From a decade when “everyone wanted to be an engineer” to what is now being hailed as India’s Techade, the journey of engineering as a profession has seen a remarkable transformation. Gone are the days when the title ‘engineer’ was primarily associated with bridges, machines, and blueprints. Today, it’s just as likely to mean algorithms, data models, or neural networks. And rightly so because in this era of rapid technological advancement, once you’re an engineer, there’s very little you can’t do.

According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), 2024–25 saw 12.53 lakh engineering seats filled up significantly from a historic low of 7.22 lakh in 2018–19. For the 2025–26 academic session, AICTE has greenlit nearly 16 lakh seats, underscoring the profession’s renewed appeal. But what’s even more telling is where this interest is heading.

Computer Science and IT have firmly taken the lead, now making up nearly 47% of all engineering admissions. More telling still is the rise of niche domains — AI, Data Science, IoT, which, in just four years, have surged from a modest 2.1% to 9.3% of all seats. It’s clear: the engine driving modern engineering is no longer mechanical, it’s digital.

Meanwhile, traditional branches like Mechanical, Civil, and Electrical Engineering — once considered the bedrock of industrial India — have seen a gradual dip in popularity. For instance, Mechanical Engineering, which accounted for nearly 15% of admissions in 2020, now holds just 9%. This isn’t just a shift in numbers; it’s a reflection of changing aspirations, evolving industries, and a generational pivot towards technology-first careers.

Amid the buzz of innovation and the gleam of futuristic tech lie unspoken challenges. On this National Engineer’s Day, ETEducation goes beyond the headlines to explore the less glamorous, but deeply critical, realities of DeepTech in India.

From high R&D costs and painfully long development cycles, to a visible gap in specialised talent, engineering today isn’t without its hurdles. Add to that regulatory complexities, limited funding options, and the pressure of proving market readiness for disruptive ideas. And then there’s the ethical dilemma, particularly in AI and biotech, where innovators must navigate the delicate balance between possibility and responsibility.

As India steps boldly into its Techade, driven by innovation in healthcare, defence, mobility, education and more, it is essential not just to celebrate engineering excellence but to confront the roadblocks that hinder it. Because building the future isn’t just about vision; it’s about laying down the grit, the groundwork, and yes, sometimes, questioning the very direction of progress.

This National Engineer’s Day, we spotlight the voices shaping India’s tech frontier— leaders, innovators, educators, who are not only chasing the next breakthrough, but also reflecting on what it takes to build a truly sustainable, inclusive, and ethical engineering ecosystem.

From silos to synergy: A cultural shift is essential
India’s engineering talent pool is vast, but breakthroughs often emerge from collaboration, not competition. This requires shifting away from isolated efforts and towards ecosystems of trust and shared purpose.
Prof Ranjan Bose, Director of IIIT-Delhi, argues that India’s DeepTech journey must evolve culturally to thrive. He outlines the need to “replace fragmented and duplicate efforts with meaningful partnerships between academia, industry, startups, and government,” advocating for trust and transparency, where resource sharing becomes standard practice rather than an exception.
He adds, “We must celebrate long-term impact and persistence, recognising that breakthroughs often take years—not months—to materialise.”

As someone who has worked closely with engineers across different domains, I’ve seen firsthand how short-term metrics and fear of failure can stifle potentially transformative work. We must start valuing the grit behind the glory.

The mindset revolution: Risk-taking, resilience, and quality
More than just cultural change, India’s engineering landscape needs a deep mindset shift—one that prioritises risk-taking, embraces failure, and raises the bar for what we consider ‘world-class’.
Ranjan Bose emphasises, “We must ensure private and government funding actively support bold experimentation and recognise ‘grand failures’ as stepping stones to innovation.” He also calls for a renewed “quest for quality and beauty of design,” encouraging a move beyond ‘good enough’ to engineering that is elegant, precise, and globally competitive.
Leadership plays a crucial role here. “We need leaders who view failures as learning opportunities and inspire teams to pursue moonshot goals,” says Bose.

It’s time we shift from merely producing engineers to nurturing visionary problem-solvers, driven not just by employability but by the urge to create, to question, and to lead.

Early foundations: Rethinking education from the ground up
Innovation doesn’t begin in the lab—it begins in the classroom. And sometimes, even earlier.
Prof Manindra Agrawal, Director of IIT Kanpur, rightly points out that India’s education system often stifles curiosity before it can even bloom. “The mindset shift needs to begin from the pre-primary days. Our schools emphasise rote learning over inquiry, hindering creativity and critical thinking,” he says.
He notes that the path to higher education, especially engineering, is dominated by intensive coaching systems, which leave little room for independent thought and hands-on learning. To truly prepare students for DeepTech leadership, Prof Agrawal advocates for a much larger hands-on component in college education: “Students learn best by doing.”

