Hi Chandan-da: Sorry for the long silence; but I wasn't gone, just lazy. I agree with you that lack of civil engineers is not really the main constraint on the poor state of infrastructure. I was in Assam two weeks ago and the roads in my home town have all but disappeared (the word pothole doesn't convey the scale of the problem). Pools of rainwater everywhere. No roads, but lots of flashy cars where Dart Vaders breathe in conditioned "air" . Sometimes two of these cars per middle class family. Splashing water and bouncing their way through concrete jungles that grow tentacles everywhere. I took my friend from Guwahati for a walk through the only open green space that was probably left in the city. It had disappeared. No place to catch a lungful of fresh air anymore. How did we come to this? Santanu.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chan Mahanta Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 11:33 AM To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world Subject: Re: [Assam] From NY Times - India's Civil Engineering Achievements Good to hear from you Santanu. I was afraid we lost you, like so many others that have come and gone :-). Hope to hear more from you. Anyway, MY views are somewhat different. I posted the following comment to NY Times which is awaiting clearance from the Moderator: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Of the many reasons cited for the appalling conditions of India's infrastructure, lack of civil engineers is the least of the problem. It is primarily rooted in two issues: *** A cultural, attitudinal one. The medieval, feudal attitude of Indians who look down on manual labor that pervades even to this day, deprives the profession and industry of hands-on, technically competent people who can build intelligently and cometently. Few of the zillions of engineers, including civil, Indian universities churn out, could not relate their academic knowledge ( which is as good as any in the world) to actual field work, the project delivery process, if their lives depended on it. How do I know? I am an architect, trained in one of the most hyped Indian IITs. *** The utter dysfunction of Indian governance: Corrupt practices pervade, because no one, important enough is ever held accountable, be it for finance, be it for lab-work, be it for poor quality work, be-it for non-delivery of goods and services contracted out. Add to that the attitude of the clerks-from-hell, the legendary Indian bureaucracy, whose only contribution is to serve as obstacles to every endeavor with their zeal for compliance with rules, regulations and process, before anything can get off the ground, but who are impotent to provide any help, relief , WHEN things actually go bad! On Aug 26, 2010, at 11:07 AM, Roy, Santanu wrote: > The problem is not really one of production of civil engineers. The system > produces enough of them. It is just that these people choose to enter the IT > & related sectors rather than work as civil engineers because the perceived > wages are significantly lower for the latter. Of course, government civil > engineers can make a lot of money through graft and compromises - but clearly > that is not enough to attract the bright young ones (who may even put some > value on clean income). It is difficult to see how producing MORE civil > engineers is going to rectify the situation. If anything, it will push down > the wages for civil engineers in the private sector. The solution is clearly > one of allowing compensation for civil engineers to rise competitively till > there is no "shortage". As the public sector employs bulk of them, they need > to act. > > > > On a slightly different and more general note, the Indian education system > engages in a colossal waste of resources when it trains hordes of bright > people in advanced science, engineering and technology disciplines at the > best public institutions of the country - only to have the products enter the > IT sector in jobs bearing no relation to their education and training. A > significant proportion of these IT jobs can be performed by student with > secondary school education and half to one year of training. Instead, we see > students competing ferociously to enter the top engineering schools (in > disciplines ranging from aeronautical to metallurgical engineering) only to > signal their relative strength of innate "cleverness" or IQ to INFOSYS and > other most coveted employers in the IT sector. > > > > Santanu. > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Chan Mahanta > Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 9:47 AM > To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world > Subject: [Assam] From NY Times - India's Civil Engineering Achievements > > > > > > India's Civil Engineering Achievements --NOT! > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/business/global/26engineer.html > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > assam mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > [email protected] > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
