Learning, Data engineering and Mobile technologies. On an aggregate level, employability in these areas is around 1.5-1.7%.
“The US has a much higher proportion of engineers, almost four times, who have good programming skills as compared to India. A much higher percentage of Indian engineers (37.7%) cannot write an error-free code, as compared to China (10.35%). Only 40% of engineering graduates end up doing an internship and 36% do any projects beyond coursework,” the report added.