Happy Engineers Day: Remembering Sir M Visvesvaraya

Engineers play an important role in the making of a nation. In India, Engineers Day is marked on the birth anniversary of the most beloved engineer, India has ever produced Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.

The 48th Engineers' Day is being celebrated with the theme of "Engineering Challenges for Knowledge Era".

Who is M Visvesvaraya?

Visvesvaraya, who was a proud recipient of India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1955, was born on Sept 15, 1860. He is best known for his cutting edge research, innovation and hard work.

He was also a scholar, statesman and Diwan of princely state of Mysore for seven years from 1912 to 1919.

With his engineering acumen, Sir MV accomplished several complex projects that include Krishna Raja Sagar dam built near Mysore, which is now the Brindavan gardens, the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad and the plan for road construction between Tirumala and Tirupati.

He also designed the Khadakwasla Dam near Pune, Tigra Dam in Gwalior and handled several projects across the country.

Born in Muddenahalli village (40 kms away from Mysore), Sir M Visvesvaraya did his primary schooling in Chikballapur and attended high school in Bangalore.

He pursued his graduation from Madras University in 1881 and then he did civil engineering from Poona University in 1884.

He began his engineering career from the Public Works Department (PWD) of Bombay. Later, he received several international offers to work on bigger challenges.

He took voluntary retirement in 1908 and in 1909, he was appointed as Chief Engineer of Mysore State.

He was awarded several honorary doctorate degrees from eight universities of India.

In 1917, he played a key role in the foundation of the Government Engineering College at Bangalore, one of the first engineering institutes in India. Later, it was renamed as the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering.

To honour the contribution of the 'Father of India's Engineering', many educational institutes, colleges and universities are named after him, as a remarkable tribute.

The visionary penned down his experiences of over 30 years in an autobiography "Memories of my working life".

Sir MV, who passed away on April 14, 1962 at the age 101 years in Bangalore, is remembered for his astute achievements in the field of engineering on this day.

Engineering: Not everyone's cup of tea!

Unlike other educational streams like commerce, humanities and other professional courses, engineering is considered as one of the toughest field. Engineering students need to be abreast of all the latest technologies and no doubt they are considered to be geniuses!

They have to do lot of in-depth research on the subject they are studying and it requires coding, and esoteric programming languages.

Indian engineering institutes like IIT and other top and reputed engineering institutes produce lakhs of engineers every year.

In India, startup culture has mushroomed to an all together a booming level and engineers are to be credited for this feat.

On the micro-blogging site Twitter, #EngineersDay was trending through out the day. Here's how Twitterati wished Engineers:

Salute to all the engineers who help in making the world a better place!