Essay: Master of Science in Engineering

[The place of the engineer in ancient and modern times, His importance in modern India (a) Schools of Engineering (b) Scope for the engineers.] Engineering and architecture, hall-marks of European civiliza­tion, were not at all unknown to ancient and medieval India. The big trunk roads, historic buildings, forth, monuments like the Tajmahal, temples and mosques, scattered all over the country; bear, testimony to the fact. The colonial rule of the British put deliberately the hands of clock back and encouraged only the study of humanities, neglecting science and technology. On becoming the first Prime Minister of India Pandit Nehru declared that to build up the country India needed engineers. So we in India took to the study of engineering more and more. We, no doubt, produced in those days a Rajen Mookherjee or a Visweswaraya and Gangaram of Roorki. But for a vast country like ours, very many more such eminent engineers are needed. So in independent India attention of our leaders was drawn to large technical institutions and national laboratories. The Jadavpur Engi­neering College has been changed into a University. Six Indian Institute of technology were set up at important spots like Kharagpur, Kanpur, Bombay, Delhi etc. Indeed, we urgently need qualified technicians for running our big steel plants, River Valley Projects, Pharmaceutical concerns, Oil and Petroleum prospecting, Aereonautics and many other expanding fields of modern science and technology. India has now more than two million trained (holding degrees and diplomas) engineering personnel, third in the world in number. Every big state in India now has half a dozen or more engineering colleges and institutes with scope for studying mechanical, civil, electrical, pharmaceutical, electronic and-other branches of engineer­ing, at Kharagpur and elsewhere. Bangalore has become the centre of basic engineering study and research in many departments. The engineering college at Roorki has been upgraded. Technological Institutes have been attached to the huge steel plants at Rourkella and Durgapur. Unfortunately students of our country, after obtaining engineer­ing graduation, fed by our farmers, taught by our teachers with Indian materials aided by Indian labor are migrating to technically advanced, foreign countries like USA, Germany, UK, Russia, osten­sibly for higher studies and settling down there in lure of money. This brain drain is hitting hard the native country. The trend has to be stopped, even reversed. India also needs not only research workers and students but an increasing number of qualified medical men. The villages lack trained doctors who find practice in the towns easier and more profitable. Hence it is necessary that more and more students should take to the study of medicine. It is not that there is any lack of willing students; what is needed is a large number of medical schools and colleges to receive and educate them. This should be an important aspect of our Five-Year Plans. At the same time the medical graduates should be prepared to practice, at least for a specific period of time, in villages, may be as bare-footed doctors.

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About K. M. Emrul Hasan

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