Technocrats ?????

I read a very interesting article last week which was published in rediff.com. It threw light on some very staggering facts about Indian engineers. According to the article India produces somewhere around 3,50,000 engineering graduates annualy. And it is way ahead "quantitatively" when compared to U.S which produces nearly 70,000 and Europe which produces 1,00,000. But the question is , are we really up to the mark when it comes to quality. As engineers we are supposed to innovate. But how much of innovation really has taken place uptill now. I am not questioning the credibility of the IIT's . But nothing substantial has come out of their so called "hallowed portals" lately. And if you take other colleges including the NIT's which are second only to the IIT's , let me tell you they also face the same predicament. I'm not saying there aren't any exceptions. This surely does not apply to all. But if you talk in general the condition is very dismal. When I got into my college I came with great hopes. But after three years, guess what, I didn't actually find what I wanted. From first year itself there was an environment that encouraged cramming up your lessons. And if you didn't it was most likely going to bring doom upon your career. I still remember my programming classes in first year. We were taught by some guest faculty who herself had very little knowledge about her subject. She herself crammed the course before teaching us. But it was the department which was to be blamed. They had some really good faculty members who could teach well. But they took it for granted. Now isn't that a crime. If you would ask me what was the worst then I would say it were the math lessons. You might not even know what the applications of Fourier and Z transforms are but you can certainly get full marks in it. It was all about mugging a set of formulaes which you had to remember till the exam was over. I don't think anybody did or even bothered to do something more than that. You people might think that I am unnecessarily being very pessimistic about the situation. Things are certainly not out of our hands. What we need is the will to do it. And the authorities should take all measures to ensure that after four years people don't come out with the so called tag of "unemployable" engineers.
But there is also the other side of the coin which brings a ray of hope . There are many bright youths burning their midnight oil to do something new, something great. I have many such friends who have achieved great heights in their chosen field. They have brought glory to themselves and to their colleges. They are like the guiding beacons for us. I am so proud of them.