Why India needs more engineers in power, not just in classrooms

As India struggles to build its manufacturing sector and quality physical infra, we could consider what leadership role engineers should play in politics and the administration, writes T N Ninan

Dan Wang of Stanford’s Hoover History Lab has attracted wide attention with his book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. In it he argues that China is an “engineering state” while the US is a “lawyerly society”. The characterisation is not new. The Economist quotes Bill Clinton as saying during a visit to China in 1998: “You have too many engineers, and we have too many lawyers…let’s trade!”

 

China’s engineering achievements hit you in the face if you visit China today, as this writer did last month after more than a decade. No matter how much you have read