A Need for Expanding Engineering Education Facilities in Assam for Economic Growth and Human Development

This essay presents a preliminary study that makes a strong case for substantially increasing the number of engineering colleges in Assam. Based on Assam’s population, the number of higher secondary school graduates and the significant number of students who leave Assam for post-school studies, it is obvious that the Government of Assam should establish a dozen additional engineering colleges in Assam, possibly with private support. The establishment of these colleges will signal to people inside and outside Assam that Assam is ready to turn a new leaf shedding its still mostly agrarian economy and enter the globalized hi-tech, engineering and knowledge-based economy. A Government of Assam that can take the bold steps necessary to expeditiously facilitate the establishment of these engineering colleges will start a sequence of

events and processes that will provide for long-term academic and economic well-being of Assam’s talented population. Starting the engineering colleges as proposed by this study is likely to lead to chain reactions greatly enhancing Assam’s academic environment in fields other than engineering, e.g., medicine, business, entrepreneurship and innovation. Since the 21^st century winners are bound to be those states, regions and countries with knowledge-based economies with highly educated pools of workers, it will initiate a silent but much-needed transformation of Assam toward modernity. Knowledge is power; empowering future citizens of Assam with latest state-of-the art technology will bring revolutionary economic growth to the state and to the region.

1. Per-capita incomes in India

India has 32 administrative units­­­---states or union territories. Of these, seventeen states had a population of 20 million or more, in March 2001. [1] Assam, with a population of 26.7 million is 14^th among these states. Of the 17 states with a population of at least 20 million, the ten states with the highest per-capita incomes as of 2003-04, in 1993-94 price, are given below. [2] Assam’s per-capita income in 2003-04 was INR 6,520.

As a state, Assam is significantly behind these states in per-capita income. The goal of Assam Government should be to bring up the state to the level of these states.

2. States in Southern India

Among the states named above, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are prospering, especially in the high technology and related areas. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Assamese students and professionals have moved to these states to study engineering, computer science, information technology and related fields and then work in these fields in cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Bombay and Madras.

3. Engineering Colleges and Institutes in Assam

Assam has only three engineering colleges at this time: Assam Engineering College in Guwahati, Jorhat Engineering College and the National Institute of Technology, Silchar (formerly, Silchar Engineering College). Another engineering college has recently been approved to be developed in Goalpara. Tezpur University has started with B.Tech. programs in 3 areas with a INR 50 million grant from the Government of India in 2006. [3] [4] The first entering batch of students will start their education in August 2007. Assam University has also started B.Tech. programs in two areas with the first entering batch in 2007. A private engineering college has also started functioning in Azara. There is the Guwahati IIT, but hardly anyone from Assam gets admitted at the undergraduate level. There are a large number of private institutions, awarding certificates and diplomas of various kinds and some even undergraduate degrees, at various levels of credibility. A Central Institute of Technology was proposed in Kokrajhar by the Central Government in 2006 to provide 3-year diplomas in various fields such as computer engineering and biotechnology. [5] [6] Assam has 9 Polytechnic Institutes and 23 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI). [7]

IIT Guwahati

4. Engineering Colleges in India

It is difficult to get the total number of engineering colleges in the ten states mentioned above. Different Web sites give different numbers. For example, Andhra Pradesh, a Southern India state, has 238 engineering colleges as of 2006. [8] In 1993-94, Karnataka had 47 engineering colleges of which four were government institutions, nine were aided and the rest unaided. In 2001, the number of engineering colleges went up to 82. [9] By 2007, the number of engineering colleges has gone up to 123. [10] These do not include institutes that do not have approval of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). Tamil Nadu has 350 engineering colleges. [11] This is the highest in India. Maharashtra had 115 engineering colleges as of 2005. [12] In 2004, India had 1346 engineering colleges with 439689 entering students. [13] In 2004, Assam had an estimated population of 27.9 million out of India’s estimated population of 1079.1 million during the same year. [14] In 2004, Assam had 3 engineering colleges with 750 entering students. [15] Thus, in 2004, Assam had 2.589% of India’s population, 0.222% of engineering colleges in India, and 0.171% of entering engineering students in India.

