Alarmed over the high unemployment of engineers in India, the U R Rao Committee on technical education has recommended slashing the number of engineering seats to about 50,000 from the nearly 350,000 seats.
"We have about 350,000 students passing out of engineering institutions. It should not be more than 50,000. There is 20 per cent unemployment among engineers and more underemployment," former Space Commission chairman and committee chairman U R Rao said in Bangalore on Saturday.
He said for a GDP growth of 8 per cent, a 5 per cent growth in institutions is sustainable. "It cannot sustain a growth of 15 per cent, which is going on now. Creating more educated unemployed is dangerous."
Pointing to his recommendations of slashing the fees for engineering education by one third, Rao said the figure had been arrived at, based on the per capita income of India ($ 450 or Rs 20,000).
He said the institutions should not charge more than 30 per cent in fees.
Rao's team included former IIT director P V Indiresan, former special secretary in the HRD ministry Ashok Chandra and former secretary of rural development Kiran Agarwal.
He said there are over 924 management institutions and 1,200 engineering colleges in the country governed by the All India Council of Technical Education, of which over 75 per cent are self-financing institutions.
"Many of them lack infrastructure and do not have qualified faculty," he added.