Jul 27, 2026 16:50 pm IST

'A Breaking Point': An Open Letter To Nandan Nilekani On How To Fix India's Exams

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor offers a radical blueprint to the man leading the Centre's exam reforms task force.

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist

Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist

I am one of those who is delighted that you have been asked to lead a committee to propose reforms in our nation's examination system. Though I am conscious that another such committee was named after a series of paper leaks in 2024, led by Prof K. Radhakrishnan, and made 101 recommendations, most of which have not been implemented, I would like to believe that whatever you come up with is more likely to retain the government's attention. Since there is no indication that your committee plans to consult Parliament or its members, as representatives of the people, for their views, I am offering you a few ideas here as a well-meaning citizen.

You know that this is a moment of profound angst and unprecedented disillusionment among India's youth. Across the country, millions of young men and women, who have spent the prime of their lives buried under mountains of test preparation, sacrificing sleep, health, and family resources, only to be betrayed by the failings of the system, took to the streets. Their anger was not merely a reaction to isolated paper leaks or administrative blunders; it was the inevitable breaking point of a system that has become structurally obsolete, morally exhausted, and intellectually deadening.

Go Beyond Stopgap Solutions

India's youth do not lack ambition, intellect, or resilience. What they lack is an educational ecosystem that matches their promise. We have created a high-stakes, hyper-competitive bottleneck where a candidate's entire youth is judged by a single, high-stress, high-volume multiple-choice exam administered over a few gruelling hours. When that fragile mechanism breaks down, due to administrative malfeasance, corruption, or institutional rot, it shatters the faith of an entire generation in the promise of Indian meritocracy. If we are to transform this crisis into an opportunity, we cannot settle for incremental fixes or temporary committee reports. We need a fundamental reimagining of how we assess talent, foster higher education, and prepare our........

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