OpinionsOfIndianEngineers on Transport Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari's Plan for Abatement of Automobile Pollution

OpinionsOfIndianEngineers  fully favors what Shri Nitin Gadkari, the Indian Road Transport and Highways minister has declared recently. He has been reported as  revealing his ambitious plans for abatement of vehicular pollution that has become an administrative dilemma for the Indian capital New Delhi now.

In highly populated cities like New Delhi, pollution caused by exhaust gases from automobile engines that burn petroleum fuels like gasoline (petrol), high speed diesel (HSD), etc has become a bone of contention among various interest groups. 

Citizens need transport convenience and most transport vehicles now use and burn petroleum fuels as their energy source. When petrol and diesel undergo the combustion process in the internal combustion engines of the cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks and airplanes, air is sucked in for aiding the combustion and the combustion products get discharged back in to the air. 

The engines cause atmospheric air pollution because it consumes oxygen in the air and enhances the concentration of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,  nitrogen oxides, etc in the air. Besides, inefficient engines especially large diesel engines discharge some un-burnt oils and carbon particles through their exhaust pipes due to partial combustion. Very efficient and well designed petroleum engines should only discharge carbon di oxide, nitrogen and some water vapor in to the atmosphere. But that is not usually the case as most engines discharge highly polluting partial products of combustion.

When density of population and vehicular densities are lower within the normal natural degradation ability of the atmosphere, we need not have worried about pollution. But due to unscientific development of our cities the densities of population of both people and vehicles have gone high beyond the ability of nature to manage.

Vehicle movements also causes air born dust to increase, especially when the roads are not well paved or not maintained well swept. Normally when things are all okay, we do not think wisely for future. We start making a big hue and cry when things become quite unmanageable!

Indian cities are all highly polluted due to our own collective inertia to think and act properly.

In India it is very difficult reach to any quick practical solution to any problem. That is because, India is a democracy with its stakeholders having varying degrees of understanding about various problems and their solutions. Various authorities in its democratic system quite often move in opposing directions. No one seems to thing about the nation as a whole. They seem to think and act from withing their own limited domains.

Suppose that an engineer is posted as a pollution control authority. He or she then starts behaving as if pollution control is the sole issue affecting every one. The individuals refuse to think wisely putting on others' shoes as well at the same time! This kind of a behavior is seen in almost all Indians! They fight to win their point without giving others to express their views. Accommodating others' viewpoint is very difficult for Indians entrusted with some authority in some area!

The effect is what we have been seeing with regard to pollution control actions taken by various authorities for the national capital Delhi. The Delhi government came forward with the idea of restricting the numbers of vehicles on the roads at any time by making regulations for the so-called odd-even run dates. That meant car owners with odd registration numbers to drive on the roads only on odd days of the week. Even numbered vehicles, on the other hand, allowed on even days and on Sundays and holidays both types allowed to be driven.

The idea was not anything bad as such. Only problem was that the Delhi government did not consider the alternatives for the citizens to move in the city and the problems of some one going out with his or her car on an allowed day and returning back on a non-allowed day! No doubt, this regulation enhanced the people's problem and perhaps gives much chances for the law enforcers to make a quick buck by harassing the people for law breaking!

Then came the role of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) a quasi judicial authority entrusted with judicial powers for environmental protection. This body banned the diesel vehicles in the national capital on the assumption that diesel engines cause more pollution. 

Then came the Supreme Court with its ban on the sale of all expensive diesel vehicle sales in Delhi creating a surprise jolt to the business of the prime manufacturers and dealers of such vehicles.

Apparently these authorities all seem to burn the castle for killing the rats! They seem to act with their own authorities in their limited space of responsibility instead of thinking of the nation as a whole!

Indian engineers know how to tackle these problems, provided they are allowed to use their knowledgeable minds in a rational and practical manner. But they are not allowed. There are several constraining factors that do not allow them to do so.

Under such a scenario, what Shri Gadkari has told is something special to be noted. Gadkari told about a better solution to the environmental problem caused by petroleum fuels.

