Every year, India celebrates National Engineer's Day on September 15 to recognize and honor the achievements of the great engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Apart from India, the grand Visvesvaraya service is celebrated in Sri Lanka and Tanzania on September 15 as Engineer's Day.

Born on September 15, 1861 in Muddenahalli village of Karnataka, Visvesvaraya completed his education in his hometown and studied Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Madras University. He changed careers and completed a degree in Civil Engineering from the College of Science, Pune.

Popularly known as Sir MV, he carried out many complex projects and produced impressive infrastructure results during his engineering career. He obtained permission and installed an irrigation system and water valve in the Khadakvasla Reservoir near Pune to raise the level of food supply and safety to the highest level known as the "block system" in 1903.

Irrigation systems were later installed at Tigra Dam in Gwalior and Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mysuru, the latter creating one of the largest dams in Asia at the time.

Apart from his contributions to the field of engineering, he is also called "a pioneer in economic planning in India", according to the Institution of Engineers India (IEI).

His books, "Reconstructing India" and "Planned Economy of India" were published in 1920 and 1934 respectively. It was created in 1915 by the Diwan of Mysore and received the Bharat Ratna in 1955.

In 2018, Google released a Doodle on his birthday to celebrate his genius whose efforts led Tata Steel engineers to design a battleship that saw service in World War II and could withstand bullets. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya died in 1962.