Engineering education in India - Indian Scenario
"A scientist dreams to make this world better and an Engineer makes that dream true.”
Engineer working on site . Image courtesy:http://www.123rf.com/
Engineering was started by human beings to make life comfortable. As the world developed, many important changes were seen in the field of engineering. As a result a high percentage of young generation can be seen appearing for IIT-JEE to get into the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and AIEEE, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Approximately 4 lakh students appear in AIEEE exam every year. So, these examinations invite very high competition among students.
Engineering education in India has seen tremendous growth over the past decade, both in number of students and number of colleges. The recent growth in Indian engineering education has been overwhelmingly due to privately funded educational institutions rather than publicly funded ones.
Engineering education started in India during the British era. In India the first engineering college was established at Roorkee, known as Thomson Engineering College in 1847. In early times emphasis was laid on Civil Engineering.
Nowadays, India has emerged as the single largest pool of engineering talent among the emerging countries capable of taking on this kind of work more than Russia and China combined.
As per the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), 401,791 engineers passed out from different engineering institutes or colleges in 2003. The number increased to 464,743 in 2004-05. Engineering colleges in India have been growing at 20 per cent per year. Five Indian states Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala account for 69 per cent of India's engineers. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Orissa account for only 14 per cent.