5. Engineering Colleges in High Per-capita States

Compared to almost every state in India with a substantial population, Assam has a surprisingly small number of engineering colleges. When one performs research, sometimes it is confusing to know exactly how many are private engineering colleges and how many are government supported. The best way to get to a core set of numbers is to obtain the list of engineering colleges published by AICTE. AICTE is a statutory body, established in 1945 for the proper planning and development of a technical education system in India. The number of engineering colleges approved by AICTE and the number of entering students per year as of 2004 for some selected states is given below. [16] In addition, there are 105 positions available in engineering colleges in different parts of India for residents of Assam on a quota system. [17]

Though it is very difficult to estimate how many students have migrated to other states from Assam for their engineering education, an article in the Assam Tribune, April 13, 2007 stated that students from Assam who go to other states for educational purposes spend INR1800 million rupees every year. [18] The populations of the states mentioned above are given below. [19] Assam’s population is projected to grow to 30.2 million by 2010, 33.9 million by 2020 and 35.6 million by 2026. [20]

6. How many engineering colleges are needed in Assam?

If we look at the table above, we see that the number of entering engineering students in Assam is the smallest compared to the ten states we have chosen to compare with. West Bengal comes closest, but even it has 6.9 times the number of entering students compared to Assam. The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have the highest number of entering students per million, 38.9, 31.3, 27.4 and 46 times that of Assam per million people, respectively. These are among the most advanced in high-technology fields compared to any other states in India. Assam can try to follow the lead of these four states. These four states have a population of 223.3 million and a total engineering entering population of 234,175. This gives 1049 entering students per million population. Assam has a population of 26.5 million. If Assam is to have 1049 entering engineering students per million population, Assam should have 27,799 entering engineering students. Assam now has only 750 entering engineering students. Assam needs another 27,799 – 750 = 27,749 entering engineering students. Currently, Assam’s engineering colleges have approximately 250 entering students each. If Assam wants to start a number of engineering colleges to make up for the short fall, Assam will need 111 engineering colleges immediately. Of course, that’s not possible due to expenses and other issues such as recruitment of high-quality faculty and adequate employment opportunities for graduating engineers. So, what Assam can plan to do immediately, is try to go up to the level of 10-15% of these states. Even that will need Assam to open 11~16 new engineering colleges. Since one college has already been announced, Assam is well-advised to open 10 new engineering colleges.

NIT Silchar

7. Where should the engineering colleges be situated?

Karnataka decided to start six new state engineering colleges in 2007. [21] Four of these are polytechnic institutes upgraded to engineering colleges because it is less expensive that starting new engineering colleges from scratch. Assam has 9 polytechnic institutes: [22] Assam Engineering Institute (AEI, Guwahati), Assam Textile Institute (Guwahati), Bongaigaon Polytechnic, Dibrugarh Polytechnic, Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (Guwahati), Nagaon Polytechnic, Silchar Polytechnic, and Diphu Polytechnic. Of these, the AEI, and the Polytechnic Institutes in Bongaigaon, Dibrugarh, Nagaon and Diphu should be converted to full-fledged engineering colleges immediately. [23] The others are specialized institutions and should be left as such. However, we propose that a third engineering college be established in Guwahati in addition to Assam Engineering College and the upgraded Assam Engineering Institute. One of the remaining Polytechnic Institutes in Guwahati be converted to an engineering college as well. This is because Guwahati is the economic and educational hub of Assam, which is easily reachable from all over Assam. This upgrade will give us 5 more engineering colleges bringing up to 9 engineering colleges. These new engineering colleges will give a good geographic distribution to the engineering colleges. To further provide for geographically equitable distribution, an engineering college should be started in each of the following 6 places: Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Mangaldoi, Nalbari, Dhubri and Hailakandi as well, bring to a total of 15 engineering colleges. Assam has 28 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI). Of these 2 were selected for upgrading by the Finance Ministry of the Government of India in 2004-05 [24] when it proposed upgrading 100 out of 500 ITIs in India. An initial idea will be to house the new engineering colleges at the ITIs in these or nearby locations. For example, in the case of Mangaldoi District, there is an ITI in Majbat and another one in Udalguri, not in Mangaldoi Town.

