Scientifically speaking: India’s brightest should rethink the safe coding path

The ground beneath coding jobs is shifting. Bots now answer queries, generate basic code, guide call centre agents, monitor quality without human oversight

At a recent panel at Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Madras, directors from five of India’s top engineering institutions offered a prescription: it’s time to move beyond the coding craze. They urged students to pursue sustainability, semiconductors, and core engineering in their careers. “Put the country first,” said one. Others described the herd mentality drawing top rankers into computer science.

AI is going to crush entry-level white-collar hiring over the next 24 to 36 months, says a report. (Representative photo)

Their frustration is real. They see firsthand the hollowing out of foundational disciplines and the skewed incentives. And they’re not wrong to sound the alarm, though it is not a new one. Leaders have decried both the brain drain and the stampede towards computer science for decades.

I understand the tension between aspiration, opportunity, and return. India’s future is worth betting on but appeals to nation-building alone may not be enough to redirect our best and brightest. Career choices are deeply personal, shaped by financial pressure and rewards, family expectations, and perceived stability. Consider the stark reality: a fresh computer science graduate at a tech company can earn three times or more than a PhD-trained research engineer or scientist. Until we address this salary gap, patriotic appeals will fall short.

Many trained students go abroad to study and work. They are globally mobile and sought after by institutions in many countries. If the situation becomes untenable for many, we need to actively seize the opportunity to bring them back. But we cannot rely on their return just because things didn’t work out abroad.

There are two signals that make me hopeful this is India’s moment. They are driven by two forces already in motion.

The first is that the ground beneath coding jobs is shifting. A recent Washington Post report showed how AI is rapidly transforming India’s 280-billion-dollar outsourcing sector. Bots now answer queries, generate basic code, guide call centre agents in real time, and monitor quality without human oversight. “AI is going to crush entry-level white-collar hiring over the next 24 to 36 months,” an industry veteran said in the report.

The first wave will hit graduates in entry-level, repetitive roles, hardly the type that directors of elite institutions are worried about. The number of people needed to do those same roles may shrink. But automation and AI move up the value chain. Without transformation, even jobs that seem secure today may not be tomorrow.

So perhaps science and core engineering are not just idealistic alternatives. They may be smart long-term bets for graduating students. But for this to be true, there needs to be a scaffolding to support them.

If we want more students to move toward core science and engineering, we need to make those paths attractive and viable. In a recent interview with The Hindu, Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan said that India’s research and development (R&D) investment as a fraction of gross domestic product (GDP) is far below countries like South Korea, and that it will not be competitive without a substantial increase.

Currently, India spends roughly 0.7 % of GDP on R&D, compared to South Korea’s 5 percent and China’s 2.7 %. We should target 2 percent by 2030, a realistic benchmark that China achieved during its scientific transformation in the 2000s.

We need more state-of-the-art research facilities with international-grade equipment, high-speed computing clusters accessible to researchers nationwide, and modernised libraries with global database access. Think of what the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) accomplished with focused investment. Similar dedication to materials science, biotechnology, and climate research will yield comparable results.

The second reason for optimism is that smart people thrive when facing difficult problems. When I look at India’s population scale, its vulnerability to climate change, and its public health challenges, the stakes are clear. We need bright minds working on antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis, metabolic disease, and obesity as diets and lifestyles shift. We need better solutions around air and water pollution, glacial melt, and long-term water security. These are scientific problems. Tackling them requires not just talent, but the incentives and infrastructure to retain it.

Here’s where we can learn from international models. China’s Thousand Talents Programme offered competitive salaries, research funding, and housing to attract scientists back from abroad. Germany’s Max Planck Society provides researchers with multi-year funding stability and minimal bureaucracy.

The path forward requires immediate, coordinated action and private industry must step up too by committing to R&D spending targets and job opportunities.

Of course, no field will be untouched by AI, and that includes core engineering and science. It is already reshaping how scientists model molecules, run simulations, and analyse data. But work that demands physical experimentation, long-range reasoning, and creativity grounded in the real world does not appear to be replaceable, at least not yet. And talent in these areas is in short supply everywhere.

If we make these careers viable through stable funding, modern infrastructure, and institutions that reward curiosity and persistence, students will make those choices themselves. They will not need to be told. They will walk toward the future because they see it in front of them.

Anirban Mahapatra is a scientist and author, most recently of the popular science book, When The Drugs Don’t Work: The Hidden Pandemic That Could End Medicine. The views expressed are personal.