As India’s technology landscape is evolving rapidly, engineers are playing a major role in shaping the country’s digital future. From artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure to sustainable computing and resilient systems, we mark 15 Sep as Engineering Day, which is increasingly about building technology that is not only innovative but efficient, with responsible, scalable execution.
On National Engineers’ Day 2026, the industry leaders share how the engineering profession is changing and what it will take to build a more sustainable and resilient digital future for India.
Engineering for a More Sustainable Digital Future
Simon Rizkalla, Vice President, Customer Advocacy APJ, New Relic, highlights the growing importance of sustainability in engineering. As technology infrastructure expands, engineers are increasingly expected to consider efficiency and environmental impact alongside performance.
He points to the growing importance of optimising infrastructure and computing resources, particularly as AI adoption accelerates. AI workloads can involve significantly more compute than necessary when processes are not properly monitored. Greater visibility into how AI systems use models and resources can help engineering teams identify inefficiencies and redesign workflows.
The message is increasingly relevant as AI becomes embedded in software development and enterprise operations: responsible engineering must also consider how efficiently technology is built and operated.
AI Is Changing the Engineer’s Role
For Abhilash Shetty, Vice President and Head of Engineering & AI, Visionet, engineering remains fundamentally rooted in curiosity, critical thinking and problem-solving, even as AI changes how systems are developed.
With AI making knowledge and expertise more accessible, engineers are moving beyond simply finding answers. Their role is increasingly about asking better questions, challenging established approaches and translating insights into meaningful outcomes.
As AI and emerging technologies reshape systems and business processes, the ability to adapt and think critically will remain central to engineering.
Building Digital Systems That Scale Responsibly
Praveer Kochhar, Co-Founder and CPO, KOGO AI, connects sustainable engineering with the need to simplify increasingly complex technology environments.
As enterprises adopt multiple AI systems, engineering teams face growing complexity across infrastructure, governance, monitoring and integration. Reducing unnecessary duplication and building simpler technology architectures can help organisations use computing resources more efficiently while reducing operational complexity.
He also emphasises the importance of ownership and control as organisations increasingly adopt AI-driven workflows. Sustainable digitalisation, in this view, is not simply about deploying more technology. It is about creating systems that organisations can control, govern and evolve over time.
Innovation, Resilience and the Future of Engineering
AS Prasad, Vice President – Product Management, Vertiv India, believes engineers are the architects of progress, turning bold ideas into practical solutions that shape our everyday lives. Their curiosity, problem-solving mindset, and commitment to innovation continue to drive the evolution of technology and digital infrastructure. As India moves toward an increasingly AI-driven future, engineers will play a vital role in building systems that are efficient, sustainable, and resilient. On Engineers’ Day, we celebrate their contribution to technological progress and the role they play in shaping a stronger, more connected India.
The Infrastructure Talent Gap
The changing engineering landscape is also creating a talent challenge.
Milind Shah, Managing Director, Randstad Digital, India, points to a growing competition between engineering disciplines. AI and product roles are attracting significant attention, while the less visible work of building platforms, systems architecture, and digital infrastructure risks receiving less attention.
India’s digital ambitions, however, depend on both application-layer innovation and the underlying infrastructure that supports it. Ensuring that engineers see long-term opportunities in infrastructure and systems engineering will therefore be critical to sustaining India’s digital growth.
Engineering the Next Phase of India’s Digital Growth
The common thread across these perspectives is that the engineer’s role is expanding. Engineers are no longer focused solely on building functional systems. They are increasingly responsible for efficiency, sustainability, resilience, governance, and long-term business value.
As India moves deeper into the AI era, the challenge will be to ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of efficiency or resilience. The engineers shaping this next phase will need to think beyond individual technologies and design systems that can scale sustainably.
This Engineers’ Day, the focus is not just on what engineers build, but on how thoughtfully, efficiently, and responsibly they build it.
