Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has informed K. Somaprasad, MP, that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has constituted a committee for preparing the Professional Engineers Bill.
The committee will function under the chairmanship of M.S. Ananth, former director, IIT Mardas, he said in a letter sent to the MP who had raised the matter in Rajya Sabha during a special mention demanding a professional regulatory mechanism in engineering field.
Mr. Somaprasad had pointed out that though there were 10,396 engineering institutes in India approved by the AICTE at present, only few were imparting quality education.
“Others are mere factories producing unemployable engineers. The AICTE is the only statutory body for the promotion of quality in technical education and the maintenance of norms and standards in technical education in India. There is no professional or statutory council to check and measure the professional ethics of engineers,” he said in his appeal.
Observing that several statutory councils such as the Medical Council of India (MCI), Indian Nursing Council (INC), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and Dental Council of India (DCI) in India were there, he said that establishing a statutory and professional Engineering Council of India was necessary.
“Engineering is by far the largest segment of Indian industry. India’s engineering industry accounts for 27% of the total factories in the industrial sector. The engineering sector gets around 63% of share through foreign collaborations. Apart from this, India has a huge opportunity within engineering services also. Among developing countries, India offers the best combination of low cost, availability of skills and manpower for the engineering sector. Engineers working in any sector or as entrepreneurs have to play a great role in developing India,” he said.
He said that subject about the lack of regulatory mechanism in the field was raised after consulting experts such as Principal Advisor to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation E. Sreedharan.
