The engineers India trains, the infrastructure it still can't build
Despite producing a record number of engineering graduates, India continues to struggle with basic urban infrastructure issues like flooding. The article attributes this to a lopsided education system that prioritizes computer science over civil engineering, combined with a job market that favors IT over public works.
Why it matters
This highlights a structural mismatch between educational output and national development needs, which hinders the country's ability to build resilient urban infrastructure.
Every June, before the monsoon fully sets in, a familiar sequence plays out across Indian cities. Mumbai's suburban trains stall in ankle-deep water. Bengaluru's tech corridors flood after a single evening's rain. Delhi's underpasses fill up fast enough to trap cars. None of this is new, and none of it, by now, is unpredictable. What is harder to explain is why a country that trains more engineers than almost anywhere else on earth keeps failing at the most basic engineering problem a city faces: keeping water out and heat down.India's technical education system is producing at record scale. AICTE data shows 12.53 lakh BTech seats were filled in the 2024-25 academic session, an eight-year high and a 67 percent increase over 2017-18. But that surge is concentrated in one discipline.
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