His idea is about using the renewable liquid fuel ethyl alcohol or ethanol as a fuel automobiles. This idea using ethanol is nothing new. In the world, Brazil has been the pioneering country that perhaps commercially made ethanol a successful auto fuel. 

India also could have adopted that long, long back. Perhaps that would have reduced our pollution problems and reduced our outflow of foreign exchange for import of petroleum. That would also have generated much employment and enhanced the incomes of our sugarcane growing farmers. But our earlier governments, dillydallied that due to reasons that they knew better.

But Shri Gadkari is both a successful politician and a businessman. His opponents might accuse him of reaping undue advantages, but he has the business acumen to know the potentials of ethanol as an alternative auto fuel in India. And that is what he expressed.

When ethanol is burnt in suitably designed auto engines, the combustion waste gases are not polluted with un-burnt carbon or other partially burnt petroleum oils that are all polluting. The waste gases in this case are only carbon di oxide and water vapor, both mixed with the unused part of air that was sucked in by the engines.

If the government of India actually issue the rules for use of ethanol or ethanol blended petrol for use as auto fuel without loss of further time as told by the minister, it is a welcome step and needs to be appreciated. 

Let us only hope that some other authorities within the governance system would not create hurdles by opposing viewpoints!

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Why Did the Chhattisgarh Anti-Naxalite Operation Forces Commit the Heinous Crime of Rape and Loot?

Opinions of Indian Engineers too is ashamed of being called Indian because of the heinous crime recently committed by a group of about 200 uniformed men deployed in the state of Chhattisgarh to fight the so-called local terror groups of the region now commonly referred as the Naxalites. 

The Indian offline and online media are full of the reports about the terror these uniformed officials unleashed on the poorest of the poor of the Indian populace residing in some of the most inaccessible hamlets in the east central regions of India in this state.

The uniformed men, a few days ago, committed all kinds of atrocities on the poor tribal women and children of Bijapur district-one of the sparingly populated and inaccessible region in India which used to be part of the larger Bastar district. The following are some of the online media news titles about this shameful incident ( Readers can read the full news by clicking the titles):

The Indian Express Report : "Bijapur-Policemen raped women and indulged in loot"

The Hindustantimes Report: "Chhattisgarh rape: Judicial probe says cops killed tribal girl"

DnaIndia Report: "Chhattisgarh: Tribal women allege molestation by security forces in Bijapur" 

There are scores like that on the internet and other media now. Related news details are pouring out. As these regions are practically inaccessible for the rest of India due to the decades long internal civil conflicts between the terror outfits and the governmental forces, it would be very difficult to ascertain the detailed facts.

Shri R.K Vij IPS who is the Additional Director General of Police in command of the anti-naxal operations of the state for quite some time now must be fully ashamed of the deeds of his lower ranks who did such inhuman acts! This top cop may also be cursing the decisions he had taken decades ago to leave his profession as an engineering college lecturer to join the coveted Indian Police Service! What could be the reason why even a top police officer having a high educational background in structural engineering failed in inculcating human values in the minds of his armed security men entrusted with the job of law enforcement? How do they dare to do such atrocities against their hapless countrymen and women for whose safety they are employed by the state?

Some two and a half decades ago, Naxallite problems were unheard of in the state of Madhya Pradesh from which the present state of Chhattisgarh had been carved out. An engineer working with the government sector shared some of the things that a junior police inspector working with the Special Armed Forces (SAF) of Madhya Pradesh camped in the district of Durg happened to tell him.

This inspector was from South India and was on the verge of his retirement. He told our engineer decades ago like this: 

"Sir, these tribal people of Bastar are very simple folks. But I tell you, the bad policies and acts of our government will turn many of them to become anti-establishment in the years to come. This whole area will become a terrorist infested area. If you still be in this place, please remember my words when it actually happens!" 

This engineer asked him the reasons for this prediction that he made. He reluctantly divulged many inside stories of the various kinds of atrocities the very same forces to which he was a subordinate officer were doing in the remote hamlets of the tribal people. He also divulged the reasons why the young uniformed men do such acts!

