80% Indian engineers unfit for any job: Study
New Delhi: It's been nearly a decade since career assessment and research solutions firm Aspiring Minds first published its annual employability report in 2010.
According to one of its early reports published in 2011, 82 per cent Indian engineers were unemployable.
In 2012, the report further noted that 50 per cent Indian engineers lacked basic English skills.
The latest Annual Employability Survey 2019 (external link) report released by Aspiring Minds reveals that "80 per cent Indian engineers are not fit for any job in the knowledge economy."
According to the same report, only 2.5 per cent of them possess industry relevant tech skills in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The findings are based on data collected from 1,70,000 students from across 750 plus colleges in India.
For the first time, the employability report includes comparitive data with inputs from engineers in the US and China.
The 2019 survey states that only a handful of Indian engineers possess coding expertise.
"Good coding skills are possessed by 4.6 per cent of Indian job applicants."
It says that Indian engineers (4.6 per cent) can code correctly compared to their Chinese counterparts (2.1 per cent) but lag behind American peers (18.8 per cent) who can write codes correctly.
The annual report also identifies some of the reasons why there is a skill gap.
"Engineering is an applied discipline. Engineers learn primarily by doing, not only by reading and listening."
"Only 40 percent of engineering students in India perform internships and only 36 per cent undertake projects outside their assigned coursework."
It stresses on the lack of industry relevant curriculum and exposure.
"Students are trapped in a college bubble," it points.
"Sixty percent of faculty do not discuss how engineering concepts apply to industry. Only 47 per cent of students report the opportunity to attend a talk by industry personnel during their college career. Most talks that students attend are intra-departmental, rather than seminars, workshops, conferences or webinars that typically feature outside experts and scholars who present complementary or alternative perspectives."
Engineering students in India further struggle during their placements.
Approximately 40 per cent of students reported that their primary challenge is finding the right company or the most suitable job profile to apply.
Their second challenge was to secure and pass an interview.
"Our students need counseling to understand the kinds of jobs that are available; how to determine which job profiles match their interests and skills; the skill gaps that may disqualify them; and how to address those skill gaps," the report suggests.
courtesy: rediff.com
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2026
New Delhi (PTI): Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella.
"On Earth As It Is Beneath" by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a "brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse", is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.
The annual prize worth GBP 50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection "Heart Lamp". Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of GBP 5,000 -- also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.
"What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, uncompromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives.
"The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin," the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.
The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.
The list, announced on Tuesday, is dominated by women, with five of the six authors and four of the six translators being female. The authors and translators represent eight countries -- Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States.
"With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising," said author Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s judging panel.
The other books include "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran" by Shida Bazyar and translated from German by Ruth Martin; "She Who Remains" by Rene Karabash and translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel; "The Director" by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin; "Taiwan Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zi and translated from Taiwanese by Lin King; and "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye and translated from French by Jordan Stump.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on May 19 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single work of fiction -- either a novel or a collection of short stories -- written in another language, translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
According to the organisers, the 2025 winner "Heart Lamp" –- the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada –- rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher, And Other Stories, immediately reprinting 40,000 copies.
