If someone opens social media then they will found that there are a lot of jokes and memes over the Engineers and the Engineering course. Not only that, but people also say that you would found Engineers in the entire domain except in the Engineering domain. But if we see practically then would found that the term Engineer or the Engineering is much more than those memes or media jokes. India which has a population of 133.92 crores requires a strong and stringent infrastructure to maintain the entire framework of the country. And if we go by the book, then we would found that the Government of India spends 17% of the GDP on maintaining all of these infrastructures. And by the way, these infrastructures are spread across the whole length of the nation, and those who maintain it are proudly known as Engineers.
The government of India employs these Engineers under the appointment of Honorable President of India and protects them through Article 311 of the Constitution of India. The government of India runs a number of organizations and facilities and these recruited officers are given the responsibility to maintain them. There are two ways by which one can be the part of it;
- Indian Engineering Service by UPSC
- Grade A Engineering Officers from GATE
Indian Engineering Service
Recruited by UPSC through a competitive exam known as Engineering Service Examination/ESE. One of the oldest examinations cum service, the officers selected are entrusted with the power of operating and guiding a team of skilled professionals in maintaining those infrastructures like Indian Railways or different kind of PSUs like Maharatna or Miniratna companies of Government of India.
Selection is done via ESE Exam held twice by Union Public Service Commission for the following domains;
- Civil Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Electrical and Electronics Engineering
The whole exam is conducted in three phases;
- Prelims or Preliminary Paper
- Mains Paper
- Personal Interview
The total weightage of the examination is 1000 marks which consist of 4 papers, 2 papers each from Prelims and Main respectively followed by the Personal Interview.
Those, who qualify, get trained at various technical institutions like the Institute of Indian Railways Mechanical Engineering for the Indian Railways domain, before getting placed at the respective organizations, and thus they proudly carry the designation of IES Officer.
ESE examination is conducted once a year. For more information visit the official website of UPSC: https://www.upsc.gov.in/
GATE Examination
The second way is through the GATE Examination. GATE is conducted by IIT Delhi for Post-Graduate in engineering discipline in colleges and universities which offers Masters in engineering. But it is not necessary that all those who sit for GATE sits with the virtue of pursuing Masters. Apart from getting into universities and colleges for Masters, through GATE one can also get into various Public Sector Unions of Government of India as a Grade A Engineer.
After the exam, each PSU releases its cut-off list based on the paper’s complexity, difficulty and others for each specific domain like Mechanical, Electric, Electronic, Chemical, Civil and other concerned branches. Those who are in range with the cut off can apply. The concerned PSU will call for a Personal Interview and based on that along with the GATE Marks the final score would be calculated.
Those who get through it gets trained for some specific time by their concerned organization before being posted in any of their facilities. And from then onwards you are a Grade A Engineer of the Public Sector Union of Government of India.
Held once a year. For more details please visit the official website of the GATE Examination: http://gate.iitd.ac.in/
