Engineer's Role in Develping India

‘Urban India' has to take along with it ‘rural India' if there has to be real development and progress

In the early 1980s, there were hardly 100 colleges imparting engineering education in the country and becoming an engineer used to be an unrealised dream for many. The scenario has changed dramatically and drastically over the years that now there are nearly 2,000 institutions teaching engineering education. In Andhra Pradesh alone, there are over 600 colleges.

“It is not engineers from IITs but the ones from these numerous engineering colleges who are needed to bring change in this country. Their role is no less in the transformation that the country has witnessed over the years,” said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, professor of electrical engineering and head of TeNeT Group, IIT Madras, Chennai.

Prof. Jhunjhunwala delivered the Sri Vallurupalli Venkata Rama Seshadri Rao memorial inaugural oration organised by the Gudlavalleru Engineering College at Seshadri Rao Knowledge Village in Krishna district here recently. In his address, he stressed the importance of ‘urban India' taking along with it ‘rural India' if there has to be real development and progress in the country in the coming decades. He foresaw a better future for rural areas, as India will catch up now with Korea, Taiwan and such East Asian countries where manufacturing transformed several rural pockets years ago itself.

Underlining the significance of information and communication technology (ICT) in modern times, Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala said that the ICT was just a tool and it was up to everybody in the country to use it effectively to fulfil the principal needs of rural India. The rural areas also need improved access to quality education, quality healthcare and better livelihoods. With the help of ICT and large number of innovations, a sea change could be brought about in the rural people's lives as well.

Stating that 15 million children become eligible for school education every year in rural...