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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Merit Mafia

The NEET scandal, which has shaken the futures of nearly 23 lakh students across India, now leads unmistakably to Maharashtra. The alleged ‘kingpin’ of the paper leak racket, according to the CBI, is a chemistry professor from Nashik who ran a private coaching centre. He was a man entrusted with access to examination material through his association with the National Testing Agency and now stands accused of converting that privilege into a criminal enterprise. The symbolism is uncomfortable....

Merit Mafia

The NEET scandal, which has shaken the futures of nearly 23 lakh students across India, now leads unmistakably to Maharashtra. The alleged ‘kingpin’ of the paper leak racket, according to the CBI, is a chemistry professor from Nashik who ran a private coaching centre. He was a man entrusted with access to examination material through his association with the National Testing Agency and now stands accused of converting that privilege into a criminal enterprise. The symbolism is uncomfortable. Over the years, India has grown grimly accustomed to national-level examination scandals emerging from the badlands of governance in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. Paper leaks, proxy candidates and exam mafias seemed to belong to a familiar geography of institutional collapse. Maharashtra, by contrast, liked to imagine itself above such decay by projecting itself as a modern, educationally enlightened state whose cities drew students from across the country. That illusion now lies shattered. According to investigators, the accused professor allegedly dictated questions and answers during private coaching sessions held in Pune days before the NEET examination. Students copied them down in notebooks. Many later matched the actual paper verbatim. Another accused allegedly charged lakhs while promising leaked papers and medical admissions. For years now, Maharashtra’s educational ecosystem has been drifting towards something predatory. Cities like Pune, once celebrated as intellectual centres, increasingly resemble giant marketplaces of academic anxiety where coaching institutes reign like parallel governments. ‘International schools’ demand fees that verge on extortion. Professional education has become a punishing financial contest in which parents mortgage savings, futures and sanity in pursuit of admissions. Maharashtra has always been a state with a rich progressive educational legacy. But today, Pune’s old sobriquet of ‘Oxford of the East’ carries an unintended irony. The city still produces engineers, doctors and software professionals in enormous numbers. But it also exemplifies the industrialisation of aspiration. Education has become transactional in the crudest sense. Once that transformation occurs, the leap from aggressive commercialisation to outright criminality should come as no surprise. In this light, the NEET leak appears less like a shocking rupture than the logical culmination of a wider moral decline. When educational institutions begin operating like extraction businesses, middlemen and racketeers inevitably emerge to monetise desperation further. Millions of students still cling to the belief that competitive examinations, however unforgiving, offer at least a narrow pathway of fairness. A scandal like NEET corrodes that belief. It seems to suggest honest students that hard work alone may not suffice when others can simply purchase advantage. But Maharashtra should worry about something else too: a drastic reputational decline. A state once synonymous with educational seriousness increasingly risks association with coaching cartels, extortionate fees and examination rackets. When the alleged kingpin of the country’s most notorious entrance-exam leak emerges not from the expected hinterlands of dysfunction but from Maharashtra, it suggests that the rot has travelled far beyond than what anybody imagined.

The Growth Deadlock

There comes a stage in every business where growth no longer responds to effort alone. The founder is working harder than ever, the systems are in place, the numbers are healthy, yet expansion feels stubbornly out of reach. Sales plateau, conversations repeat themselves, and despite competence and credibility, momentum slows. It is not failure, but it is not progress either. This is the Catch-22 many business owners quietly find themselves in — wanting to grow, knowing they should grow, but uncertain about what exactly is holding them back.


I recently met a founder who described this dilemma with striking honesty. He was articulate, attentive, respected in his circle, and financially successful. He listened more than he spoke, showed up consistently at networking events, and ran a stable organisation. Yet he felt invisible in rooms where decisions were being made. His website, visiting card, and online presence told three different stories. His personal identity as a leader had not kept pace with the scale of his business. He wasn’t struggling — but he wasn’t expanding either.


This is where many business owners misdiagnose the problem as a sales issue, a market issue, or a talent issue. In reality, it is often a brand issue — not of the company, but of the individual leading it.


At higher levels of business, growth is no longer driven only by products, pricing, or performance. It is driven by perception, positioning, and presence. People do business with those they trust, remember, and relate to. When a founder’s personal brand is fragmented or understated, opportunities quietly pass by. Conversations don’t convert. Introductions don’t compound. Visibility doesn’t translate into influence.


The problem is not always obvious because it does not feel urgent. Revenue is coming in. Teams are functioning. But the size of the problem reveals itself over time. Expansion stalls. Strategic partnerships don’t materialise. The founder remains respected but not sought after. Known, but not preferred.


This is where personal branding plays a decisive role — not as self-promotion, but as strategic alignment. A strong personal brand ensures that what a founder believes about themselves is consistent with what the world experiences. It bridges the gap between competence and command. Between being present and being powerful.


When a founder’s brand is unclear, the promise they unconsciously make to the market is diluted. When it is clear, the promise becomes unmistakable. People understand what you stand for, how you think, and why engaging with you is valuable. Your voice carries weight. Your presence creates recall. Your business benefits without you having to sell harder.


Timing matters here. The moment to address personal branding is not when growth has completely stalled, but when it begins to feel effortful. When conversations stop leading to outcomes. When you realise that despite doing everything “right,” expansion feels heavier than it should.


For founders managing businesses of scale, personal branding is not about visibility alone. It is about coherence. About ensuring that your online presence, offline behaviour, communication style, and leadership identity speak the same language. When they do, growth becomes more organic. Opportunities come through people, not pitches. Trust accelerates decisions. And scale begins to feel natural again.


Many business owners are not lacking ambition or capability. They are caught in a deadlock between where their business is and where their personal brand still operates. Resolving that gap often unlocks growth in ways no new strategy can.


If this reflection feels familiar — if you sense that something intangible is holding your expansion back — it may be worth examining not your business model, but your personal one. How you are perceived. What your presence promises. And whether your brand is speaking the growth you seek.


If you would like to explore this quietly and strategically, you may book a free discovery conversation here: https://sprect.com/pro/divyaaadvaani


Not as a pitch, but as a conversation — to understand what your personal brand is currently communicating, and what it may need to say next.


(The writer is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

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