A casual remark by Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran has travelled farther than he perhaps intended. He observed that engineering and MBA degrees may no longer guarantee rewarding careers in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
It quickly escaped the context of a longer and more thoughtful conversation. What went viral was that engineering and MBA are no longer worth pursuing.
For decades, these degrees have carried enormous weight in Indian families. They promised not merely jobs, but status, mobility, marriage value, migration possibilities and middle-class entry. So the CEA’s comments put parents in a panic.
But the viral headline misses the larger point. The CEA was not wrong to warn against complacency.
AI is changing the economics of routine cognitive work. Repetitive coding, formulaic analysis, standardized reports and mechanical management tasks are becoming less valuable. One experienced employee, assisted by AI tools, can now do what once required a small team.
But that does not mean we abandon engineering or management education. The right answer is to redesign both.
An infrastructure-building country will need all the engineering talent it can get. Much needs to be built and algorithms alone cannot design, supervise or maintain all of it across India’s varied terrain, hydrology and social conditions.
The urgency is to update curricula. A civil engineer of tomorrow cannot merely know concrete, surveying and structural design. She must understand urban flooding, water stress, climate risk, GIS mapping, green materials, public procurement, project finance and lifecycle maintenance.
An electrical engineer must grasp grids, storage, electric mobility and renewable integration. A mechanical engineer must know robotics, precision manufacturing and industrial automation. A computer engineer must know systems architecture, cybersecurity, data pipelines and AI applications in agriculture, health, logistics, manufacturing and governance.
AI is a tool that we must befriend. Just as computerization did not eliminate accountants, designers or managers, but instead amplified work, so will AI if done right.
A decade-old paper by Professor Milind Sohoni on engineering education reform argued that India’s curricula must reflect its developmental agenda: an education rooted in roads, electricity, water, sanitation, irrigation, public transport, groundwater, cooking energy and regional needs. “Science is universal, but technology is local” is more than just a slogan. Universities must move from textbook to problem-solving engineering.
Experiential learning is an integral part of the National Education Policy of 2020. Students should study actual water systems, drainage networks, district roads, bus routes, slums, heat islands, waste systems, irrigation canals and industrial clusters, and learn to combine technical design with economics, regulation, finance and community behaviour. India needs engineers who can solve Indian problems.
The same applies to MBAs. We need analytical and managerial capability in places where they are rarely deployed. Every district needs people who can analyse data, prepare investment plans, evaluate projects, improve procurement, monitor outcomes, manage public assets and coordinate across departments.
For bottom-up planning, the district cannot remain just an administrative unit. It must be a planning and execution unit.
Why not create teams of young engineers and MBA graduates under district administrations?
These need not be permanent employees. A two- or three-year district engineering and management fellowship could deploy civil, environmental, hydrological, data and finance professionals to map water resources, forest cover, soil conditions, mineral potential, public assets and service gaps.
Their work could be measurable: better rural plans, rational road alignments, improved drainage, GIS-linked asset registers, water budgeting and faster project execution.
It would also create a new employment pathway. India could create district development analysts, municipal finance associates, procurement specialists, public health systems managers, urban data officers and climate adaptation officers.
Take India’s cities. Air quality in many is a public health emergency. Rivers running through some are ecologically degraded. Public transport is fragmented. Footpaths are in bad shape. Cycling is unsafe. The elderly face barriers to mobility. Pedestrian-only zones, integrated bus-metro systems, cyclable streets, river rejuvenation, heat shelters and real-time air-quality management all need professionals.
Who will build and run urban observatories that track air, water, mobility, waste, land use and health? Who will model municipal finances and distinguish wasteful spending from productive investment? Who will design incentives for public transport use, waste segregation or water conservation? These are all roles for well-trained engineers, urban planners, economists, data scientists and MBAs.
Dan Wang’s Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future is around this generalization: America is run by lawyers and China is run by engineers. China’s infrastructure miracle owes much to engineers in positions of influence. India must not imitate China’s political model, but needs more engineers and systems thinkers closer to public decision-making.
The implication of the CEA’s message is to redesign engineering and MBA degrees for India’s future economy.
The author is senior fellow with Pune International Centre.