As one of the countries producing a noteworthy amount of engineering graduates almost every year, India’s emergence as an exceptional breeding ground for future engineers has been phenomenal. Providing adequate exposure to innovative technologies and encouraging the entrepreneurial instincts of the budding engineers, the country sources its inspiration from the greatest Indian engineer and Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Vishweshvaraya, popularly known as Sir M. V. Visvesvaraya.
Every year on September 15, India pays tribute to one of the greatest engineers to walk on the earth by celebrating his birthday as the National Engineer’s Day. Amongst his numerous contributions to India, he is specifically remembered for installing Gwalior’s Tigra Dam and Mysuru’s Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) dam - one of the largest reservoirs in Asia at the time. During his tenure as the Diwan of Mysore, he received the ‘Knighthood’ in 1915 as a commander of the British Indian empire by King George V and became a member of the London Institution of Civil Engineers. He was also awarded with the prestigious Bharat Ratna in 1955 and a fellowship by the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore.
This article intends to highlight some of the noteworthy engineers of present day who have not only made us proud but also put India at the global forefront.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of one of the largest tech companies of the world, Google, Sundar Pichai is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and hardly needs an introduction. Born in Chennai, Sundar went to Stanford University for MS and Wharton School of Pennsylvania University for MBA. Commencing his career as a materials engineer, Sundar later joined the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Commencing his journey with Google in 2004, he gradually got associated with the Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google company family. He was selected as the Alphabet Board of Directors in 2017.
Considered to be one of the most successful IT businessmen of current generation, Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy is the founder of Infosys, a multi-national software company which holds a prolific global standing. He completed his graduation from the University of Mysore in the electrical engineering and MTech from IIT Kanpur. An Indian billionaire businessman, Murthy has been positioned as the chairman, CEO, president, and chief mentor of Infosys before retiring and taking the title chairman emeritus. Ranked among the ‘12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of Our Time’ by Fortune magazine, he is also regarded as the ‘Father of the Indian IT sector’ by the Time magazine and CNBC for his impeccable contribution to the Indian IT industry. Murthy has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri awards by the Indian Government.
An Indian-born American business executive, Satya Nadela is the present CEO of Microsoft and considered to be one of the most exquisite tech-genius of the current generation. Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Nadela completed his graduation in 1988 from the Manipal Institute of Technology. He later went on to complete his MS in Computer Science from Wisconsin University and MBA from the Chicago University. As the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadela succeeded Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman.
An engineer with a mechanical engineering background, Priya Balasubramaniam is proficient in supply chain management, marketing and software engineering and is currently positioned as the vice president of Core Technologies Operations and iPhone Operations at Apple. As a strong willed individual and woman leader who loves to face challenges, Priya commenced her journey with Apple in 2001. Since then, there has been no looking back for her as she gradually rose to success in the international supply chain team where she handles manufacturing of Apple’s iPhones. Proved to be significant on a global scale, she also played a substantial role in conveying new deals to manufacture Apple products.
The co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla is an alumnus of IIT Delhi. He founded Khosla Ventures in 2004, which is a venture capital firm managing about one billion dollars’ worth of asset capital. An Indo-American business tycoon, Vinod has completed his BTech in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, Master's in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and MBA from Stanford University. In 2014, Forbes placed him amongst the top 400 richest people in the United States, and in 2020, he was again ranked 353 on the Forbes 400 list. After reading about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times as a teenager which encouraged him to pursue technology as a career.
