IIIT Hyderabad Director Questions Salary Obsession

The critique comes from IIIT Hyderabad's new director, Professor Sandeep Kumar Shukla, who argues the focus on crore-plus packages distorts student ambitions and demoralizes those who secure respectable jobs in the current market. He believes this mindset steers the brightest minds towards foreign MNCs instead of tackling India's grassroots economic challenges. This "salary obsession" coincides with a significant skills gap in the Indian engineering landscape. While India produces around 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, a 2024 report suggested only a small fraction, perhaps as low as 10%, were expected to secure jobs due to a disconnect between academic training and industry needs. For many graduates from non-premier colleges, starting salaries have remained stagnant at around ₹3-4 lakh per annum for the past decade. In contrast, demand for specialized skills in fields like AI and machine learning has led to significantly higher pay. Entry-level AI engineers can command starting packages of ₹6-12 lakh per annum, with experienced professionals earning upwards of ₹45 lakh. This creates a bifurcated talent market where a few secure exceptionally high packages, fueling the broader obsession. Institutions like the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) were established to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world applications, with a focus on IT and emerging technologies. IIIT Hyderabad, in particular, has built a reputation for its research-oriented curriculum, especially in areas like AI, computer vision, and robotics. Professor Shukla advocates for a systemic reset in technical education, urging institutions to prioritize creating "responsible citizens" over just providing skills training. He suggests academic reward systems should place greater emphasis on entrepreneurship, industry collaboration, and solving local Indian problems rather than primarily incentivizing publications in foreign journals. The conversation also touches upon a generational shift in work-life balance expectations. While high salaries are a strong motivator for many Indian engineers, there's a growing debate around work culture, with some tech leaders lamenting a reluctance to work extended hours even for high pay, while many engineers defend their preference for a healthier work-life balance.