I just saw a video report about how India celebrates New Year's. There's a dramatic mood shift in the middle of the piece, but the journalist does what few journalists dare to do - she throws the richest and the poorest up next to each other. By necessity or laziness, reporters usually tend to focus on one or the other, but they rarely go after both.
On related note, the "socialite" she quotes is correct. There is a TON of young money in Indian cities nowadays. It's like Manhattan during the heydey of the financial boom. I knew kids who earned more money in one year than their parents earned in ten years of working. The same thing is true in India now, but the split is even more intense. An MBA graduate from IIM-Ahmedabad, for example, could easily earn more money in a year than her parents earned in twenty.
That's why Indian colleges are famous for being hyper-competitive and students are famously academically focused. When exams roll around, kids spend months barricaded in their bedrooms, studying, all to make it into a top college. For middle class Indians, going to a top-notch college and getting a good placement is the only way to secure an upperclass future for their kids. It can change their financial situation overnight. (I'm not joking, actually...) The demand for education has skyrocketed. The government is in the process of doubling the number of top engineering colleges in the nation, and vocational and technical schools are expected to increase even faster.
At the same time, a lot of people have begun to question the Indian education system, particularly its focus on rote memorization and obedience to authority. At a private meeting, the Indian Human Resources minister recently said that we should "let learning be a lot of fun." The blockbuster movie "3 Idiots" celebrates the importance of practical knowledge.
In science and tech circles, a lot of people seem to think the "Indian system" doesn't do enough to encourage out-of-the-box innovation, the sort of happy accident-type thinking that leads to real inventions. They say this is because students aren't encouraged to think creatively and problem solve. I definitely think the next ten years will see a major shift in the types of textbooks and educational methods that teachers use. (And yes, there is a vast number of Indians who still don't have access to any school. That's changing, but not quickly enough)
On related note, the "socialite" she quotes is correct. There is a TON of young money in Indian cities nowadays. It's like Manhattan during the heydey of the financial boom. I knew kids who earned more money in one year than their parents earned in ten years of working. The same thing is true in India now, but the split is even more intense. An MBA graduate from IIM-Ahmedabad, for example, could easily earn more money in a year than her parents earned in twenty.
That's why Indian colleges are famous for being hyper-competitive and students are famously academically focused. When exams roll around, kids spend months barricaded in their bedrooms, studying, all to make it into a top college. For middle class Indians, going to a top-notch college and getting a good placement is the only way to secure an upperclass future for their kids. It can change their financial situation overnight. (I'm not joking, actually...) The demand for education has skyrocketed. The government is in the process of doubling the number of top engineering colleges in the nation, and vocational and technical schools are expected to increase even faster.
At the same time, a lot of people have begun to question the Indian education system, particularly its focus on rote memorization and obedience to authority. At a private meeting, the Indian Human Resources minister recently said that we should "let learning be a lot of fun." The blockbuster movie "3 Idiots" celebrates the importance of practical knowledge.
In science and tech circles, a lot of people seem to think the "Indian system" doesn't do enough to encourage out-of-the-box innovation, the sort of happy accident-type thinking that leads to real inventions. They say this is because students aren't encouraged to think creatively and problem solve. I definitely think the next ten years will see a major shift in the types of textbooks and educational methods that teachers use. (And yes, there is a vast number of Indians who still don't have access to any school. That's changing, but not quickly enough)
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