Wake up
Face it. Infrastructure is the biggest thing to happen in India after Softwares. And how many students do we have here in our IIT who are being trained as infrastructural civil engineers? Less than a dozen? This might not be a great news for the world out there that needs these professionals. But it certainly is the best news a Civil Engineering student would have heard in so many years. They are in demand! Sounds too good to be true, is it? Let me get to hard facts then.
Today’s Economic Times (Chennai Ed) reports: According to an estimate, there are nearly 400 infrastructure organizations in the country, and a potential of nearly a million jobs opening up in the sector in the coming decade.
Are you one of those who is still wondering, what happened suddenly? What happened to India? How come every day you get to hear the word ‘infrastructure’ from here there and everywhere? The answer is simple. India is growing. And growing pretty fast. More importantly, the country is so huge that the impact of its growth is bound to effect every other nation. We have too many men. They are willing to buy stuffs, willing to experiment, willing to work. At the core of all this growth is the massive Indian population which is aware of its surroundings. Everyone needs us. If not to buy some product of theirs then to help them in doing some job. Globalization is helping in its own way. The world is gearing to be a leveling field. Things are changing.
But then, there are certain obstacles. Big ones indeed. These are the obstacles created mainly by the lack of sufficient infrastructural setups. India lacks adequate infrastructure. May be because we never had enough money. Or may be simply because our focus was somewhere else. Right now, we are facing a challenging situation. We need people, and our very own people, the Indians, to come up with strategies to face this challenge that our nation faces. We need to expand physical infrastructure—roads, ports, airports, railways, drinking water and wastewater networks, and above all electrical power—to satisfy the aspirations and rising expectations of our citizens. Much of the existing infrastructure is old, worn and, overworked. It needs to be rebuilt, refurbished, and maintained. We need reforms. And we need reformers. Without that happening, the growth momentum will cease to exist. Who else can take up this challenge but guys like us? The IITians!
Not, that nothing is being done already. The Power sector was recently blessed with the Electricity act and the concept of SEZ was taken seriously finally. The JNNURM holds promise to prepare cities which are going to be flooded with people in a blink of an eye, at the current rate of urbanization. What telecommunication has achieved in the last fifteen years could not have been envisioned way back in July 1991. Though the changes unfolding in the physical infrastructure space may not be as dramatic, their impact will be even more far-reaching.
The world is willing to pay us too. That’s great. We get to help the nation, we get to apply the skills that we aquired here in our courses, and on top of that we get paid huge salaries. Way more than an average civil engineer trying his luck in civil engineering expected not many years ago. As they say, everyone’s time comes. Our time has come. After a long long wait. The sad thing is that, some of us are still unaware of the tide that’s rising. It’s time to wake up. India awaits us.
Today’s Economic Times (Chennai Ed) reports: According to an estimate, there are nearly 400 infrastructure organizations in the country, and a potential of nearly a million jobs opening up in the sector in the coming decade.
Are you one of those who is still wondering, what happened suddenly? What happened to India? How come every day you get to hear the word ‘infrastructure’ from here there and everywhere? The answer is simple. India is growing. And growing pretty fast. More importantly, the country is so huge that the impact of its growth is bound to effect every other nation. We have too many men. They are willing to buy stuffs, willing to experiment, willing to work. At the core of all this growth is the massive Indian population which is aware of its surroundings. Everyone needs us. If not to buy some product of theirs then to help them in doing some job. Globalization is helping in its own way. The world is gearing to be a leveling field. Things are changing.
But then, there are certain obstacles. Big ones indeed. These are the obstacles created mainly by the lack of sufficient infrastructural setups. India lacks adequate infrastructure. May be because we never had enough money. Or may be simply because our focus was somewhere else. Right now, we are facing a challenging situation. We need people, and our very own people, the Indians, to come up with strategies to face this challenge that our nation faces. We need to expand physical infrastructure—roads, ports, airports, railways, drinking water and wastewater networks, and above all electrical power—to satisfy the aspirations and rising expectations of our citizens. Much of the existing infrastructure is old, worn and, overworked. It needs to be rebuilt, refurbished, and maintained. We need reforms. And we need reformers. Without that happening, the growth momentum will cease to exist. Who else can take up this challenge but guys like us? The IITians!
Not, that nothing is being done already. The Power sector was recently blessed with the Electricity act and the concept of SEZ was taken seriously finally. The JNNURM holds promise to prepare cities which are going to be flooded with people in a blink of an eye, at the current rate of urbanization. What telecommunication has achieved in the last fifteen years could not have been envisioned way back in July 1991. Though the changes unfolding in the physical infrastructure space may not be as dramatic, their impact will be even more far-reaching.
The world is willing to pay us too. That’s great. We get to help the nation, we get to apply the skills that we aquired here in our courses, and on top of that we get paid huge salaries. Way more than an average civil engineer trying his luck in civil engineering expected not many years ago. As they say, everyone’s time comes. Our time has come. After a long long wait. The sad thing is that, some of us are still unaware of the tide that’s rising. It’s time to wake up. India awaits us.
Labels: Infrastructure
posted by amrit at 5:49 PM
1 comments
