New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) Calling on the next generation of engineers to embrace interdisciplinary thinking, Mizoram Governor General (Dr) Vijay Kumar Singh has said India’s future technological leadership would depend on engineers who can work across traditional academic and professional boundaries.
Addressing the 18th IEI Industry Excellence Summit & Awards 2026 here, organised by the Institution of Engineers (India) (IEI), the Governor highlighted the crucial role engineering has played in India’s development and urged young professionals to build on that legacy. The summit was held under the theme, “Engineering India’s Global Footprint: Technology, Talent and Trust.”
General Singh said India’s engineering accomplishments span a wide range of sectors, including dams, steel plants, highways, metro networks, renewable energy systems, telecommunications, the space programme, indigenous defence manufacturing and digital public infrastructure.
He stressed that while India has already achieved significant milestones, the responsibility of shaping the country’s next phase of growth rests with today’s engineering talent.
According to the Governor, the boundaries separating engineering disciplines are rapidly disappearing. He noted that civil engineers increasingly need expertise in technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS), sensors, artificial intelligence and climate modelling, while mechanical engineers are being drawn into robotics and advanced manufacturing.
Similarly, electrical engineers are working on energy storage and smart-grid technologies, and software engineers are increasingly involved with hardware systems, cybersecurity and physical infrastructure.
He said engineering graduates must move beyond narrowly defined specialisations and develop the ability to collaborate across disciplines, experiment with new ideas and create practical solutions to real-world challenges.
He also advocated stronger emphasis on design thinking, field exposure, interdisciplinary projects and prototyping within engineering education.
Highlighting India’s capacity to build infrastructure at scale, General Singh said equal attention must now be given to maintaining and sustaining existing assets.
He pointed to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a major engineering success story, saying that while it is commonly viewed as a fintech innovation, it is underpinned by sophisticated engineering involving interoperability, distributed systems, cybersecurity, real-time processing and large-scale digital infrastructure.
The Governor also cited India’s space programme as an example of engineering excellence achieved despite resource and technology constraints.
–IANS
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