Engineering is a well respected profession in India. More and more students are choosing engineering as an undergraduate major and also as a career path. As a career, it is seen as a means to upward mobility. Today as per statistics – India graduates the largest number of engineers after China at around 350,000 per year.1
Engineering has long been seen as a safe profession in India. If nothing else, it meant that a person would have a steady income. Until the mid nineties, an engineer would finish his degree and if he or she was from a good engineering school, would head to the USA for a PHD and then settle down in the country pursuing a career in engineering. The nineties saw an influx of software engineers migrate to the USA, not necessarily more qualified but who could be hired for less money than their American counterpart.
The 21st century has seen a different trend. With the onset of technical outsourcing to India and other cheap foreign destinations from the USA and Europe, engineering degrees and careers have taken a whole new meaning in India. The last ten years has seen a lot of low skilled as well as software testing work shift to destinations like India due to the lower cost of labor. Several engineers of Indian origin in the USA are electing to go back as more and more opportunities emerge in India due to rapid globalization and shifting of technology related work to low cost destinations such as India.
History of Engineering in IndiaEngineering in India picked up momentum in 1947 after India’s independence from British rule. Engineering was considered a well-respected and stable profession. It was heavily dominated by men. The eighties saw a steady increase in women that took it up as a profession. The nineties saw a steady increase in computer engineering as more and more venues opened for Indian engineers in India and North America in the field of software programming.
Engineering has long been seen as a safe profession in India. If nothing else, it meant that a person would have a steady income. Until the mid nineties, an engineer would finish his degree and if he or she was from a good engineering school, would head to the USA for a PHD and then settle down in the country pursuing a career in engineering. The nineties saw an influx of software engineers migrate to the USA, not necessarily more qualified but who could be hired for less money than their American counterpart.
The 21st century has seen a different trend. With the onset of technical outsourcing to India and other cheap foreign destinations from the USA and Europe, engineering degrees and careers have taken a whole new meaning in India. The last ten years has seen a lot of low skilled as well as software testing work shift to destinations like India due to the lower cost of labor. Several engineers of Indian origin in the USA are electing to go back as more and more opportunities emerge in India due to rapid globalization and shifting of technology related work to low cost destinations such as India.
History of Engineering in IndiaEngineering in India picked up momentum in 1947 after India’s independence from British rule. Engineering was considered a well-respected and stable profession. It was heavily dominated by men. The eighties saw a steady increase in women that took it up as a profession. The nineties saw a steady increase in computer engineering as more and more venues opened for Indian engineers in India and North America in the field of software programming.
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