99% of Indian engineers give ‘gyaan' to everyone: Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia 

Sabeer Bhatia also criticised the focus on outsourcing over original software development.

Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail, shared his concerns about the state of engineering education and work culture in India in a podcast aired recently. He pointed out a lack of hands-on experience, critical thinking, and genuine innovation in the field and questioned the work ethic of most Indian engineering graduates.

"Ninety-nine percent of Indian engineering graduates move into management roles and start giving ‘gyaan' to everyone. But where's the work ethic? Where are the people building real products with their own hands?" he said on the Singh in USA podcast. Bhatia also criticised the focus on outsourcing over original software development. "We celebrate people who promote body shopping, not original software. Somehow, they become India's software gurus—despite not writing any code themselves," he said.

For India to truly become an innovative country, Bhatia emphasised the need to reassess how technical skills are valued. "Till we change our work ethic and we actually start doing work with our own hands and start respecting people who write software, who write code, who do things, or who think about these problems in a critical way… we've got to change the education system."

Moreover, comparing India with China, Bhatia highlighted the positive impact of the neighbouring country's inclusive and subsidised education system. "China educates everyone. They subsidize education, even cars. In India, education has become a luxury for the rich. And what do many of them do? Get a degree, marry someone, and focus on dowry. What kind of mindset is that?" he concluded.

Bhatia also called for an overhaul of the IIT curriculum. “Stanford teaches what's relevant now, but much of the IIT academia is stuck in the past,” he said. “I got into Apple based on my grades, but I built Hotmail by learning on the job. Innovation doesn't come from textbooks, it comes from doing.”