" Sir, our battalions are patrolling these regions to prevent the naxalite infiltration from the adjoining Andhra Pradesh" He continued. "Though the government allocates lots of funds for these, corruption at higher levels in the police force do not allow these funds to reach the lower ranking policemen who are to actually do the field work in the difficult terrains. Our men are not provided with enough food, shelter, transport and such other facilities which are essential for any human being. The top officers treat the lower rung constables like slaves. They are ragged and harassed always and never treated as human beings. That is the strategy our police culture has been adopting for keeping the men ready to pounce upon other human beings when needed. That is the police training culture. Many top officials in our forces believe that this is essential to  keep the young jawans unflinching to inflict injury to any other human being."

"Sir, some of our boys do catch the helpless village women and girls whenever they get and opportunity to satiate their biological urges. Even those of us in the patrol groups who have some humanity left within us cannot prevent them in such situations because they are mad at those times and can even kill us with the automatics they carry which our administration would write off as encounter casualties! You can only imagine the hate these tribal people have in their minds now against us due to all these. There is no surprise then that their youths get lured by the extremists to fight the government machinery in the future!" 

"What do you think the way out?" Our engineer had asked him.

" There are some higher ups somewhere who see big personal gains for some of them when armed insurgency is kept alive for which government funding goes in plenty without any audits of any sort. They do not wish to make peace. When things are all okay, they cannot gain. So knowingly or unknowingly they keep promoting and encouraging the conflicts every now and then. Insulting the women folk of the tribal villages in the inaccessible regions are the best way to make them infuriated. When some of our boys find that the seniors would never question their misdeeds or punish them for that they become real evil to repeat such things with impunity. The good ones in the forces become the silent and hapless spectators! Our politicians have no guts to go against those determined and corrupt senior or junior officers. Same is the case with many of our bureaucrats. That is the safest thing that they can do. So they always officially deny any reported incidents of misdeeds by our forces. The official version of any police atrocity anywhere in this country would be denial of the facts and cover ups actions and not against the corrupt officials. It is only after years later, the real stories come out. This has to change, if the system is to improve!' The about to retire police official confessed to our engineer.

Our engineer, though felt remorse by hearing these inhuman police stories, felt also relieved about the fact that he did not try to compete for the union public service examinations to get in to the Indian Police Service!

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Wanting to Become an Engineer in India? Please Don't Waste Your Parents' Hard Earned Money If You Lack the Acumen!

Opinions of Indian Engineers would like to tell a truth that is a bit difficult to digest for all youngsters who wish to take up higher studies after completing their higher secondary school level education. Perhaps it would be more unpalatable for their parents.

But the truth is that engineering education is not a ticket for securing a guaranteed employment securing a comfortable job in India any more.

The biggest blunder made by the Indian governments (both central and the states) in the last couple of decades is perhaps their decision to allow the mushrooming of engineering colleges in the length and breadth of the country and allowing unscrupulous people to en-cash the so-called premium the engineering profession enjoyed in the society in the past.

What they apparently failed to recognize was the type and reason for the sudden rise of high paying employment opportunities for Indian engineers in those days. It was caused by the decisions taken by the US government to outsource much of the non-challenging but labor intensive computer code re-writing works of that country to the cheap technical labor in the third world countries. It was called the Y2K boom (for employment) in the IT sector.

Shrewd Indian business houses quickly took up this great opportunity and created large corporate entities that depended mostly on human capital and converted the wage disparity in the US and India to their full advantage. In their enthusiasm for mass recruitment of technically oriented manpower to be re-trained as computer coders, programmers and system analysts, they began to suck out all the engineers that were getting trained in India regardless of they being in any discipline of engineering. It was easy for them to pay higher wages from the average Indian salary of engineers because of the wage disparity in the US and India and the higher purchasing power of the dollar.

The liberal attitude of the US government in giving job visas for technically skilled foreign man-power to work in that country helped the job provider nation and the job seeker nations. The US could deploy their highly talented and scarce brain power to high technology research field that ensured that country's technological and engineering superiority over all other nations. The lower end and routine engineering jobs either got outsourced or replaced by foreign engineers. The foreign engineers in turn got much higher wages as compared to their own countries and also an opportunity to be permanent citizens of a highly developed nation.

