Although in recent years the rate of growth of India's population has slowed down which means that it is ageing, the proportion of older people – those above the age of 25 – has increased. Notwithstanding that, the youth still account for a sizeable proportion of the population. India's young population – 367 million between ages 15 and 29 – is the largest Generation Z cohort in the world. If the youth are restive as they are at this time, it means serious political problem for the country. The youth, not seeing a good economic future for themselves, have taken to the streets of major cities and are protesting. Young adults, especially those who have attended colleges and earned degrees, are frustrated. Nearly 40 per cent are unemployed, according to the State of Working India 2026 report published by the Azim Premji University.

The anger of the protesting students intensified after the July 20 show of force by the police, who were called to the student assembly points by the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The youth had come out to protest the way entrance examinations were being held. Under the Indian education system, entrance into institutions of higher learning is by passing of entrance examinations take by hundreds of thousands of young people.

While the Modi government was preoccupied dealing with the problems created for the domestic economy by the war in Iran, it emerged that the questions to a national medical college examination had been leaked and sold to the students who had the resources to buy them. Not passing the entrance examination meant unemployment for those anxious to enter the well-paid workforce. At........

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