Some of the proposed engineering colleges can be in the private sector and involvement of the private sector should be encouraged wherever possible. A recent article estimates that a private engineering college started in Assam can break even in seven years and start making profits thereafter. [25] A quick perusal of the list of universities and colleges in India shows many private universities and engineering colleges in many states. [26] Even states such as Himachal Pradesh are encouraging the concept of private universities to upgrade higher educational infrastructure. [27]

A deeper understanding of the reasons why a considerable number of students leave Assam to pursue education in engineering outside Assam should be considered in selecting locations for the new engineering colleges. Besides the obvious reason that Assam lacks engineering colleges, other reasons include the lack of a conducive academic atmosphere, better facilities, and the opportunity to pursue engineering careers in one’s own state. Many engineering colleges outside Assam are located far away from big urban locations. People are well aware of the number of college days lost in Assam due to strike and other activities. Invariably, students in colleges situated in urban neighborhood participate in these strikes and as a result there is lots of fiscal days are lost in the colleges. Thus, it may be advisable to situate many of the new engineering colleges in rural locations just outside towns so that the effect of strikes is less devastating. In addition, facilities provided, such as library resources and the reliability of Internet computer connections should be of high quality to begin with so that these colleges can function even when there are strikes and other problems in the towns. Thus, in the long run, the campuses of these engineering colleges should be self-contained as much as possible. In fact, it may be an excellent idea to provide for power generation using windmills and solar panels for the engineering colleges so that they don’t suffer from rampant power shortage in Assam. Indian companies are quietly become global leaders in selling wind turbine towers [28] and these companies should be consulted right from the beginning. Establishing the proposed new engineering colleges in rural districts and areas will distribute the economic growth and human development and provide infrastructure for communication (physical and electronic).

8. Budget

We need to take into consideration Cost of building 7 new engineering colleges, upgrading 5 Polytechnic Institutes, and upgrading the existing 3 engineering colleges. We also need to consider cost of personnel.

Building 7 new engineering colleges + upgrading 5 Polytechnic Institutes:

Let us assume that we will start each engineering college with 4 departments, one of which is going to be Computer and Information Sciences. The other three departments will be chosen based on the region’s needs. One of the remaining three can be geared towards business and entrepreneurial education.

Let us assume that for a good engineering college to be established we need a building of 75,000 square feet for each department for class room buildings, laboratories, auxiliary services, etc. This gives us a total of 300,000 square feet for the academic departments. Let us add a 50,000 square feet of space for administration. Assume we also need 100,000 square feet space for dormitories. Assume that to start with no living quarters are provided for the faculty and staff; they are supposed to rent living space outside campus. The estimated per square-foot cost is INR 1000. Therefore, for the construction of 450,000 square feet of space, we need INR 450,000 * 1000 = INR 450 million. So, the construction cost from scratch is INR 450 million per college. Assume for those colleges that are going to be upgrades of existing Polytechnic Institutes, the cost is 60% of this amount. Therefore, the total cost = Cost of a new college in Goalpara (already announced) + Cost of upgrading 5 Polytechnic Institutes + Cost of 6 new proposed engineering colleges = 450 + 225 * 5 + 450 * 6 = INR 4275 million. Let us add 50% to this cost to take care of inflation, cost overruns, things not considered in detail in this preliminary proposal. This brings the total to INR 4275 * 1.5 = INR 6412.5 million.

Assume we need 10% of the amount for yearly maintenance. So, the yearly building maintenance budget is INR 6412.5 * .1 = INR 641.3 million.

Initial Computers, Laboratory and other Resources: Let us assume that the equipment and other resources in each college is going to need an initial expenditure of INR 10 million each for the newly established colleges, and 60% of this amount for the upgraded colleges. This gives us a total of 7 * 10 + 5 * 6 = INR 100 million. Let us also assume that there will be a need of 10% of this amount yearly for maintenance, upgrade, etc. This yearly commitment is INR 10 million.

Personnel: Assume per engineering college, we need 5 administrators, 15 staff members and 40 faculty members. Assume INR 60,000 a month salary on an average for administrators, INR 10,000 a month salary on an average for staff members, and INR 40,000 a month salary on an average for faculty members. This gives us a total of (60,000 *5 + 10,000 * 15 + 40,000 * 40) * 12 = 24,600,000 or INR 24.6 million per year in salaries. Let us add 20% overhead on this amount for other expenses associated with the employees. This gives us a total of INR 28.8 million per year for employee expenses.

