India’s Engineering Illusion: What the Galgotia AI Stunt Really Exposed

The recent AI summit controversy at Galgotias — where a Chinese-made Unitree Go2 robot dog was presented at the 2026 India AI Impact Summit as an in-house “breakthrough” named Orion– didn’t embarrass Indian engineering.

It exposed it.

And anyone who studied in a mid-tier private engineering college in India knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Before I moved to Germany for my master’s degree, I completed my bachelor’s in a college very similar to Galgotias. Same structure. Same culture. Same quiet compromises. I’m not speaking as an outsider throwing stones. I was inside the system.

And the truth is uncomfortable.

India produces lakhs of engineering graduates every year. But how many engineers?

That’s a different question.

The Project You Didn’t Build

In my third year, we had to do a minor project. In the final year, a major one.

Sounds rigorous.

Now let me tell you how it actually worked.

Students would go to shops in Janakpuri, Delhi. These weren’t hidden operations. Everyone knew about them. Seniors gave you directions. The professors knew too.

You walk in. You choose a project:

Hardware ready
Software ready
Printed report ready
Code explained just enough for viva

You pay. You replace your name. You rehearse basic answers. Done.

The professor knows you bought it.

You know he knows.

He knows you know he knows.

And yet the theatre continues. He would ask some questions just for the sake of asking and then all set.

This is not one college. This is an ecosystem.

And then we act shocked when an “AI demo” turns out to be smoke and mirrors.

The Bright Students Who Memorized Everything

Who was considered a “topper” in my batch? Or rather the elite students in the batch?

The ones who never questioned.
The ones who said “Yes sir, yes ma’am.”
The ones who memorized entire problem sets.

I remember one exam where the professor slightly changed a variable in a question. One of the brightest students raised a complaint: “This question is wrong.”

Why?

Because it didn’t match the practice questions.

The professor yielded.

He gave full marks to anyone who reproduced the memorized solution — even though it didn’t logically apply to the modified problem.

That was excellence.

That was merit.

That was the system rewarding obedience over understanding.

And we wonder why innovation feels rare.

The Faculty Problem No One Talks About

Here’s another uncomfortable truth.

A majority of lecturers in many regional engineering colleges are not there because they love teaching or cutting-edge research. They are there because industry did not absorb them and this was the only job left.

Low pay.
Low research exposure.
Minimal industry collaboration.

Now compare that to Germany.

When I pursued my master’s in Germany, I was stunned to learn that professors there often earn salaries comparable to industry professionals. Many consult for companies. Many lead funded research labs. Many actively publish.

Academia is not a fallback.

It is elite.

When your teachers are disconnected from real-world engineering, what exactly are students expected to learn? Outdated slides? Theoretical derivations without application?

If the people shaping engineers are themselves not building anything, what culture do you think emerges?

Confidence — The Silent Casualty

Here’s something no one discusses.

This system destroys confidence.

When projects are bought.
When memorization is rewarded.
When questioning is discouraged.
When mediocrity is normalized.

You begin to believe you are not capable of building anything real.

It took me a master’s degree in Germany and actual industry work in Europe to rebuild my confidence — to realize I could write production-level code. That engineering is not about reproducing textbook answers but solving open-ended problems.

The difference wasn’t intelligence.

It was environment.

The Reservation Question — Let’s Not Pretend

Now let’s address what many are afraid to say.

In my college, a significant portion of students were there primarily because reservation policies enabled entry despite weak academic preparation.

Some of them worked hard and rose. Absolutely.

But many had no interest in engineering whatsoever. Engineering wasn’t a choice — it was a social mobility ladder.

And here’s the uncomfortable point:

When higher education becomes primarily a social upliftment mechanism rather than a competence filter, standards inevitably dilute.

This is not about attacking individuals. It’s about policy design.

In countries like Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, or the US — access to higher education is not a social uplift program, but is ruthless academic filtering. If you cannot perform, you do not proceed.

In India, we often conflate access with automatic progression.

Add to that:

Private colleges lowering entrance thresholds
Management quotas
Donation seats
Political interference

The result?

An engineering degree that signals endurance, not excellence.

If engineering becomes a default option — not a chosen craft — quality collapses.

Engineering as a Social Ritual

In India, engineering is not just education.

It is:

Family prestige
Marriage currency
Safe career myth
Social mobility token

Millions enter B.Tech not because they want to build systems, but because it’s the path of least resistance after Class 12.

Contrast that with Europe.

Students choose engineering knowing:

It will be mathematically brutal.
It will demand original thinking.
It will filter aggressively.

In India, filtering often ends after entrance exams (that too with good colleges only). Once inside, survival becomes easier than it should be.

Galgotias Is a Symptom

What happened at the AI summit is embarrassing.

But it is not shocking.

It is the natural outcome of:

A performative project culture
Faculty disconnected from industry
Students trained to replicate, not create
Policy frameworks prioritizing numbers over standards
Engineering treated as mass enrollment exercise

Galgotias didn’t invent this problem.

It accidentally showcased it.

The Real Reform Conversation

If we actually care about fixing this, the conversation must include:

Faculty salary reform to attract industry talent.
Strict plagiarism and purchased-project penalties.
Reduced engineering seat inflation.
Stronger academic filtering beyond first-year entry.
Honest evaluation of how reservation policies impact technical standards — and whether support should focus more on foundational education rather than diluted professional thresholds.

You can’t build global engineering excellence on compromised foundations.

The Hard Truth

India does not lack intelligence.

India lacks institutional courage.

Courage to fail students who shouldn’t proceed.
Courage to shut down substandard colleges.
Courage to stop pretending that degree inflation equals development.
Courage to separate social justice from technical competence without abandoning either.

Until then, AI summits will keep happening.

And we will keep acting surprised.

Thanks for reading!!