Sabeer Bhatia, Co-founder of Hotmail, has questioned India's technical education and work culture, citing a lack of hands-on experience and critical thinking.
In a podcast, he stated that most engineering graduates end up becoming managers rather than developing actual products, raising concerns about the country's ability to nurture meaningful innovation.
He asked, “99% of Indians who graduate as engineers join management and start giving gyaan to everybody. Where is the work ethic, where they really work with their hands and really go and build some stuff?”
“Here, people value anybody who does work with their hands... and yet he's the software guru of India, he's the business guru of dealing in, you know, who does body shopping — not software,” he said, pointing at the irony of the reverence for Indian business leaders who promote outsourcing rather than original software creation.
He complimented China for valuing engineers and assigning them appropriate employment following graduation, India Today reports.
“China values those who graduate as engineers and willing to work as engineers,” he said.
Bhatia also expressed concern over the cost of schooling in India. He noted that education is subsidised in China, allowing more people to attend it, whereas in India, it is exclusively available to the wealthy. In many cases, the goal of education is not to gain knowledge, but for marriage and dowry.
He added that India can compete with China only if there is a mindset change in the former.
“Focus on creativity… India has to choose what it wants to specialise in. It is not specialising in anything and is becoming a cheap jack of all trades,” he said.
