Technology has become a part and parcel of our daily lives – starting from a wearable device/ mobile phone to various home appliances and automobiles. The space occupied by the technology in our lives, certainly calls for gratitude to all the Engineers, who enabled this presence of technology in our lives. The relationship between Man and Machine has been intact for a few hundred years – what has changed is only its form and scale.
This calls for everyone to be more inquisitive, dynamic and collaborative. We have a population of 350 million below the age of 15, in our country today. The spark we see in these teenagers is beyond imagination and is a great competitive advantage for our country. There are various initiatives including the new education policy, that is aimed at leveraging this talent pool and utilize their presence to build the future. The job that the community engaged in the engineering profession has to do, is to channelize the thoughts of such a pool of talent.
There is an excellent entrepreneurial spirit prevailing in our community that needs to be harnessed and multiplied. New inventions are being made and the innovation bandwagon has been steadily expanding across the nation. It needs continual impetus so that more and more people are encouraged to focus on innovation. The startup culture and progress is very encouraging and needs to be fueled with innovation so as to scale and expand.
Engineers’ Day is celebrated every year on 15th September, to commemorate the birth anniversary of the greatest Indian Engineer Bharat Ratna Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. It was this genius who created many engineering marvels across India. Sir M Visvesvaraya (fondly called Sir MV) was an Indian civil engineer and statesman and the 19th Diwan of Mysore, serving from 1912 to 1919. The Indian government honoured him with the country's highest civilian award – the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. That was of course, in Independent India.
But in pre-Independence India when the British Raj was on, Sir MV was knighted as a Knight Commander of the British Indian Empire (KCIE) by King George V for his contributions to the public good. Sir MV achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad. He was instrumental in developing a system to protect the Visakhapatnam port from erosion by the sea. This dam created the biggest reservoir in Asia when it was built. Therefore, for the huge contribution he made to the respective nations' assets and growth, three countries – India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania – celebrate his birthday as Engineers' Day. (Courtesy: timesnownews)
Google Doodle in 2018 on his birthday celebrated this genius whose endeavours led to the Tata Steel engineers invent an armoured vehicle that was used in WWII and could withstand bullets. An article in the Financial Express details how the Second World War was a challenge for the (Tata Steel) company's R&D, with the most outstanding achievement being the development and production of the bullet-proof armour plate. This Tata Steel R&D plant was formally opened on September 14, 1937, by Sir Nowroji Saklatvala, then chairman of Tata Steel, along with Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya, having pointed out as early as in a 1932 Board meeting that as there were no large factories in Europe or America without a provision for research, the company should establish one at the earliest.
Sir MV's genius showed how engineering genius can cover several sectors of life. It is important that we take inspiration from his legacy, and continue to penetrate across various sectors of our life, by utilizing our genius. The contribution of the manufacturing sector in our country needs to continue to enhance significantly so that multiple opportunities of demonstrating engineering genius can be harnessed. The advantage in respect of the availability of qualified manpower, abundant domestic market potential, land and policies needs to be mapped to the upcoming requirement to serve the globe. It is important that while doing so, we ensure paying conscious attention to protecting our environment. Our aim should always be to administer growth without hampering our environment and our planet.
India is continuing to attract global investment in the manufacturing sector and is becoming a better destination to invest in for the global OEMs. This is helping not only to create employment for our engineers and labour but also to help us to excel by benchmarking the best around the globe. We are in one of the best times today – let us welcome opportunities with open arms and leverage them to enable progress.
