Journalism of Courage
Vidya is in a dilemma. The curriculum makes it mandatory for her to submit a project by the end of the term. After three years of engineering education,the final year student is struggling to make even a simple circuit work,let alone come up with a BE-level project.
Vidya need not worry,Punes vast project-making industry promises to rescue students like her. We make all kinds of engineering projects is a signboard found across the city and its outskirts,especially outside private engineering colleges. With private engineering colleges mushrooming across Maharashtra in the past decade,the project making industry has grown exponentially in the city.
Coming up with science projects is not so easy and requires a lot of research. They have to keep innovating and updating with technological advance in all fields to fulfill students demands.
Jayawant,who along with his four friends, owns a project business in the city says,My friends and I completed our BE and decided to take this up as the demand for projects will never go down irrespective of the market situation. These shops also teach and train students in making projects.
Among all engineering branches,outsourcing of projects is seen the most in IT and electronics. Outsourcing is the norm among students of students Electronics,Electrical,E& TC,IT,Computer Science,Instrumentation and Mechanical branches. Students of branches like Civil,Chemical make their own projects, says Saurabh,a BE student.
As per Abhinav,another final year student,it is the education system that is responsible for the birth of these shops. We are taught theory of almost everything but when it comes to its application,we are absolutely blank. Plus the colleges are hardly equipped with the kind of apparatus that will help us in making the projects.
He adds,During practicals,we are taught how to take readings and correct errors but even a small change to the set up will make us unable to take the readings.
Owing to the high average cost of projects made in Pune,students are moving towards nearby places like Ahmednagar,Amaravati,Kopargaon and Nashik. Yogesh from Amaravati is a veteran of 20 years in this field,who gets requests for projects from places as far as Bangalore and Raipur. He left his job as a lecturer in a UGC recommended college to start his own project business because he thought lectureship makes him stagnant but projects make him continuously research new technology.
We read all IEEE papers and research one year in advance so that our projects are always on the latest innovations. We cater mostly to MTech and PhD students but engineering projects are always in demand.
He adds,The projects for PhD cost Rs1.4 lakh onwards,MTech from Rs 35,000 onwards and BE from Rs15,000 onwards.