Assam Budget: The 2007-08 budget for Assam estimated revenue of INR 727,346 million and expenditure of INR 731,010 million with a deficit of INR 28,362 million. [29] For Assam to prosper, a focus on engineering and higher education is extremely timely and important. Assam can find approximately INR 7,000 million to start the engineering colleges as proposed in this document. [30] Establishing the engineering colleges proposed in this essay is clearly feasible considering the financial resources of Assam Government. The Government of Assam should explore grants from the Union Government to meet part of the initial expenditures. In addition, public-private collaborations should be actively pursued. For example, the government should allow private educational trusts to establish engineering colleges in the new or upgraded sites and provide them with infrastructure support such as availability of land and communication. Private investment in engineering colleges is more like in a city like Guwahati; such investments should be actively pursued.

9. Administration

Karnataka created Visveswaraiah Technological University (VTU) in Belgaum in 1998 to oversee all engineering, MBA and related program in Karnataka. [31] There is a common entrance examination for all engineering programs within the university. All colleges within Karnataka must have approval from VTU to offer engineering programs. Assam can follow the lead of Karnataka and organize all the engineering colleges to a technical university, headquartered in Nagaon, a central location which in not Guwahati. Nagaon is easily reachable from all of Assam---Upper, Lower, Karbi Anglong, Barak Valley, etc. It is easily reachable from Arunachal, Manipur, Nagaland, and other North-Eastern states of India as well. An alternative site is Mangaldoi, although a little difficult to reach in terms of road transportation. We note that the technological university in Karnataka is headquartered in Belgaum in the northwestern part of the state instead of Bangalore or Mysore.

Considering the current academic health and financial situations of Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University, and the fact that Tezpur University and Assam Universities are unitary in nature by law, the concept of starting a technological university manned mostly by technical individuals of high caliber to administer the new engineering colleges instead of a Directorate is highly recommended.

10. Recruitment of Students

The number of entering students in each of the new engineering colleges can be capped at 100 to begin with. Assam already has 750 entering students in the 3 existing engineering colleges. If the 12 new engineering colleges accept 1200 more students per year, the total number of entering students will go up 1950 per year.

Where will these students come from? There are several sources:

1. Students graduating in the HSSLC Examinations in the Science Stream in Assam,
2. Students graduating in non-Science Streams in the HSSLC Examinations in Assam,
3. Students graduating within Assam from other Higher Secondary Boards such as the Central Board of Secondary Education,
4. Students from other North Eastern states in India, and
5. Students from outside the Northeast in India.

We will discuss some of these sources below.

Students passing SEBA HSSLC Examinations: In 2007, of the 203,820 students who took the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) Examinations, taken by students after 10 years or schooling, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (SEBA), Assam, 54.93% or 111,956 individuals passed. [32] In 2007, the number of students who took the Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate (HSSLC) Examination at the end of the 12^th year of schooling was the 158,878. Of these 99,262 or 62.47% passed and were ready to go to Bachelor’s degree programs. In the Science stream, of those who took the HSSLC examinations, 68.44% or 9,471 students passed. [33] If 20.05% of the students who passed the HSSLC examinations in the Science stream in 2007 decide to choose engineering as their intended field of study for the Bachelor’s degree, there will be enough engineering students from within Assam’s SEBA schools themselves. Of course, the existence of the larger number of engineering colleges will encourage more students to pursue the Science stream during the 11^th and 12^th years of schooling over the years. This is an absolute necessity for Assam to progress in the current technology-driven knowledge-based world economy. The Government should also start working towards strengthening the secondary and higher secondary school education system to bring it to par with the high per-capita income states mentioned earlier.

Non-Science Stream SEBA HSSLC Students: A very small number of students from among those who do well in the the non-Science streams from SEBA schools in Assam should be given a chance to enter engineering schools as well. Non-Science stream students are more than 90% of the students passing the HSSLC examinations. Remedial classes in Mathematics and Sciences should be offered for such students. Such remedial classes for incoming engineering students are common in most universities in the United States, in particular geared toward disadvantaged entering students.

CBSE Students: Assam has at least 131 schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). [34] [35] The education is mostly conducted in English. Students usually come from more affluent background than SEBA schools. The graduation rate for students in the HSSLC examinations is in the 90% range.

Northeast India Students: The number of engineering colleges in the other seven states of Northeast India is low as well. Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have one engineering college each. Assam has 68.25% of Northeast India’s population by the 2000 Census of India. A large number of students from the other Northeast states also go outside the region for higher education, some into engineering. A large percentage of engineering-bound students will choose to go to colleges in Assam if positions were available.

