Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya also known as Sir MV born in a modest family in Muddenahalli village in the erstwhile Mysore State was a great Indian engineer, scholar, statesman, and the 19th Diwan of Mysore, who served from 1912 to 1918.
Sir MV received India’s highest honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the British Indian Empire (KCIE) by King George V for his contributions to the public good.
It is to honor his achievements and contribution towards the country that India celebrates Engineer’s Day on his birthday, 15 September.
International Day of Democracy 2019: Theme, significance and celebration of the day
1. After topping the Poona College of Engineering he was directly recruited by Government of Bombay and appointed as Assistant Engineer in Public Works Department.
2. He created automatic sluice gates which were later reused for Tigra Dam (in Madhya Pradesh) and KRS Dam(in Karnataka) as well. For this patent design, he was supposed to get a recurring income in the form of royalty but he refused it so that the government could use this money for more developmental projects.
3. Between 1895 and 1905, he worked in different parts of India:
4. He was offered Dewanship (Prime Minister position) of Mysore in 1908 and given full responsibility for all the development projects. Under his Dewanship, Mysore saw major transformation in the realms of Agriculture, Irrigation, Industrialization, Education, Banking and Commerce.
5. He was conferred with India’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna in 1955 for his contribution towards engineering.