New-age job roles: How India can engineer a future beyond software
Nanda's job at General Electric Co. back then was putting some plastic between the bumper and the beam of a Suzuki Swift. The plastics division, which traced its history to the early days of synthetic rubber, had hired the young engineer from the state-run Defense Research & Development Organization, placed him at one of GE’s new facilities on the outskirts of Bengaluru, and asked him to find a cost-efficient way to reduce the impact on pedestrians in auto accidents.
Two decades later, the former bumper guy and the John F. Welch Technology Center he now heads in Bengaluru are executing far more complex projects. In the process, they’re writing a template for multinationals on how to use India’s engineering talent to create intellectual property, not just cut costs.
This is very different from the code-writing work that has brought the most-populous nation global recognition in the last quarter-century. While software outsourcing will face an existential challenge from generative artificial intelligence, the engineering prowess — if harnessed well — will launch the next wave of productive and lucrative jobs.
Policymakers in New Delhi have their sight on China’s factory-to-the-world crown. They are spending $24 billion over five years on production-linked incentives. Trouble is, the rivalry is not limited to other Asian countries like Vietnam, which have the same goal and are ahead in the game. The US, too, is running a very generous industrial