Students from Outside Northeast India: Assam will also attract some engineering students from outside the Northeast region if positions were available in engineering colleges. Most students at the IIT, Guwahati are from outside Northeast India. If quality education is available, students from outside Northeast India are likely to come to Assam. This will bring money from outside Assam to Assam, which is something usually unheard of.

Students leaving Assam for Higher Education: Though there is not an exact estimate for number of students going to other states for engineering education, according to Assam Government, up to 50,000 students per year leave Assam for educational purposes causing huge outflow of money as well brain drain. [36] If some of these students can be directed towards the new engineering colleges in Assam, it would keep the outflow of money as well as recruit plenty of local experts and other people. The new engineering colleges would also help the local business to grow.

Strengthening Employment Opportunities in Assam: The states mentioned earlier in the essay have high capacity to absorb the graduates of the large number of engineering colleges in those states. A lot of the graduates also go abroad. Thus, a key to success for the newly started engineering colleges is to think of employment opportunities for the graduates right from the beginning. The engineering colleges should have highly active employment offices. In anticipation of the graduates from the new and existing engineering colleges, the Government of Assam should start seriously to look into creating industrial policies to attract more employers into the state. One way to minimize the problem of employment is to start with Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and other related programs first, and keep the number of other programs low in the beginning. Another is to make liaisons with companies outside Assam for recruitment purposes, at least in the beginning till the state can absorb the engineers.

Reservation Policy: It also may be a good time to revisit the reservation policy of the government to allocate engineering seats to pursue engineering education. Current statistics show about 42% seats of engineering colleges in Assam are protected by some kind of reservation policy. [37] This may be detrimental to the overall climate in engineering education in Assam causing an exodus of qualified students to outside Assam among other effects. A suggestion is that the new engineering colleges should have a substantial number of entering student positions that are outside the reservation domain, possibly at higher tuition rates so that such students pay the full cost or a substantial part of their engineering education. Increasing the number of engineering entering student positions in Assam to the proposed level may have the effect of opening up these coveted positions to academically qualified and financially able students from non-reserved population categories automatically.

11. Recruitment of Faculty

Faculty recruitment will pose challenges. Faculty shortage is a problem in most engineering colleges in Assam, primarily due to lack of remuneration competitive with industry in an expanding Indian economy. In addition, highly educated engineers are a prized all over the world.

A Ph.D. degree will be preferred for faculty members, but individuals with an M.Sc. or M.Tech. or M.E. degree will be hired. Such individuals will be required to complete their Ph.D. within a few years, say within 5 years of starting to teach. Arrangements must be made with IIT (Guwahati), Tezpur University and other universities in the region so that such individuals can earn their Ph.D. by studying part-time. When a Polytechnic Institute is upgraded to the level of an engineering college, the instructors who usually already have a Masters degree, will also be required to get their Ph.D. degrees within a few years. Thus, the engineering colleges will not only produce engineering graduates, but will increase the number of individuals in Assam with Masters and Ph.D. degrees in engineering. This will be a boon to the society in general.

There are many Assamese engineers working outside and would like to return if there are proper incentives. Retired engineers with Masters or Ph.D. degrees should also be recruited on a temporary basis to teach in these engineering colleges. Many such individuals may be willing to give to the younger generation even after formal retirement. The salary must be kept high so that the best individuals are attracted. Advertisements should be placed in all-India and international engineering periodicals. Recruitment should be based on merit. Assam should be able to recruit 400 to 500 engineering professors needed over a period of several years. Many of the engineering professors working outside Assam or abroad will be encouraged to establish partnerships with the Assam engineering colleges. The accomplished faculty will be encouraged to take sabbatical leave from their home institutions and spend time at these colleges to provide leadership and help build programs at a minimum cost.

12. Curriculum Development

AICTE is the body that approves engineering programs in India. The new institutions have to be approved by AICTE. The institutions can also get accreditation from the National Board for Accreditation (NBA) although it is not necessary. In fact, Assam has no accredited engineering college as of May, 2006. [38] Assam should require all institutions to obtain NBA accreditation within, say 10 years of establishment. In fact, the NBA has had discussions with the Institution for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) regarding accreditation issues lately. [39] In the US, Engineering undergraduate programs are accredited by ABET [40] after an elaborate process. It will be advised to ask the engineering colleges in Assam to align their curricula as much as possible with ABET’s requirements although it is not essential to do so. Non-resident Assamese (NRA) in the USA who are in engineering teaching and research can assist in developing such curricula. It should be of paramount importance to develop programs, which have the potential to become national leaders. Some of the Non-Resident Assamese engineering educators are already well-linked with other Indian institutions and the Government of India in building partnerships. For example, Dr. Prasanta Kalita of the University of Illinois consults with the Prime Minister of India’s Office on engineering education. They will be happy to connect and build partnerships with engineering colleges in Assam.