India gained from scarce foreign exchange. India also gained from better access to used up technologies which other wise was not easily accessible. There was a big economic boom with India gaining much, though the gains were limited to the affluent populace. That affluence lured the aspirations of the middle class and the lower middle class Indians who thought engineering education as the magic solution for enhancing their social status and financial strength. Those Indians were too willing to send their children to engineering education at whatever be the cost. They refused to recognize the simple fact that engineering is not computer code writing. They also refused to recognize the fact that engineering studies needed some essential IQ level and aptitude. They believed that money can earn the engineering degrees and the engineering degrees can bring the dollars.

This attitude of the average Indian got converted to the establishment of English medium private schools and private engineering colleges, both extracted huge sums of money as approved fees and unapproved 'under the table' donations!

All the better IQ Indian boys and girls aspired to get in to the so-called premier engineering institutes as they believed it as the winning formula for their future citizenship in the USA. The next grades got satisfied with lower paid but sure shot employment in some of the IT companies of India who essentially functioned as IT contractors for the bigger multinational corporations.

But no one cared for the rest of the millions of engineering graduates whose parents spent their life time earnings to get them get those use-less engineering degrees!

No one also seem to be caring to know about the fate of Indian companies and organisations who cannot pay dollar equivalent salaries but are in the need of skilled engineers to do the actual work of engineering!

The conventional higher college education and the school education system of India are in shambles. More than 50% of the Indians now cannot afford these. Even if they do, it is merely useless and cannot guarantee them any worthwhile employment. When the millions of engineers are on the streets looking for jobs, what hope they can have?

The social media is discussing issues like 'what is the cause for unemployment in engineering in India?' . If you are still inclined to become an engineer you should read these before you decide.

All at the same time there is a serious shortage of engineers with requisite skills. Unfortunately, neither the IITs nor the other engineering colleges teach their students any specific skills that can make them job ready.

For the shrewd and high IQ fellows, getting employment or self employment is not much of an issue. They have it in their brains. They know how to go ahead. But such genius fellows are a small percentage in any society. We need not worry about them.

But for the larger stock who need proper guidance, we need to worry. They are also much needed for any nation to progress and maintain its well being. 

For that to happen we need to strengthen our conventional production and service industries and organizations and find ways to enhance their incomes so that they can train and pay their people well. 

And that will not happen unless the government facilitate them. Market forces alone will not do the job! 

It is important to remember that the natural law is survival of the fittest. But that is also called jungle raj and not human raj!

So what do you think? You still want to become an engineer?

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The Learning from a Petty Civil Engineering Maintenance Contract Work of an Indian Public Sector Steel Plant

This is a real incident once told by an Indian engineer working in a large public sector steel plant unit in central India.

The steel plant at that time had about 60,000 employees directly working apart from those indirectly employed as casual laborers and contract workers. A huge industrial township was also owned and operated by the company for providing good residential facilities for its employees. Nearly 40000 dwelling units have been provided in this industrial township which had its own roads, electricity, water supply, sewerage and sanitation facilities all done with the best practices as available in India at the time of its set up.

The maintenance management of the township was entrusted with the Town Engineering Department while the estate management was entrusted with the Town Administration Department. Both these wings used to report to the Chief Town Manager equivalent to a General Manager reporting to the Managing Director. In the earlier years, this industrial township was one of the best well planned and well maintained cities in India. The employees used to be proud of their township, though the company did not provide any luxury housing facilities in general. The engineers who were entrusted with the task of the maintenance and other activities of the township on those days could be considered as reasonably honest with none of them resorting to corrupt practices as was the case with the engineering departments of many Indian state governments, municipalities and the like. Nevertheless, there were rumors about some officers of the town administration department adopting corrupt practices in house allotments, etc. But these were minor misdeeds of lower ranking individuals and could not be considered as a general rule.

