On why giving back is a civic muscle — and why India forgot to build it. By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari There’s a version of civic life where the government handles everything — roads, schools, hospitals, justice — and individuals just…
By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari There’s a number that India’s AI cheerleaders love to quote. India is the second-largest AI consumer market in the world. Weekly ChatGPT users are second only to the United States. Number one globally in AI skill…
By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari I used to read on long train journeys. The landscape outside would change slowly. With nothing but time and a book, I could finish three hundred pages between stations—completely lost in a world not my own.…
By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari Most people have quietly lived through this moment. You worked hard—or at least believed you did. You prepared, showed up, and waited. And then it didn’t work out. The result was poor. The job didn’t come…
Where the State Stands, Why It Lags, and What Must Change By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari One number sums up UP’s education challenge: 67.7 per cent literacy in the 2011 Census. The national average was 73 per cent. That six-point gap…
By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari Every Indian concerned about the country’s future should consider one number: the National Statistical Office reports India’s 2023–24 literacy rate is 80.9%. At first, this suggests progress. But it means that one in five Indians aged…
On the language we were taught to be ashamed of Indian parents often take pride when their child speaks English without an accent. It’s not just speaking but performing—rattling off sentences like a news anchor, rolling R’s, hiding any regional…
Why blind hiring matters, and why India can’t ignore it any longer Researchers at the University of Chicago sent thousands of identical CVs, changing only the name at the top. CVs with “white-sounding” names received 50% more callbacks than those…
Every few years, India announces a milestone. Literacy up. Enrollment up. New schools built, new schemes launched, new numbers released at press conferences. And every few years, the same quiet truth sits underneath all of it: millions of Indians are…
In 2026, the educational landscape for Indian Muslims faces a critical juncture. Although national discussions frequently highlight the “demographic dividend,” a substantial segment of this potential is undermined by a persistent and systemic issue: the high dropout rate among Muslim students.