'99% Indian engineers just give gyaan...': Sabeer Bhatia on why India can’t build like China

Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail, has questioned India’s engineering education and work culture, pointing to a lack of hands-on skills and critical thinking. In a podcast, he said that most engineering graduates end up in management roles rather than building real products—raising concerns about the country’s ability to foster true innovation.

“99% of Indian who graduate as engineers join management and start giving gyaan to everybody. Where is the work ethic, where they really work with their hands and really go and build some stuff?” he asked.

He pointed out the irony of India’s reverence for business figures who promote outsourcing rather than original software creation. “Here, people value anybody who does work with their hands... and yet he's the software guru of India, he's the business guru of dealing in, you know, who does body shopping—not software.”

Bhatia said India must overhaul its attitude toward technical skills. “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.”

He drew a contrast with China, where he said education is more inclusive. “China educates everybody. It’s like subsidised education, subsidised cars.” In India, he added, “education today is the prerogative of rich. And what do rich do? They want to just get education and go and marry somebody and get dowry. What kind of thinking is this?”

While large-scale physical infrastructure may be unrealistic, he believes digital tools can help. “We can teach critical thinking through an app, through technology... Let me help solve a problem. Let me help each other solve your problem. Solve somebody else's problems. Happiness comes in solving other people's problems.”

Bhatia had earlier said, “Stanford teaches what’s happening now, much of IIT academia is stuck in the past,” adding that “free knowledge from internet is the real teacher.” He noted, “I got into Apple on my grades, but built Hotmail by learning on the job. Innovation comes from doing, not just studying.”

His remarks echo a similar warning last year by India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, who called for a curriculum overhaul in the IITs.