Education in India

With the multiplication of the number of e electrical power houses, and with the long distance transmission of power, the demand for men trained in the use of electrical machinery and acquainted with the fundamentals of the science began to grow, find the universities and technical colleges began to introduce courses in electrical engineering. But only one or two colleges are known to have introduced electrical engineering courses earlier than 1880. So rapid has been the progress in this field that the number of electrical engineers, technicians and craftsmen in the U.S.A. is now estimated to be nearing the million mark. The same is trite of automotive engineering which dates from the time of the discovery of the internal combustion engine by Otto in 1870. Rudiments of chemical engineering were known in earlier metallurgical practices, but the great discoveries in organic, physical and inorganic chemistry subsequent to 1880, led to more and more large scale chemical industries. Chemical engineering courses began to be introduced about 1890, almost simultaneously in the German Technische Hoschschules and in great American Technical Colleges like the Massaschusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). The first courses were introduced in England in the Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1911.

Electrical engineering is a typical example of this change. For about 20 years it dealt mainly with electrical power generation, transmission and utilisation. With Marconi's discovery of wireless telegraphy (1898), electrical engineers began to study and watch the progress of Radio Communication. In some, university and technical colleges, the new science began to be pursued as a subject for post-gradate study and research. Then came the discovery of the use of triode valves in 1914 which revolutionised radio communication, and made broad- casting possible. This led to the need for a large number of engineers trained in the fundamentals of radio communications, and in the use of the necessary appliances. So universities and technical colleges were called upon to open undergraduate classes for the training of radio engineers. .......continued.....