I'm totally lost as to what I should take after 12th

It is true that job opportunities are becoming tougher and tougher day by day due to the cut throat competition as more and more qualified people are joining the beeline for the jobs. Still there are opportunities for the meritorious students who have a feeling and determination to succeed.

The competition is everywhere and whichever branch you select you will have to toil hard to make a career in that line. What I will suggest is just find out your liking out of these branches of the engineering discipline and concentrate in that only. You might be aware that a person can do wonders in the line of his liking. Why I am telling this is that if a student is doing well and is in the topmost scorers during his course then his chances of getting placement in campus recruitment is very high and that is the great opportunity when the top companies are coming to you to hire you from your campus.

Still, I will be giving you a comparative idea of these streams. Mechanical engineer is everywhere. He is needed in many industries and right from a small industrial unit to luxury ships and aircrafts, he is required. Many PSUs, Railways and private companies recruit mechanical engineers on a regular basis. At the same time it is a very common but popular branch and the aspirants will also be more there for any job advertised in the industry.

As far as the Electronics and Communication branch is considered, it is also equally popular and there are good scopes in the industry. Seeing the phenomenal growth in the field of communication from mobile to satellite imagery there is definitely a good potential there.

On the other hand the Design Engineering line is a bit different as the nature of job is specific and the person will have to be involved in the projects for launching of new designs and their marketing strategies. Design engineering is a relatively challenging job and is mostly a group activity rather than the individual oriented work. Companies are hiring design engineers for their new and ambitious design projects.

Today jobs are not limited to the academic background of the person so do not carry the myth in your mind that after mechanical engineering you will be opening and repairing the mechanical machines. It is not like that. In many organisations where heavy electrical and mechanical machineries are routinely purchased, they recruit mechanical or electrical engineers to handle that stores purchase procedure as they can procure the right technical things for the organisation. So basically they function like a stores purchase officer. So be prepared for such side shifts in the jobs.

Another thing is the business and commercial world today is very dynamic and depending upon the need of the consumer the companies are changing their thrust areas and the job opportunities also change with that. So predicting the job situation is not an easy thing. The only thing a student can do is to work hard in his area and try to be in the merit so that there are good chances of getting selected in the first go itself.

As a student having good performance in class 12, you must be excited to go for higher studies like BSc or BTech. I do not understand the reason for your hesitation and indecisiveness in that. I think engineering career will be the best for you and depending upon your interest you can select the branch. Being a girl student the computer related branch like IT is also a good choice as it will in general have a white collar desk job and one can avoid the hassles of mechanical or electrical work places. Though now a days females are equally taking up the challenges of harsh and tough working environment. When they can fly a plane what is the problem in a mechanical shop floor.

So compose yourself, find your favourite subject and leap forward for the best academic career. Job hunting will follow subsequently.

Any subject is good provided you are on the top. For hardworking and intelligent students any branch is good. There are jobs for all subjects but we should be thorough in our subjects. We should have good communication skills and the specialised skills required.
Coming to mechanical subject, it is treated as an ever green subject and there are many chances for these engineers in manufacturing sector as well as in service sector. But field work and shop floor work will be more for these mechanical engineers. Physical work will be more and organisations prefer gents more than ladies as their engineers. Mechanical designing , computer aided designing and computer aided manufacturing are the two years where there are chances for jobs.
Coming to Electronics and communication engineering subject, it is a very good subject and many good and top rank students prefer this specialisation over CSC also. Electronics is a very good area where lot of developments are taking place and there are many companies trying to recruit best students from this branch. Both boys and girls will have equal chances and there are some jobs where the recruiters prefer girls over boys. Electronic product designing is a very good subject and will have good job potential. There are good jobs for product designing and these days salaries for these people are better than in IT sector.

It will be a wise option to go for electronics and communication engineering and then trying to get good results by putting hard work you will have a good future. All the best to you.