Management of engineering and technology in third world

It is noted that, in most of the developing countries, there is a great potential of technical talent due to the vast human resources available; yet, due to the direct result of lack of adequate management in engineering education this technical potential is lost to the developed countries. Many talented individuals find lucrative job opportunities in the developed countries, and hence are lured to settle there permanently. Hence there is an urgent need to seriously review the engineering management policies in these countries and set right this lacuna. It is contended that the fallacy that is committed in many of the developing countries is to consider engineering management akin to business administration. It is suggested that the foremost task should be to relate engineering education to the technological development of the industries. The engineering institutes should realize that they cannot function in a vacuum, but will have to reflect and respond to the needs of the people and thus transform the present society into one with a progressive outlook and take the developing countries with a forward technical thrust to the domain of advanced technical fields. The engineering education must be directed to achieve economic development and should aid in national integration in these countries.