13. Impact on Local Economies and Assam’s Economy

Almost every engineer in Assam of any stripe is from one of Assam Engineering College, Jorhat Engineering College or the National Technical Institute, Silchar. Assamese IIT graduates are a rare breed. There are a substantial number of Regional Engineering College (now, National Institutes of Technology) graduates from Assam, and some from private engineering colleges such as Birla Institutes of Technology. Engineers from the three local engineering colleges have had tremendous impact on Assam. These three colleges have thousands of alumni all over the world including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, US, Canada, Australia and the Middle East. The establishment of 11 new engineering colleges in Assam (over say, 5 or 10 years) will change the perception of Assam to its people as well people outside. The recent history of Assam has made many people unsure of its future although things are starting to change for the better. The establishment of these engineering colleges in Assam will signal that Assam wants to be a player in the emerging globalized hi-tech economy. Each engineering college will provide a boost to the economy of the local region. The salaries of the professors, staff members and administrators, and the money spent by the students will play an uplifting role, especially in the smaller towns. The students and the professors will provide role models to others, especially in the rural areas. Many of the students will leave town after graduation, migrate to South India or Delhi or abroad. This brain drain is not all that bad. These people will advance through their careers and will send back money to Assam to their families. Many will come back at a certain point in time to work in Assam. Either way, Assam will benefit in the long run. These colleges will teach concepts of business, innovation and entrepreneurship as well as engineering. Thus, some of these students will be primed to start enterprises in Assam. As cities like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad become expensive, development in high-tech and other engineering fields will move to smaller cities and towns. In fact, the Government of India is actively supporting the development of a number of second-tier cities. Information Technology jobs and outsourced jobs are going to start moving into these cities in the near future. The establishment of these engineering colleges will get Assam ready for this day that will arrive soon. Although it is difficult to predict how the establishment of the new engineering colleges will impact on Assam’s per-capita income in a direct manner, it is a well-established fact that highly educated societies are able to harness human talent and that they have higher per-capita incomes and quality of life.

Developing a relationship with alumni should be a focus of the engineering colleges from the very beginning. Keeping connections with alumni, organizing “Homecoming” events, inviting successful alumni to give presentations, and encouraging highly placed alumni to recruit students should be given priority. A long-term connection with alumni is also likely to bring in dividends in terms of money and non-monetary contributions. Alumni relations are not a strong point of most universities and colleges in Assam at this time.

If additional engineering colleges are established in Assam, will it lead to growth of software and other high-technology industries in Assam? The answer is most certainly in the affirmative. A recent article explains why Infosys, a leading high-technology company in India and the world, has a 12,000 employee strong development center in Bhubaneswar, Orissa and not in Guwahati, Assam although Guwahati has better air-connectivity, better hotels and other facilities. [41] According to this article, Infosys has several pre-conditions before starting development centers in a location, the primary being manpower ability. Orissa had 41 engineering colleges in 2004 with 13,000 entering students annually. As a result, 80% of the employees in the Infosys Orissa development center are from Orissa. According to Infosys chairman, as quoted in this article, if a software development center is started in Guwahati, employees have to be hired from outside Assam and it is not cost-effective to do so. The conclusion of the article is that software development is manpower intensive and corporations will set up centers where manpower is locally available. By interpolating from the conclusions of this article, it is possible to surmise that if the new engineering colleges in Assam produce a thousand or more new graduates, it is possible that corporations will come to Assam to recruit them and keep them in Assam.

14. How can NRAs Help?

Non-resident Assamese individuals in other parts of India as well abroad should be encouraged to help in the development of curricula for these engineering colleges. Many such individuals can act as volunteers or consultants. Non-resident Assamese are highly educated individuals. They make trips back to Assam on a regular basis. They should be tapped to come to these engineering colleges, give lectures, take part in conferences, etc. The NRA should be tapped to provide for jobs when engineering graduates go outside Assam to find jobs. NRA individuals who have become successful should be tapped to invest in Assam and start engineering or high-tech companies in Assam and employ graduates of the engineering colleges.