Most of the engineers working in these departments were either civil engineers or electrical engineers as these were the two kinds of engineering specializations that were considered as essential for managing a large planned city. Many of the civil engineers also had specialized advanced training or education in public health engineering. The top management of the steel plant in those days gave special attention to the educational background and experience of engineers to be posted in the town management organization.

In those days, the residents of this steel city never experienced any power supply breakdowns for months ore even years. The water that came to their household taps used to be regularly monitored for quality standards by experienced laboratory personnel. Water borne diseases were unheard of. There was no mosquito menace. In all ways, this industrial town used to be something enviable for the rest of India.

But things were not to remain in this way for long. For reasons known to the steel plant management, the town management function was soon diluted with the head of the town management reporting to the head of the personnel department of the steel plant instead of the MD. As the head of the personnel department used to be a non-engineer, an attempt was made to force subordinate the professional engineers of the township with many of the latter soon getting unceremoniously transferred out and pliable engineers from other functions in the steel plant getting in to the town management function

Soon the this prestigious organization of the steel plant degraded itself as a center for corrupt engineering practices. Civil engineering works provides ample chances for corruption because it is very difficult to prove or disprove the authenticity of a work after some time. For example, a work of replacement of a large underground sewer pipe costing several lakhs of rupees cannot be easily verified for its technical necessity or its actual execution. In a similar way earth work quantities cannot be easily verified after the work is done. In other words, the professional integrity of the engineer concerned was of prime importance in such cases for prevention of corruption. A clever and cunning engineer can make foolproof documents that no one can find fault with.

Soon our steel plant township became a hot spot for such engineers for trying their fortunes. The number of contractors doing civil maintenance contracts and the budgetary spending of the steel plant for town maintenance works began to increase. At the same time satisfaction levels of the residents of the township began to fall.

When integrity is lost, every thing is lost! Soon a hierarchy of system developed that favored engineers who were willing to trade their professional competency, integrity and ethics for personal gains at the cost the interests of the company and the public at large.

The interests of the individuals who managed the system of town management now shifted to those works that brought personal benefits to them in a clandestine manner without the residents ever fully realizing the details. Even the senior officers of the company who resided in the township ever realized what was happening.

Soon the chief of township and the chief engineer of the engineering wing got replaced by engineers from the steel plant. The new incumbents were mechanical engineers with hardly any understanding about the type of civil works in this large industrial city.

There was a new residential colony which was relatively new meant exclusively for middle level and senior officers of the steel plant. These buildings were hardly ten years old at that time and were relatively in a much better standing as compared to the rest of the old quarters in the township.

Some residents of these new quarters one fine morning found a group of contract workers breaking the external plaster of these buildings ( a total of some 200 units). As the existing plaster of these new buildings were relatively good and strong, the workers were taking extra efforts to break the plaster and their forceful chiseling and hammering was giving much discomfort to the residents. Moreover, the brick masonry of the buildings were getting weakened. Some officers wanted to know the reason for this work as they tried to question the contract workers. But the workers showed a type of rowdyism and did not mind telling harshly that they were doing these by orders of the higher ups. The majority of the residents preferred to keep quiet as the work being done is told as authorized by the higher management of the company. There entire area was now filled with broken plaster and cement dust.

Soon the re-plastering work began. Our engineer who told this story was one of the residents who was annoyed by this unjustified work being undertaken contractually by the town administration. He found that the re plastering is done by too obviously inferior cement plaster with the cement content much lower than required. He tried to contact his fellow engineers who were in the town engineering department, but in vain. So he contacted the office of the MD who in turn activated the vigilance department for a preliminary inquiry. The vigilance personnel visited the site and collected plaster samples and the like as was their routine.

Some time during all these happening, some residents witnessed some visible threatening gestures by the contractor's men who openly declared their intention to physically assault our engineer for his daring act of making a complaint.

In the night at around 9 PM the young contractor together with a few of his men came to the house of our engineer. Their intention for the visit was obviously not good.

Our engineer, fortunate as he was, got saved that night from the intended physical assault by the contractor and his goons just because the contractor recognized him as one of his mentors while he was a teenager aspiring to get qualified in civil engineering. There was some respect still left in the mind of the contractor towards this engineer who was his mentor more than a decade ago!

