Engineers’ Day is commemorated on September 15 every year as an ode to the remarkable contributions of the greatest Indian civil engineer Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya on his birth anniversary. Being an occasion dedicated solely to raise a toast to the chief implementers of a nation’s development, Engineers’ Day is thereby marked to remember and praise the significant engineering contributions that have constituted the modern and technologically developed India of today. It is also a day to acknowledge the tiring efforts that are done by engineers both physically and mentally to ensure that the people in this planet live luxuriously with comfortable facilities in the future.
SIGNIFICANCE OF ENGINEERS’ DAY
To pay homage to Sir Visvesvaraya, India celebrates his birth anniversary as Engineers’ Day annually after the Central Government made a declaration to dedicate this day to the builders of the nation in 1968. Born in 1861 to a Telegu Brahmin couple Mokshagundam Srinivasa Shastry and Venkatalakshamma in the village Muddenahalli situated in Karnataka’s Chikkabalapur district, Sir Visvesvaraya pursued his degree in civil engineering from College of Engineering, Pune.
After having made a wonderful start of his engineering career by taking a job as an assistant engineer with the Public Works Department of Bombay, Sir Visvesvaraya soon went to play a major role in constructing dams, reservoirs and hydro-power projects in India. One of his significant contributions was the design and patent of the automatic weir floodgates that were first installed in Pune’s Khadakwasla reservoir in 1903. The success of these floodgates led him to do the same work at Tigra Dam in Gwalior and Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mysore. Sir Visvesvaraya was the Chief Engineer for the Krishna Raja Sagar dam project. As an effective water management system of irrigation, Sir Visvesvaraya introduced the Block System of Irrigation in the Deccan Canals whose objective is to distribute the benefits of an irrigation work over a larger number of villages and to concentrate irrigation in each village within blocks of specified units and in selected soils and situations. In 1909, Sir Visvesvaraya suggested the construction of reservoirs and embankments to the Hyderabad government in order to control the incecessant flooding of the Musi river. On the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, the Odisha government approached Sir Visvesvaraya in 1937 to render advice in the matter of controlling the floods in the Mahanadi delta. His advice led to the construction of the Hirakud Dam.
Apart from being an engineering genius, Sir Visvesvaraya was also an avid lover of his mother tongue Kannada and had set up Kannada Parishat for improvement of the language. Among his notable social works, the most amazing one was the establishment of the Government Engineering College known as University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1917.
Sir Visvesvaraya , who served as the 19th Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1919, was recognized with the highest possible civilian honour i.e. the Bharat Ratna in 1955 . He was also given the title of the Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by the British for his contributions to the public good.
GET INSPIRED WITH THESE AWESOME QUOTES OF INDIA’S GREATEST ENGINEER
Remember, your work may be only to sweep a railway crossing, but it is your duty to keep it so clean that no other crossing in the world is as clean as yours.
As said by the biggest genius Sir Visvesvaraya himself, no job is small and it is the duty of every person to be truly dedicated towards his profession.
No one person can shape the life of another. Your success and happiness depends upon your own self. Think for yourself and have a plan of life
This statement is a high testimony of the fact that ‘What will others say’ and taunts/ criticism and ridiculous advice of others holds no value in shaping our future. The only maker of our destiny is We Ourselves.
To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money
Love, passion and sincere work are the determiners of our prosperity and rewards of our jobs.
To make our country great, self-supporting and strong, work hard, work harder, work with efficiency, work in a co-operative spirit and work with a team spirit.
A great idea for bringing alive the dream of Aatmanirbhar Bharat! Good planning, working systematically towards it and cooperating greatly with your team makes a dream task come true.
Hard work performed in a disciplined manner will in most cases keep the worker fit and also prolong his life
Overworking may take a toll on health. However, doing our work properly within the stipulated time frame and exercising regularly along with having a good diet can help us in living a long and healthy life.
Every man who has become great owes his achievement to incessant toil
The chief condition behind every kind of success has always remained HARD WORK universally.
India produces the highest number of engineering graduates annually who goes on to become successful in various fields they pursue. From Karthik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon who achieved huge stardom in the field of acting to writers like Durjoy Datta and Chetan Bhagat, the engineering graduates of India never fails to amaze anyone with their amazing talents. Two of the most famous celebrated engineering leaders of our times are Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella who are the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of Google and Microsoft respectively. It can be said that the development of India depends mostly on the achievements of its engineers.
