The final challenge is the subtlest. The government can merely provide an enabling environment. In some ways the sad story of Indian education is that academics and professional abdicated their responsibilities and were singularly unimaginative. Even private innovation has at best filled a niche; it does not yet have a generalised aspiration to excellence and distinction. Will the change in government’s outlook be sufficient to infuse new energy in all of us? Will academics respond to the challenge of a new paradigm of innovation and citizenship? Any would-be revolutionary will also have to confront this large and subtle question.

The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi

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