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In India, Many Potholes and Not Enough Engineers - NYTimes.com
Young Indians’ preference for software over steel and concrete poses an economic conundrum for India. Its much-envied information technology industry generates tens of thousands of relatively well-paying jobs every year. But that lure also continues the exodus of people qualified to build the infrastructure it desperately needs to improve living conditions for the rest of its one billion people and to bolster the sort of industries that require good highways and railroads more than high-speed Internet links to the West.
In 1990, civil engineering programs had the capacity to enroll 13,500 students, while computer science and information technology departments could accept but 12,100.
Yet by 2007, after a period of incredible growth in India’s software outsourcing business, computer science and other information technology programs had grown to 193,500; civil engineering climbed to only 22,700. Often, those admitted to civil engineering programs were applicants passed over for highly competitive computer science tracks.
Acknowledging India’s chronic shortage of civil engineers and other specialists, the national government is building 30 new universities and considering letting foreign institutions set up campuses in the country.
“India has embarked on its largest education expansion program since independence,” the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said in a speech last year in Washington.
But the government may have only so much influence on what students study. And while the Indian government runs or finances some of the most prestigious universities in the nation, like the Indian Institutes of Technology, fast-growing private institutions now train more students. About three-quarters of engineering students study at private colleges.
Moreover, many people who earn degrees in civil engineering never work in the profession or, like Mr. Mandvekar, leave it soon after they graduate to take better-paying jobs in information technology, management consulting or financial services.
Young Indians’ preference for software over steel and concrete poses an economic conundrum for India. Its much-envied information technology industry generates tens of thousands of relatively well-paying jobs every year. But that lure also continues the exodus of people qualified to build the infrastructure it desperately needs to improve living conditions for the rest of its one billion people and to bolster the sort of industries that require good highways and railroads more than high-speed Internet links to the West.
In 1990, civil engineering programs had the capacity to enroll 13,500 students, while computer science and information technology departments could accept but 12,100.
Yet by 2007, after a period of incredible growth in India’s software outsourcing business, computer science and other information technology programs had grown to 193,500; civil engineering climbed to only 22,700. Often, those admitted to civil engineering programs were applicants passed over for highly competitive computer science tracks.
Acknowledging India’s chronic shortage of civil engineers and other specialists, the national government is building 30 new universities and considering letting foreign institutions set up campuses in the country.
“India has embarked on its largest education expansion program since independence,” the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said in a speech last year in Washington.
But the government may have only so much influence on what students study. And while the Indian government runs or finances some of the most prestigious universities in the nation, like the Indian Institutes of Technology, fast-growing private institutions now train more students. About three-quarters of engineering students study at private colleges.
Moreover, many people who earn degrees in civil engineering never work in the profession or, like Mr. Mandvekar, leave it soon after they graduate to take better-paying jobs in information technology, management consulting or financial services.