What Ails India’s Software Engineers?

Posted on November 30, 2005  Comments (1)

India does not produce enough good computer engineers and those it does are good at theory but not very well equipped to handle the practical aspects.’
— Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie

What Ails India’s Software Engineers? is an interesting series of 3 articles by Rediff exploring the state of India’s software engineering industry.

From its 113 universities and 2,088 colleges — many of which teach various engineering disciplines — India produces nearly 350,000 engineering graduates every year. All of Europe produces 100,000 engineering graduates a year, and America produces only 70,000.

But, the quality of Indian engineers is questionable, says Madhavan, who has had a career spanning four decades and is now advisor to several engineering colleges in Karnataka and Kerala.
“That is because of the lack of trained faculty and the dismal State spending on research and development in higher education in the country,” he says.

Part of what makes this article interesting is it challenges the accepted wisdom. The article offers an interesting perspective and some details that are not well understood.

In the 1980s, India had just 158 engineering colleges. That number has jumped to 1,208 in the last two decades, mainly because of the information technology boom and the ever-burgeoning capitation fee that self-financing colleges charge.

Every year, these engineering colleges admit about 350,000 students. Apart from this, nearly 3,500 students are absorbed into the seven premier Indian Institutes of Technology.

One Response to “What Ails India’s Software Engineers?”

  1. CuriousCat: Who Killed the Software Engineer?
    January 21st, 2008 @ 2:45 pm

    “As faculty members at New York University for decades, we have regretted the introduction of Java as a first language of instruction for most computer science majors. We have seen how this choice has weakened the formation of our students…”

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