15. Should we have Business and Entrepreneurship studies along with Engineering?

The new engineering colleges will educate the students not only in engineering, but also in business, entrepreneurship, globalization and innovation. The curricula could be modeled after the Bachelor of Innovation set of degrees recently started at the University of Colorado. [42]

In addition, professional and technological courses along with short-term certificate programs can boost the idea of self-supporting the institute.

16. Comparison with India and the World: Challenges for Assam

According to the AICTE, approximately 440,000 students were enrolled at Bachelors degree engineering programs in 2004-05 in India, 265,000 at the diploma level and 33,000 at the Master’s level. The seven IITs had a total of 25,000 students enrolled at all levels in 2002-03. [43] A study by researchers from Duke University estimates the number of engineering Bachelors graduates at 112,000 including Computer Science and related fields, but notes that almost half are graduating from three-year diploma programs. [44] [45] The Duke authors estimate that U.S. institutions graduate 137,437 engineering students annually. In China, that number is close to 640,000, of which approximately 350,000 graduate from bachelor programs and 290,000 from short-cycle associate-equivalent programs. In 2002-03, the seven IITs together graduated 2,275 B.Techs, 3,675 M.Techs and 445 Ph.D.s, with 11,700 undergraduates (four-year program), 9,500 graduate students and 3,800 doctoral students. Taking the Duke estimate of 215,000 first-level engineering graduates, IIT bachelor of technology graduates represent just 1 percent of the total graduating class of Indian engineers each year. After the IITs, there are the National Institutes of Technology. These were called Regional Engineering Colleges earlier. The state-level engineering colleges are the third-tier institutions. The plea in this essay is to have a sufficient number of engineering colleges and entering positions in the state of Assam. The second plea is to fund the state-level institutions and develop the infrastructure in such a manner that these institutes are of excellent quality, at par or above the National Institutes of Technology.

Prepared by:

Dr. Jugal Kalita: Dr. Jugal Kalita went to primary school in Natun Bazar Nimno Buniyadi School in Nagaon. His high school education was in Nagaon Government Boys School, Nagaon, and Ramakrishna MissionVidyapith, Deoghar, Bihar. He was a member of the first graduating Computer Science and Engineering B.Tech. class in India in IIT, Kharagpur in 1982. Subsquently, he received an MSc in Computational Science from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada; an MS (1988) and a Ph.D. (1990) in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Dr. Umesh Tahbildar: An aerospace engineer, Dr. Tahbildar currently works on the Space Shuttle Program for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at Greenbelt, Maryland. Born and brought up in Guwahati, Assam, Dr. Tahbildar did his early schooling successively in Chenikuthi Primary School, MCME School and Cotton College in Guwahati. After completing his B.Tech.(Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering at IIT, Kharagpur he had a brief stint as a lecturer in both Jalukbari Engineering College and Jorhat Engineering College. Dr. Tahbildar went to England under a Govt. of Assam overseas scholarship where he completed MS degree in Manchester University and Ph. D. degree in Southampton University in Structural Engineering. After completing a brief post-doctoral research assignment in the Solid Mechanics Division of the University of Waterloo, Canada, Dr. Tahbildar immigrated to the USA where he has lived and worked ever since working first in the Nuclear Power Plant Industry and then switching to Aerospace industry by dint of his expertise in application of Structural Dynamics in design and analysis of an entire gamut of structures including Spacecraft, Aircraft, Helicopters, Rockets, Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. Dr. Tahbildar is married with two grown up daughters. His wife, Pronoti, is also an engineer working for the Department of Transportation on Roads and Highways for the state of New Jersey.

Dr. Ganesh Bora: Dr. Ganesh Bora is an Agricultural Engineer by profession and works with University of Florida. He began his primary education in Kampur M.V. School, completed ICSE & ISC from Rajkumar College, Raipur, Chhattisgarh; finally received his PhD from Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. He has been involved in Teaching, Research, and Extension in Assam, Thailand and USA. Besides having many technical journal articles to his credit, he also writes poem and short stories in Assamese and represented his university in Hockey and debate.