As someone who’s mentored engineering students, I’ve noticed how even the brightest often lack exposure to design thinking, failure analysis, and iterative building — skills essential in the DeepTech world.

Risk literacy: Building a culture of structured experimentation
India’s engineering education already fosters core competencies like critical thinking and systems-based problem-solving. But to move from competence to DeepTech leadership, we need to embed a structured understanding of risk and resilience.

Michael Sell, Senior Vice President at the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), says, “India produces over 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, but only a small fraction transition into careers supporting deep research or strategic, risk-based entrepreneurship.”
He adds, “Embedding a risk-oriented mindset into engineering and research training can help create innovators who are technologically adept and equipped to anticipate and manage risks responsibly.”
This isn’t just about avoiding mistakes—it’s about building solutions that are technically brilliant, socially responsible, and commercially viable.

In this context, Prof Sandeep K. Shukla, Director, IIIT Hyderabad, highlights a critical gap: “The problem in India that the DeepTech startups are facing today is not so much on the funding side, but on the side of acceptance of their products by the government entities, PSUs, and larger corporations in general. While there are enough programs and schemes from the government to incubate, there are no concomitant changes in the policy or incentivization (which can lead to mindset changes) in accepting DeepTech products in place of well-established products.”

“As a result, only DeepTech products or services that succeed in India are ones which do not have any alternative MNC product — for example, UPI, and Digiyatra. But suppose you develop an indigenous cybersecurity product, a firewall, a router or operating system. In that case, the policy or incentive to accept such products in the government or corporate is rare, leading to failure of many good DeepTech products”, he adds.

He further observes the disconnection in academic priorities – “The research community is still beholden to conferences organised in Europe and the US, and journals published there, and the research is geared towards publishing papers rather than innovating for Indian problems. The incentive structure in academic research in India needs to change, and in evaluating a researcher, innovation of sovereign DeepTech and solving Indian problems must be given much higher weightage than publications — this definitely needs a cultural reset.”

Balancing speed with responsibility: The ethical tightrope
Perhaps the greatest challenge of DeepTech innovation is balancing speed with responsibility, especially in domains like AI, biotech, and quantum computing.
Prof Agrawal highlights the risks of unchecked innovation: “Safeguarding societal interest, data privacy, and addressing ethical dilemmas are the primary concerns. We need a regulatory framework with incentives for responsible behaviour, evolved in consultation with academic researchers, industry experts, and global partners.”

Ranjan Bose cautions that ethical concerns — from algorithmic bias to data misuse—cannot be an afterthought. “Rushing ahead without safeguards risks eroding public trust. At the same time, over-regulation can stall innovation,” he warns.

He suggests integrating “Ethics by Design” from the outset, through safety checks and societal impact assessments. Agile governance models like regulatory sandboxes can allow experimentation while still maintaining oversight. Importantly, he reminds us: “Ethical responsibility is not a constraint—it’s a long-term differentiator that builds public trust and ultimately drives growth.”
Michael Sell echoes this view, noting how structured approaches to risk, drawn from fields like global finance, can be adapted to tech. “By designing algorithms that mitigate bias and misuse, engineers can ensure India is recognised not only for rapid innovation but also for responsible and trusted leadership in DeepTech.”

Prof Shukla reinforces the need for urgent ethical frameworks and comments, “RBI has done a pretty good job in defining 10 principles of ethical use of AI in the BFSI sector, and also published a report on fair usage of AI, and SEBI has also spoken about accountability, transparency, disclosure, etc. However, like the AI Act of the EU, the Indian government needs an AI Act which should spell out the risk-based accountability, explainability, transparency, etc.”

He further warns that while innovation must proceed, guardrails are essential. “One can balance innovation and ethical use judiciously, but to do that, one requires forming an expert committee to deliberate and have a healthy debate involving all stakeholders. That is missing at this time. India needs a mission-mode approach with an immediate sense of urgency to achieve tech sovereignty while formulating guidelines for ethical use of technology. India has an opportunity to be a global trendsetter in this.”

The way forward: Engineering a new ethos
The blueprint for India’s DeepTech future cannot rely on infrastructure and investment alone. It needs an ethos, a cultural and intellectual ecosystem that values inquiry, tolerates failure, rewards quality, and embraces responsibility.
We must:

• Reimagine education from early childhood to postgraduate levels.
• Create institutional incentives for long-term, high-impact R&D.
• Build cross-sector hubs where startups, academia, and industry collaborate.
• Prioritise ethical design and agile regulation in emerging tech domains.
• Empower leadership that combines ambition with integrity.

On this Engineer’s Day, let us celebrate not just what Indian engineers have built, but also what they are yet to imagine, question, and responsibly create. Because in a world increasingly shaped by technology, it’s not just about building faster, it’s about building wiser.