Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NIT-K) K. Balaveera Reddy on Sunday asked budding engineers to emerge as job providers and become not job-seekers.
Referring to brain drain at the Engineer’s Day and Technology Summit at NIT-K, Surathkal, he said that if all young engineers went abroad in search of green pastures, India would find it difficult to come out of the tag of developing country. India should attain the tag of developed country, he said.
Mr. Reddy, a former Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, said that there was nothing wrong in working abroad in foreign companies to gain experience and training. Now, the policies of the Union government and the State governments supported industrialisation. India should be in a position to export many commodities and products. Hence, young engineers should strive to make India a developed country.
He said that late Sir M. Visvesvaraya had said that a person should do one’s duty first before seeking comfort. There was a misconception that Mr. Visvesvaraya was only relevant to the State. But it was not true. He was relevant to many in the country.
The great engineer re-modelled the entire city of Hyderabad and improved its drainage system, built railway bridges and water supply schemes in Bihar and Odisha and promoted the block system of irrigation in then then Bombay Province.
Mysuru witnessed its golden era under his period with many development projects such as the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam, the Mysore Sandal Soap factory, Mysore Lamps, Mysore Paints and the University of Mysore. He also built many educational institutions.
K. Uma Maheshwar Rao, Director, NITK, said that Visvesvaraya was an unparrelled genius.
Mr. Rao said that climate change and providing potable water to all still remained a challenge to address.
K.P. Vittal, Dean (Alumni Affairs and Institutional Relations), Sripathi Acharya, Dean (Research and Consultancy), NITK, spoke. In all, 12 distinguished alumni of the NITK were honoured.