The contractor suddenly felt remorse for what he had in his mind. That caused him to confess before our engineer. The following is the gist of things that he told our engineer.

He had done his diploma in civil engineering and then took additional qualifications by passing membership examinations of the Institution of Engineers (India) which provided him the legal status as a degree holder in engineering. As opportunities for worthwhile jobs for engineers like him were scarce, he decided to become a self employed  entrepreneur contractor. There existed ample opportunities for works in the steel city where he lived and he managed to register himself as a small time civil contractor.

But the contract work was not anything easy as he had thought. It was not the technicality of the work that was difficult but the non-technical aspects that went beyond his logic and understanding.

For example, there appeared invitations for tenders from the steel plant, from the municipality, the state government departments, etc. It was not difficult to understand the scope of the work and even to organize the resources and execute the work as specified by the prospective employers. But there existed an unfair competitive environment. From the employer's side, the estimated costs as notified appeared too low to provide some reasonable margins to the contractors. Yet, some contractors were prepared to offer their contract prices much below the employer's estimates. On the top of that, a few engineers from the employer's side who were the authorities concerned who certified the contractor's works and approved their bills for payments never did their work fairly unless the contractor spent money from his pocket to make them happy. There were several clauses in the contract specifications that were not reasonable and any unhappy engineer from the employer's side could easily invoke those clauses to ruin the contractor for ever! So the contractor had no choice but to be either submissive or use unfair means to be assertive!

By compulsion, our young civil engineer contractor had decided to become assertive by using all kinds of unfair means. When the whole country is unfair, what is the use of being a good man? That was his logic as the majority others in the country! That strategy worked and he soon became a preferred contractor for many engineers in the town engineering department of the steel plant. Now the latter were more eager to find suitable jobs for their preferred contractor!

The breaking and making of the plastering work as mentioned above was a result of that. Since there was no reasonable margins of profit for the contractors who wish to do the work in letter and spirit as specified with additional expenses to be made for making the employer's employees happy, there was no option left for the contractor other than making his work as inferior as possible.

And that was what was happening! The inferior work so done ensured another bonus! It ensured generation of similar works and perpetuating the corrupt system at the cost of the company and its stakeholders in general.

The contractor perhaps incurred losses in this incident. As the issue got highlighted, the top officers of the town administration department who failed to check such irregularities and exert due superintendence over their subordinate officers got transferred out. Above all, there was an immediate halt to such unjustified works getting perpetuated for the advantage of some vested interest people for some time.

No doubt our engineer took the step of notifying a work that he had felt as unjustified and inferior to the notice of the higher authorities probably because he was directly affected to some extent as the said work caused some damage to his residence.

But surprisingly and painfully, the rest 200 odd officers of the company who resided in the same residential area did not feel enough pains to initiate such an act. They were perhaps more wise and practical! They perhaps knew the consequences! They were either beneficiaries of such a system or they had been rendered to develop cowardice to the core!

This incident is nothing so great to be highlighted. But it reflects a pattern. And that pattern is what makes India suffer in general.

How do we negate such damaging patterns of work processes from India?

Would it be possible for engineers to visualize the advantages that would accrue to themselves and their society at large when they start doing their acts diligently with practical professionalism and without impractical idealism? Would they ever understand what is practical ethics and honesty in engineering work?

It is stupid to blame the non-technical bureaucrats and the political leadership. They are not the ones to decide the finer details of engineering and technology. Only incompetent and dishonest technocrats try to please their non-technical bosses by agreeing to the latter's unjustified directives and wishes that are contradictory to the concepts of engineering and scientific professionalism. 

And that is perhaps a bigger threat to the society than that could happen from non-engineer decision makers. When pliable engineers and technocrats are abundant, it would be only natural for any non-engineering leadership to assign them with the responsibility of all kinds of key economic activities involving engineering and technology. What is the extent of damage when incompetent engineering decisions are taken?

What would be the effect of that to the nation?

Would India ever be in a position to overtake other nations in engineering and technology where the situation is much different?

The engineering fraternity of India should think about these!

