September 15th - Engineers Day in India

Every year, September 15th is celebrated as 'Engineers Day' in India in honour of the greatest engineer and statesman the nation has ever seen, Sir M Vishweshwariah. Sir M V was born on September 15,1860. He was bestowed the highest civilian honour in India, Bharatha Rathna in 1955. He is a role model for all engineers for his brilliance, honesty and dedication to his job. Karnataka owes most of its industrial progress to this man. He was responsible for the starting of following institutions in the state

• Krishnarajasagara or KRS dam
• Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works
• Mysore Sandal Oil Factory and the Mysore soap factory
• Mysore University
• State Bank of Mysore
• Public libraries in Mysore and Bangalore
• Mysore Chamber of Commerce
• Kannada Sahitya Parishad
• Sri Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute, Bangalore

Apart from these his other achievements include

• Implementation an extremely intricate system of irrigation in the Deccan area.
• Design of a system of automatic weir water floodgates, which was first installed in 1903, at the Khadakvasla reservoir near Pune.
• Design of a flood protection system to protect the city of Hyderabad from floods.
• Developing a system to protect Visakhapatnam port from sea erosion.

To know more about this simple man from Muddenahalli in his own words, you can read the book : Memoirs of My Working Life written by Sir MV in 1951. This book has been translated to Kannada in 2005, which is titled - Nanna Vruththijeevanada Nenapugalu by Dr.Gajanana Sharma. Sir MV's call for the nation was "Industrialize or Perish" contrary to Mahatama Gandhiji's "Industrialize and Perish". Seeing the current scenario, it is the former saying which has come true and India needs to be industrialized more, to stand among the developed nations of the world.