To BE or not to BE

While not the world’s oldest profession, engineering probably comes in a close second. After all, with bees constructing complex hives, spiders building elaborate webs and beavers damming rivers well before man arrived on the scene, one could almost say that engineering is part of man’s genealogical makeup. It is science applied to create value, an attempt to introduce rational order into an otherwise irrational world of humans. Through it, man has created gardens in the desert and explored the depths of the oceans and outer space. Without it, we would probably still be living as nomads, foraging for food and at the mercy of the elements.

With that as a background, let’s see how engineers are faring in the world today. Let’s start with the US, which led the world in terms of new technology for most of the 20^th century. Engineers were responsible for the settling of the Wild West and the expansion of settlers across the continent, which was exemplified by the connection by railways of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 1869 (a feat no less spectacular than the moon landing a hundred years later). The age of the great bridge builders came next, with the Brooklyn Bridge in New York in 1883 that stands to this day next to those other great symbols of engineering – skyscrapers. Most of us would deem Edison a scientist, but he was really an engineer, testing almost two thousand different materials before he found one worthy of use as a filament in a light bulb.

Today, however, an engineer in the US is about as rare as Edison’s phonograph! With the manufacturing base relocated overseas, US teenagers are more likely to end up engaged in banking or law than in designing a new wind turbine. A report entitled “Rising above the Gathering Storm”, by the US National Academy of Engineering, warns of the impending loss of competitive advantage for the US due to the severe shortage of engineers and scientists. This is reflected in the governing elite as well – there are hardly any technical professionals in the US Congress or Senate. Little wonder that PhD programs in most US universities are made up primarily of foreign nationals, with China and India leading the way.

China has clearly taken on the mantle of engineering superpower from the US. Its manufacturing capacity continues to grow, as does its appetite for consuming vast quantities of raw materials and energy and spitting out world scale infrastructure. The Three Gorges dam, the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, is to China what the Hoover dam was to the US during the depression of the 1930s.  The railway line into Tibet, the project to link the Yangtze and Hwang-Ho rivers and the new electric cars being developed by BYD and SAIC are just some of the dreams to which young Chinese engineers can aspire. That, and a fairly high position in the Chinese Communist Party, where Premier Hu Jintao is just one of many trained engineers who continue to use their technical knowledge to guide the nation towards greater heights.

India’s love affair with engineering began early, with the construction of the “temples” under Nehru. We got dams, steel and coal plants, a small number of consumer goods and a decent infrastructure inherited from the British. The green revolution of the 1960s was, in fact, engineering to some extent, even though most engineers will probably dismiss that claim. With socialistic fervor running rampant, however, the ability to create something new was restricted by manufacturing quotas and licenses. In addition, most desi companies hiring engineers have tended to bring them in as a “management trainee” – an indication that the employee’s engineering skills will henceforth be of secondary importance. This is partly a reflection of the companies’ attitude to technology innovation – but also the hidden distaste that most Indians have for working with one’s hands. And engineering typically involves a lot of such “dirty” work, whether it is on the factory floor or chemical plant or even a laboratory. Indeed, India’s success in the IT sector can partly be attributed to the fact that it is “clean” – it is more “intellectual”, whereas building a bridge is akin to manual labour. Of course, the impact of a computer crash is far less than that of a bridge, as recent occurrences on the Delhi Metro and now in Kota have proven.

So while an “engineer” is still fairly well regarded across India, it has not taken on the burden of nation building as in China. And pushing an entire generation of youngsters into the field is not the answer to keeping the talent pool healthy – there are far more opportunities nowadays for those who are not scientifically inclined. Proper counseling in schools to identify the best career path for a student, and creating rewarding job opportunities in those fields will beat a one-size-fits-all model any day. Without that, we might well end up with three million idiots, let alone three!