The status of engineering education in the country is briefly reviewed. A problem faced by the industry in regard to the quality of the engineering graduates of whom 70 to 80% are considered “unemployable,” is examined. The mismatch between the skillset required by the industry and that provided by the academic institutions is identified as the major reason for the low employability of engineering graduates. Various ongoing efforts at the level of the government and academia to rectify this situation are described. Measures that could be usefully adopted by the corporate sector are identified. Intensive combined action by all the stakeholders involved in the academic process will only enable the country to reverse the trend of declining academic standards in higher technical education. The case of the Power Sector has been discussed at length to illustrate the points made. During the 11th and 12th plan periods, five lakh technical personnel and 1.5 lakh front end support personnel need to be recruited by the Power Sector as per published reports. There is also a huge requirement of back end staff to take up various managerial functions. Use of alternate sources of energy and efficient management of energy being inevitable, a huge pool of human resources would be required in harnessing small hydro, biomass & bio-fuel, solar, and wind resources, provided they have the appropriate specialized knowledge. Moreover, demand side management, power trading, carbon credits, smart grids, etc. will also require manpower with specialized training. Salient features of the human capital challenges in the Indian power sector are discussed, and certain action plans to overcome the challenges are suggested.
Impacts of changes in commercial non-coking coal grading system and other coal policies towards estimation of CO2 emission in Indian power sector
