Mysuru: According to a global report commissioned by the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, a few years ago, while just 20 percent of the 16 to 17-year-olds from the United Kingdom and 30 percent from the United States of America are interested in an engineering career. In India, the rate is as high as 80 percent. The report also revealed that India has closed the gender gap in engineering. Among men, 85 percent showed interest in engineering while among women it was 79 percent”, said A Surya Prakash, Chairman, Prasar Bharati.
Delivering the Convocation Address during JSS Science and Technology University’s first convocation at its campus here on Saturday, he said, “In 1947, when India became independent, there were 36 institutions for engineering education, with an annual intake of about 2500 students. By 2016-17, the number had increased to more than 1.5 million leading to a glut in the market. While we have seen an exponential growth in terms of new colleges, increased intake of students in our institutes of technology, there are serious concerns about the poor standards in many of these institutions and the market has its way of filtering them out. I gather that a few hundred colleges have applied for closure and this is just as well.”
“Even though we have a plethora of institutions and universities in the country offering a variety of courses, India is still lagging behind in two important areas, namely, acquisition of skills by students during their years of education and research and innovation. The absence of skills is a problematic area because it reduces the employability of those passing out of our universities. The document cited an industry survey which said that 58 percent of the employees in India had a deficit in talent. Only 2.3 percent of the workforce in India has undergone skill training as compared to 96 percent in Korea, 80 percent in Japan, 75 percent in Germany, 68 percent in the UK and 52 percent in the USA. The skill gap is most obvious when it comes to employers seeking candidates with relevant industry-specific skilled trade certification. This is a matter of great concern and I am happy to note that the university seeks to address this issue in many ways including the introduction of new courses which impart training and knowledge which is industry specific like M Sc Functional Chemistry to equip students to enter the Pharma and R & D Companies with required skills or the M Sc Mathematics MSc which will train students for specific assignments in companies like Google, IBM etc. Actuarial Mathematics and Mathematical Economics are for those seeking to enter the actuarial business or Insurance sector and Applicable Mathematics for entry into Robotics” added Surya Prakash. He also mentioned that the gap between the employers’ requirements and the skill strength of the person whom he is hiring in industrial and service sectors has been huge. As a result, many companies have their own induction programmes to impart skills to those whom they employ.
“As regards innovation, it is indeed disappointing to see India way down the list of countries which have filed international patent applications. According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), in the year 2017, inventors from around the world filed 243,500 international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). US-based applicants filed 56,624 patent applications, followed by China (48,882) and Japan (48,208). Germany and the Republic of Korea ranked fourth and fifth with 18,982 and 15,763 applications. Indians filed 1803 applications. The number of patents filed by India with a population of 1300 million is just 10 percent of the same filed by the Republic of Korea with a population of 51 million. Another worrisome statistic is that out of a total 45,444 applications filed during 2016-17 in the Patent Office of the Comptroller of Patents, Designs and Trademarks in India, the number of applications filed by Indian applicants was just 13,219 (29 percent)”, pointed Surya Prakash.
First rank in M Tech
Automotive Electronics-J Naveen Kumar, Bio-medical Signal Processing and Instrumentation-H S Bhanu, Computer Engineering-Manasamithra P, Energy Systems and Management-B Sushmasumathi, Environmental Engineering-C Nishchal, Health Science and Water Engineering-S R Yashas, Industrial Electronics-Adithya Kashya R, Industrial Structures-Balasubramanya S Kurdekar, Maintenance Engineering-H R Dhanush, Networking and Internet Engineering-M Thriveni, Software Engineering-P Ranjitha.
First Rank MBA -C Praveen Kumar and MBA (Corporate Finance)-S Asha.
