Why India Has Too Few Entrepreneurs - and Too Many Exam-Takers

Government Official: Dr. Malpani, I’ll be blunt - I’m worried. India talks a lot about becoming the next global economic powerhouse, but very few young people actually want to build anything. Everyone wants a safe corporate job. No one wants to take risks or start something new.

Dr. Malpani: You’ve just described the biggest tragedy of our education system - we’ve spent decades manufacturing obedient employees, not independent thinkers. The reason Indians hesitate to explore the unknown isn’t genetic or cultural - it’s educational.

Our schools and coaching classes train students to chase marks, not meaning. When you grow up being rewarded for memorizing someone else’s answers, you lose the confidence to find your own.

Official: That’s an interesting point. But surely our focus on exams was meant to encourage discipline and competition? Isn’t that what makes our students so hardworking?

Dr. Malpani: Hardworking, yes - but directionless. We’ve built an army of disciplined followers who don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing.

From the moment a child enters school, every ounce of curiosity is drilled out of them. They’re told what to study, when to study, and how to study - all for the sake of marks. There’s no time to wonder, “Why does this matter?” or “Can I do it differently?”

This is why, when they finally graduate, they look for someone else to tell them what to do next - a manager, a boss, a company. We’ve turned them into perfect employees - but terrible innovators.

Official: So you’re saying our obsession with exams kills entrepreneurship?

Dr. Malpani: Exactly. Entrepreneurs thrive on uncertainty. They ask questions no one else is asking. They experiment, fail, and learn. But our education system punishes failure and rewards conformity.

Think about it - for 15 years, students are locked in classrooms, listening passively to lectures. They spend their evenings in coaching classes, cramming formulas and memorizing shortcuts to crack exams. When do they ever get the chance to think for themselves?

By the time they finish, their imagination is atrophied. They’ve learned how to take orders, not how to take initiative.

Official: You’re painting a grim picture, Doctor. But what can we realistically do? Exams and marks are the backbone of our system.

Dr. Malpani: True, but they don’t have to be the backbone of learning. The real revolution will come when we stop equating education with exams.

We need to give students agency - the freedom to learn on their own terms, at their own pace. Instead of forcing them to sit through hours of rote lectures, we must provide them with tools that make learning personal, interactive, and curiosity-driven.

That’s exactly why we’re building AI tutors like app.jee.eklavya.io - to help students become self-learners.

Official: But can an AI tutor really replace a teacher? And how does it help with entrepreneurship?

Dr. Malpani: AI tutors aren’t meant to replace teachers - they replace the factory model of teaching. They don’t lecture to a hundred students at once; they talk to one student individually.

Here’s how they help create future entrepreneurs:

• Personalization: The AI tutor adapts to each student’s strengths and weaknesses. It encourages exploration, not rote repetition.
• Confidence: Students learn to figure things out on their own, without spoon-feeding. That builds problem-solving skills - the heart of entrepreneurship.
• Curiosity: With instant feedback and no fear of judgment, students rediscover the joy of asking questions.
• Freedom: Learning happens anytime, anywhere. Students no longer waste hours commuting to coaching factories or listening to recycled lectures.

When a child realizes they can learn anything by themselves, they also realize they can create anything by themselves. That’s the entrepreneurial spark we’ve been missing.

Official: But our culture values stability. Parents push children toward “safe” careers - engineering, medicine, corporate jobs. Isn’t that a huge obstacle?

Dr. Malpani: It is, but that mindset comes from fear - fear of uncertainty. And that fear is born in classrooms.

When schools and coaching centers teach children that there’s only one “right answer,” they start to believe that making mistakes is fatal. So they spend their lives chasing security instead of chasing opportunity.

If, instead, we let them learn through exploration - fail, try again, and succeed - we’ll raise a generation that isn’t afraid to take risks.

Entrepreneurship isn’t about starting companies. It’s about having the courage to think differently.

Official: So freeing students from coaching classes is more than an education reform - it’s an economic reform.

Dr. Malpani: Absolutely! Coaching classes are intellectual prisons. They chain students to old ideas, outdated syllabi, and repetitive drills. If we want our economy to grow, we need to unlock those minds.

Once students start learning independently - guided by AI tutors, not human taskmasters - they’ll rediscover the thrill of solving problems. That’s when they’ll stop looking for corporate BS jobs and start building real businesses.

Official: I see your point, Doctor. You’re saying the future of Indian entrepreneurship starts not in startup incubators - but in classrooms.

Dr. Malpani: Exactly. Or rather, outside classrooms. When we free young Indians from the tyranny of exams and coaching classes, we free their imagination too.

Give them autonomy, give them tools, and then get out of their way. They’ll surprise us.

Official: You’ve given me a lot to think about, Dr. Malpani. Maybe the next generation of entrepreneurs won’t come from B-schools - but from self-learners who took charge of their own education.

Dr. Malpani: That’s the dream - and it’s within reach. Let’s replace rote learning with real learning, and create a nation of creators, not just job-seekers.

Final Thought
India doesn’t lack talent - it lacks trust in its learners. The day we stop measuring students by their marks and start measuring them by their curiosity, we’ll see an explosion of innovation.

Help us improve India’s first free AI Tutor for JEE students at app.jee.eklavya.io! We want students to become independent, self-directed lifelong learners.