India has changed dramatically since this question was first raised decades ago. Universities have multiplied, technology has transformed workplaces and the economy has grown at a much faster pace. Yet one old problem refuses to disappear: the anxious job seeker waiting outside an office, refreshing a recruitment portal or preparing for yet another competitive examination.

What crawls in the dark corners of India's education system? Dreams? Ambition? Hope? Or something uglier like cockroaches...

India is witnessing a huge boom in PhDs. Every year, around 30,000 to 35,000 people earn doctoral degrees. The number of research scholars in universities has reached nearly 350,000. On paper, this looks like an impressive achievement. But the reality on the ground tells a very different story.

Every year, the same dream grows in millions of Indian homes: a son or daughter becomes a doctor. Every year, that dream must pass through a difficult exam. And every year, the mountain of hopes collides with the wall of numbers.

A single punch in a school corridor can shatter a childhood in seconds. We like to think of schools as sanctuaries; places where discipline and dreams are nurtured. But on April 25, at Delhi Public School in Agra’s Shastripuram, violence didn’t just knock on the door; it walked in and struck with calculated, brutal force.

In 1993, the city of Agra marked a remarkable anniversary: 150 years since a small group of nuns arrived to build what would become the oldest Catholic convent building in Asia. But to understand what made that milestone so extraordinary, you have to go back to where it all began: not in India, but in revolutionary France.