Kuldeep Ambekar

For two decades, India’s obsession with engineering and medicine has created not merely competition, but a generation burdened by fear, exhaustion, and borrowed dreams. AI generated image Roughly two decades ago, a new dream took hold across Maharashtra. Two words began to dominate the aspirations of countless households: “doctor” and “engineer.” Success came to be defined so narrowly that all other careers appeared secondary, even meaningless. From farmers in villages to middle-class...

Renaming hostels may soothe stigma, but it does little to fix the conditions that define students’ lives AI generated image Pune: Recently, the Social Justice and Special Assistance Department decided to excise the term ‘Backward Class’ from the names of its government hostels and rechristen them after revered historical figures. While the move to replace them with names that evoke dignity and achievement is, on the face of it, a step towards psychological emancipation, it is also a reminder...

Maharashtra’s bureaucratic drift is turning a flagship foreign-study scheme into a machine for wasting talent. For a government that talks grandly of global exposure and human capital, the foreign merit scholarship scheme run by the Higher and Technical Education Department has acquired an unfortunate reputation. It raises hopes early, dashes them late and teaches students a brutal lesson in administrative indifference. The scheme’s purpose is admirable. It is meant to help meritorious...