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How Do Indian Engineers Become Pawns to Perpetuate Corruption in India?

First thing first. Is this assumption or thought right? By any chance, do the Indian working engineers help in perpetuating corruption in India? Would it be right to assume that Indian engineers are generally corrupt? 

It is important to keep in mind that India is one of the leading nations in the world as perceived by the so-called corruption perception index (CPI) devised by transparency international, the premier corruption watchdog agency in the world.

Being an engineer who has worked more than three and a half decades in the Indian industry, I would say Indian engineers are essentially Indian first and have all the good and bad characteristics that any average Indian has.

From the core, my country men (and women) are not generally bad. They are essentially good people. What they lack is the courage to withstand or resist bad elements in the society. And those with hardcore antisocial characteristics are just a meager minority! Yet, the majority good people are not in a position to resist the evil designs of the few who cunningly force their vested interests with ease!

This is not any thing special to India alone. It is a worldwide phenomena and it happens every where and has been happening.

To be an honest and good citizen what is essentially needed is good education and good family backgrounds that ensure cultured upbringing. Unfortunately, India as of now has not achieved such a level of development. More than half of Indians even in this modern times live in utter poverty and conditions that can be better described as uncivilized. It is simply stupid to think that the conditions of India with regard to human development could match with those of the developed worlds.

But those who have been educated and trained as engineers ought to be different. They should be leaders and agents for fast forward progress of their society. If that is not happening and the engineers themselves are becoming anti-socials in some manner, it is something to be worried about.

Most young engineers have a dream, a dream to achieve and do something good for the society. They all have some potential to do big things happen for the nation. But soon they find the nation and the society at odds with their thoughts and abilities. They soon realize challenges beyond their capacity to overcome. And those challenges are things that they have never been told about during their engineering education!

Their engineering education was simply some practical science and nothing more. They were supposed to learn real engineering practice at the organization where their services are hired under the able guidance of the senior and experienced engineers. 

The first shock many young engineers face in India would be the organisational politics and the manner in which brilliant engineers have been side tracked to utter disillusion. 

They are left with not many choices. Either they have to fall in line with the existing system which is firmly under the control of a few of their seniors who have fully diverted their energies to non-engineering skills of achieving the so-called career success and personal achievements or align with those once-brilliant and professional engineers who have been side tracked in the organization as mere dead-woods!

Soon the cycle repeats and India remains as a perpetual underdeveloped nation behind the perpetual developed nations.

As this cycle repeats, India as a nation suffers and the Indian working conditions become worse as the time passes.

Fortunately, the progressive Indian private sector companies are not following this trend in general. As the success of the Indian private sector business wholly depends on their collective competency, good private sector companies are exceptions and engineers in those companies might be finding professionally satisfying work environment for most part of their career. But again they exist and operate in India and they cannot possibly escape from the economic guerrilla warfare they had to face from the Indian political environment which sustains the Indian governance. That forces the best private sector engineers to soon transform themselves as clever managers and manipulators rather than being professional engineers, as they grow in their respective careers!

Even the best engineer soon loses his or her professional enthusiasm to stick to ethical practices. They find it easy and rewarding to be unethical rather than being honest and ethical. A good engineer cannot be good CEO in India simply because his or her engineering skills and knowledge are not what is important to succeed in business in this country! If that is the case, then what is the use of engineering skill and knowledge? 

No wonder then that the companies and organizations in India look for half cooked engineers from premier engineering institutes with some additional soft skill training from premier management institutes to be picked up with hefty pay packages to be ultimately trained as cunning and clever organisational manipulators who are well suited to fit the corrupt working environment that India provides! 

The rest of the Indian engineers soon become technically trained clerical staff who are willing to do any kind of work for a living. If they are in real engineering, that could well be as technology procuring clerks who are too willing to write their technical texts the way their bosses desire. For being unprofessional, they are better rewarded in several ways.

There is no need to elaborate this. There could be exceptions here and there. But on the whole, India is not a country for good engineers to work professionally satisfying their inner self.

No wonder then that the best Indian engineers prefer to migrate and yell out for India from silicon valleys elsewhere!

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