Engineers will need licences
KA Badarinath
New Delhi, September 2
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All engineers — fresh graduates and even those in employment — will soon have to procure a compulsory licence to take up jobs in companies or offer professional services. An independent multi-discipline engineering professionals' body to be set up by the Union government will issue these licences.
The licensing of engineers has been proposed to regulate services and set standards. It will also enable them to procure work permits abroad to either take up assignments or execute Indian engineering contracts. In the absence of a licensing regime, engineers going abroad have to subject themselves to the licensing processes of the countries they are going to.
Compulsory licensing of all professionals is mandatory as per the WTO services agreement, to which India is a signatory. It comes into force from January 2005.
Currently, there is no system to provide licences to engineers as in other professions.
Sources say a turf war has broken out between the ministries of urban development and human resources development (HRD) to control the body that will handle licensing of engineers. The HRD Ministry says the All India Council for Technical Education should be in charge. The Commerce Ministry, on the other hand, says the Urban Development Ministry should be in control.
Sources say Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi will convene a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries to sort out the issue.
KA Badarinath
New Delhi, September 2
Advertisement
All engineers — fresh graduates and even those in employment — will soon have to procure a compulsory licence to take up jobs in companies or offer professional services. An independent multi-discipline engineering professionals' body to be set up by the Union government will issue these licences.
The licensing of engineers has been proposed to regulate services and set standards. It will also enable them to procure work permits abroad to either take up assignments or execute Indian engineering contracts. In the absence of a licensing regime, engineers going abroad have to subject themselves to the licensing processes of the countries they are going to.
Compulsory licensing of all professionals is mandatory as per the WTO services agreement, to which India is a signatory. It comes into force from January 2005.
Currently, there is no system to provide licences to engineers as in other professions.
Sources say a turf war has broken out between the ministries of urban development and human resources development (HRD) to control the body that will handle licensing of engineers. The HRD Ministry says the All India Council for Technical Education should be in charge. The Commerce Ministry, on the other hand, says the Urban Development Ministry should be in control.
Sources say Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi will convene a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries to sort out the issue.
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