Is our technological manpower keeping pace?
In a recent article of the above title, Prof.R. Rajaraman (The Hindu, December 4, 07, www.thehindu.in) states that the Indian industries are facing a severe shortage of trained manpower and the IT giants alone are hiring several thousand graduates from abroad. This is in spite of the fact that over 2 million Indian graduates are unemployed today. He attributes this state of affairs to the inadequate training our graduates receive in our educational institutions. Undue importance given by the Government to IITs, IIMs and few prestigious research institutions have drained our Universities of funds and needed infrastructure resulting in the low quality of our graduates.
The above article deals with a highly relevant topic. I agree fully with Prof. Rajaraman on the need for enlarging and enhancing our higher education system. Our Universities, particularly the majority of State-run Universities are groaning under lack of funds and rampant political interference. The undue importance given to few select institutions and the general neglect of the University system have led to the creation of a vast army of young people ill-equipped to meet the needs of our growing industry. As pointed out in the article, the output from our educational system is too inadequate to meet the projected requirement. In spite of the fact that we have about 9 million science graduates and over 5 lakhs students graduate in engineering every year, our per capita workforce(graduates) is only 110 per million as compared to 4500 per million in USA. Besides constraints like lack of funds, inhibition to use our own technology, the employability of our graduates is a matter of great concern. Almost 60 to 70 % of our engineering graduates are said to be “unemployable”. This is because many of the recently opened engineering colleges lack competent faculty and required laboratory and other infrastructure. This situation has to change if the employability of our engineers has to improve. Similarly, the base of our higher education system, the University, must be transformed into centres of quality education and research. This can happen only if the existing universities are unshackled from political interference, made autonomous and infused with sufficient funds. Much enhanced funding by private enterprise is also essential in this respect. As in the western world, private enterprise should be encouraged to set up and fund Universities and encourage existing ones with scholarships, prestigious professorships etc
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