Monday, 17 JULY 2023 | Onkar Singh
GUEST COLUMN
Onkar Singh
Like every year, the admission process has already commenced for the new session. Among various in-demand courses in higher education, technical education programmes are still in demand. Despite the declining interest of the young population towards most core engineering disciplines, its charm is still unfaded for computer science and engineering. Apparently, there are lesser takers for core engineering disciplines such as civil, chemical, electrical, electronics, mechanical engineering, etc. Mesmerising numbers of computer/IT professionals needed for sustaining fast-expanding IT interventions appear the obvious reason for it. But, the prevailing skewed demand for engineering disciplines calls for foreseeing its future implications in light of the fast upgradation of civilisation and technological advancements. It becomes much more relevant due to the duration of the undergraduate engineering degree programme being of four years and the decision-making in 2023 has to be commensurate with the likely scenario about the technical trained human resource requirements of 2027 onwards.
Future Technical Human resource requirements:
Let’s ponder upon the reasons for the exodus of science students towards the IT sector. Is it the sudden demand for IT professionals to cater to the ongoing digital interventions or the slump in the manufacturing and core engineering sector? Undoubtedly, due to the fast-paced computerisation of various services, there has been a huge requirement, but the use of IT tools in services may get saturated unless the technology is used to transform systems into cyber-physical systems and automate the processes therein. It makes it inevitable to contemplate the sectors of the economy and demographic spectrum that may evolve ahead.
For investors, the Asian Development Bank claims that the top growing sectors that are likely to provide excellent returns include healthcare and insurance sector followed by the renewable energy sector, IT sector, real estate sector, Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector and automobile sector. Forecasts of good returns from these sectors make it amply clear that the generation of new jobs will essentially be there. In case the forecasts see light of the day, each sector will be creating a sizeable number of opportunities for the technical human resource.
Undoubtedly, India is perceived as a growing economy across the globe and the cues regarding investments point to sectoral growth. Also, the introspection of the indicators from the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency shows that numerous potential sectors like Agriculture and allied sector, oil and gas, metals and mining, construction, chemicals, fertilisers, power, renewable energy, etc. call for investment which will eventually culminate in proportionate employment. Pondering upon the projections ushers into the era with the perennial necessity of technical competencies in all domains. For example, growth and sustenance of infrastructure, urbanisation, environmental concerns, etc. stipulate for planning, construction and associated activities that lead to demand for civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, environmentalists, etc. The automobile, aerospace, metallurgy, materials, robotics, mechatronics, power plants, transportation, telecommunication, space explorations, etc. that are the driving wheels of present civilisation necessitates the cohort of engineers and technologists from all disciplines like mechanical, electrical, electronics, chemical, civil engineering, aeronautical, etc. The advances in the healthcare sector demonstrate that these are an amalgamation of medical, biotechnologists, mechanical, electrical, electronics, computer, pharmacy professionals, etc. Similarly, the growth of chemicals and fertilisers will entail more chemical engineering jobs along with jobs for other engineering disciplines as well. These few instances are sufficient to conclude that the mere availability of computer professionals in abundance will not be helping society to thrive. The extensive use of IT tools in somehow managing the Covid-19 pandemic has brought in a paradigm change in thinking due to a lot of online activities creeping into the processes, but physical activities are the backbone and cannot be eliminated. In the aftermath of Covid-19, when all the sectors have to foster, the loss of demand for core engineering disciplines does not seem the correct belief. Rather the dampened growth in certain sectors that have a predominance of core engineering personnel due to natural calamities and others could be the reason.
Opportune time for India:
In the 21st century, when Industry 4.0 is eyed, the upcoming cyber-physical systems cannot be thought of without core engineering professionals with inadequate knowledge of cyber systems. It has become of utmost importance for the core engineering disciplines to have enablers to empower the engineering students for transforming the existing systems to cyber-physical systems. The current path of technological advancements expects technical manpower with strong fundamentals in respective engineering domains along with knowledge of using contemporary IT tools and cyber systems. Every deployment of artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, etc. requires the working force with thorough knowledge and applicable engineering fundamentals about respective systems. Also, the demographic dividend of India puts it at an edge over the other potential nations of the world. The constant decline in the working population of the developed nations of the world nucleates the challenge of provisioning ample working population to maintain the pace of development. This situates India in the strategic role of rolling out an adequately trained technical human resource that caters for the ensuing challenges emanating from the declining working population across the world. Besides this, the professional education being carried out mostly with English as a medium of instruction brightens the employment opportunities for Indian professionals abroad provided they possess the requisite core competencies.
For the investors, the Asian Development Bank claims that the top growing sectors that are likely to provide excellent returns include healthcare and insurance sector followed by the renewable energy sector, IT sector, real estate sector, Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector and automobile sector. Forecasts of good returns from these sectors make it amply clear that the generation of new jobs will essentially be there. In case the forecasts see light of the day, each sector will be creating a sizeable number of opportunities for the technical human resource.
As the most populous nation in the world, India is privileged to have a mammoth iGeneration that has been nurtured amidst smartphones and internet access. Nevertheless, they ought to be exposed to the realities behind the state of the present information age and engage them in devising means to take it forward. The inroads of virtualisation are charming but this gets constrained in the absence of comprehensive understanding and analysis of physical systems and their dynamics. The sustainability and growth of civilisation warrant a balance of inputs from competencies from all domains including technical competencies. Human creativity and a penchant for easing out life along with enhancing productivity continue to be the driving potential for the technical community for their constant push for newer processes, products and services.
Given the above, the aspirants of technical education must brainstorm and decide based on holistic considerations. Indisputably, the future will have a flooding of applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of things, cyber security, etc. but it will not be devoid of physical systems on which these will be used. And, the development of new as well as upgrading physical systems expects inputs from all engineering domains and computer science alone will not be sufficient to fulfill expectations.
(The author is vice chancellor of Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun. Views expressed are personal)