Dr. Mantu Baishya: Dr. Mantu Baishya went to high school in Nagaon Government Boys School. His undergraduate college education was in Nagaon College (Nagaon) and the Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, Rajasthan where he received B.Tech. in Civil Engineering. Mantu received his M.Tech. from Roorkee Engineering College where he received a Gold Medal for his academic performance. He taught as an instructor at Assam Engineering College, Guwahati for seven years before coming to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Currently, Mantu works as a senior engineering in Omaha, Nebraska.

Dr. Dhurba Bhattacharyya: Dr. Dhurba Bhattacharyya is a Professor of Computer and Information Science at Tezpur University. He was a former Head of the Department of Information Systems.

Dr. Jukti Kalita: Dr. Jukti Kalita is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (Mechanical Engineering, B.Tech.), the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (MBA) and Columbia University, New York (Ph.D. in Marketing). He taught at the City University of New York for seven years before leaving to work for Merrill Lynch in Princeton, New Jersey. He became a Vice President there. Currently, he is the Director of Analytics at Health Products Research, Inc., in Somerset, New Jersey.

Acknowledgements: The authors thank Dr. Dipankar Medhi (Professor, Computer Science, University of Missouri at Kansas City), Dr. Sukumar Nandi (Professor and Head, Departmet of Computer Science, IIT-Guwahati), Ratnajit Bhattacharjee (Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering, IIT-Guwahati) and Dr. Gautom Barua (Director and Professor of Computer Science, IIT-Guwahati) for their comments in improving this essay.

Foot notes:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_of_India_by_population

[2] http://sampark.chd.nic.in/images/statistics/SDP2005R6.pdf

[3] http://www.tezu.ernet.in/Academic/btech/btech_prosp06.html

[4] Northeastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong also started B.Tech. programs in 2006-07.

[5] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=17853&kwd=

[6] http://www.nerist.ac.in/admission/citinfo.pdf

[7] http://databank.nedfi.com/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=111206&page_id=62

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh#Education

[9] http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/01/07/stories/0407210l.htm

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnataka#Education

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Nadu

[12] http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=132779

[13] http://www.aicte.ernet.in/

[14] http://www.censusindia.net/Projection_Report.pdf

[15] http://www.aicte.ernet.in/

[16] http://www.aicte.ernet.in/

[17] http://databank.nedfi.com/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=111206&page_id=62&PH...

[18] http://assam.org/article.php?sid=514

[19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_of_India_by_population

[20] http://www.censusindia.net/Projection_Report.pdf

[21] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Cities/ Bangalore/State_to_get_6_govt_engg_colleges/articleshow/1587142.cms

[22] http://www.indiaedu.com/polytechnic-colleges/assam.htm

[23] A reviewer cautioned against upgrading the Polytechnics, but suggested that establishment of private colleges be encouraged instead.

[24] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=26371

[25] [25] Gautam Barua: We need more Engineering Colleges in the Private Sector, an article published in Northeastan IT Association Souvenir, 2006, in Guwahati, private communication.

[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_and_colleges_in_India

[27] http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060330/himachal.htm#1

[28] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/04/11/cnwind...

[29] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1752572.cms

[30] Dr. Gautam Barua estimates that an investment of approximately INR 140 million, including cost for land acquistion, will be needed to start a new engineering college in Assam with 250 entering students (in Gautam Barua: We need more Engineering Colleges in the Private Sector, an article published in Northeastan IT Association Souvenir, in Guwahati, 2006private communication).

[31] http://www.vtu.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid...

[32] http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=may2407/at01

[33] http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=may2307/at01

[34] http://www.cbse.nic.in/, Go to “Affiliated Schools” in the left margin, enter “Assam” as the search term.

[35] Dr. Gautam Barua, Director of IIT-Guwahati estimates that there are approximately 10,000 science higher secondary school graduates from CBSE schools in Assam.

[36] http://www.assamtribune.com/jun1107/state.html

[37] http://aec.ac.in/admission.htm

[38] http://www.nba-aicte.ernet.in/nmna.htm

[39] http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org

[40] http://www.abet.org/

[41] Gautam Barua: We need many more Engineering Colleges in the Private Sector, published in Northeastan IT Association Souvenir, in Guwahati, 2006. Sent by Gautam Barua as a private communication.

[42] http://innovation.uccs.edu/

[43] http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=162559

[44] http://memp.pratt.duke.edu/downloads/duke_outsourcing_2005.pdf

[45] http://rajyasabha.nic.in/book2/reports/HRD/113threport.htm