Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering: Make in Education worth the Development Date:   Sunday , January 31, 2016 As urbanization take its rapid toll relocating people from rural to urban areas, thereby increasing the work force in prominent cities of the country; the development quotient of the rural areas depletes even more. However, India’s 63 percent of the GDP comes from only the 31 percent of the urbanized population clearly stating that urbanization cannot be the single raft of the boat leading to development which ignores rural sustenance. Thus a need arises to create resources for a balanced form of development in the country and adding their own share of resource creation is Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering for the rural population in Yavatmal, Maharashtra. Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering is a premiere engineering institute of the region started in 1983 under the trust Janata Sikshan Prasarak Mandal, mainly to serve the rural population residing in and around the region. Yavatmal once regarded as the safest place in the world under the Bahmani Sultanate in 14th century, has witnessed the sweet and sour history of the country’s independence and urbanization has taken its own pace. Even after the advent of urbanization, the rural area accounts more in this region and needs much attention for development, education being the foremost choice to bring in the same. The institute offer courses on UG, PG and PhD in various subjects such as civil, mechanical, electronics and telecommunication and many branches of engineering and are recognized by the Institute of Engineers India (IEI). The Department of Electronics and Telecommunications has been exceptionally successful in producing more number of professionals every year and providing consultancy in design & development of electronic circuit, manufacturing of PCBs and design & installation of electrical wiring & equipments. Unlike any other institute situated in a rural area, Babasaheb boasts of highly qualified and competent group of faculty members with expertise in their field of interest. Currently, Babasaheb has 59 regular faculties out of 183 faculty members infusing knowledge to 2200 students. With a yearly intake of 660 students, the institute equally upgrades the curriculum according to the present industrial needs with a view to offer the best of every opportunity an institute could provide. As a part of the opportunities, the faculty members regularly undergo training programs, workshops, seminars and other faculty development programs. An important aspect of the institute is that all the students and staff are encouraged for research works. In addition to PhD programs in mechanical, civil, electronics and communication, computer engineering, applied physics and chemistry; there are a number of research papers published in leading reputed national and international journals. The institute has also taken up some sponsored research project based on paramedical, UGC sponsored research on signal processing , data scheduling in computer engineering, concrete technology and so on proving the not-so need of urbanization where one can create so much in rural India. On being asked about how the institute creates a diverse learning methodology, Dr. H B Nanvala, Principal, Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering mentions about the various MOUs and collaborations the institute has obtained to provide exposure to the students. Phulsing Naik Mahavidyalaya, Symbian Academy, School of Information Technology-Regional CISCO Networking Academy and Watchwitz Technologies, The CEO Experts Systems, Progressive Systems are some of the academic and industrial collaboration respectively. The main objective of such collaborations is to conduct training programs and attending events to meet industrial and academic experts for securing more in-depth knowledge of industrial functions. These in return provide scope for better job opportunity. Though students of Babasaheb Naik are placed in leading organizations such as Cognizant, Syntel, Infosys; yet the institute has joined a placement association with institutes of nearby regions wherein 80 other institutes come in pool campuses and offer job opportunities to students. With a highest package of Rs 4.5 lakhs and average of Rs 3.5 lakhs, students get selected by L&T and more in nearby small and medium scale industries. “We conduct SOC (subject out of curriculum) classes, communication skills under our placement cell apart from theory, practical and practice sessions incorporated in the learning system,” adds Dr Nanvala. To provide education is to beget the same, the alumni of the 23 year old institute are grouped into associations in Delhi, Mumbai, USA. Annual meets incorporating industrial experiences of the alumni who are placed in leading organizations or are themselves entrepreneurs helps the current batches to emphasize on the key skills required by the industry. The institute claims of never compromising approach in discipline and ethics providing the best in technical knowledge and in near future looks forward to strengthen the newly initiated innovation club and the entrepreneurship cell enabling more start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures. A country where talks of Make in India, Skill India, Digital India has brought some new hope to obtain a shift from third world to first world country, urbanization is taking a key role in that process and thus the making of efficient human resources are matter of concern. Babasaheb boasts of transforming a generation of the population in their region into able professionals. And the absolute change is that now every household of this region has an engineer trained and educated by them, many of which wants to become entrepreneurs and serve their hometown. Dr. H B Nanvala, Principal Having graduated in B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Dr Nanvala completed his doctoral degree and has been associated with Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering since 1991. His important key skills include teaching, lecturing and curriculum development. Presently, he is the principal of the institute and has brought essential changes for the same.