• Sualeh Asif: The 26-year-old from Karachi co-founded Cursor, an AI-powered coding platform. The company achieved a staggering valuation, making Asif one of the youngest self-made billionaires globally. [1, 2, 3]
• Zia Chishti: A serial entrepreneur who holds the rare distinction of founding multiple unicorns. He is best known for creating Align Technology (the maker of Invisalign) and co-founding the enterprise AI company Afiniti. [1, 2, 3]
• Mo Shaikh: A Pakistani-American who co-founded Aptos, a major Layer-1 blockchain platform that reached a $4.5+ billion valuation. [1]
• Suneera Madhani: A first-generation Pakistani-American who founded Stax Payments, a leading fintech software and payments unicorn. [1]
• Ilyas Khan: A British-Pakistani entrepreneur who founded Cambridge Quantum, which later merged with Honeywell to become Quantinuum, a multi-billion dollar quantum computing giant. [1]

These issues may become even more important as artificial intelligence assumes a larger role in research, education, health care, industry, and other sectors. If AI increasingly performs routine analytical and information-processing tasks, the value of human creativity, scientific judgment, originality, and the ability to ask important questions may become even more important than technical proficiency alone. Educational systems will need to prepare students not only to use new technologies but also to contribute in ways that technology cannot easily replace.

I should acknowledge that these observations are based largely on personal experience and may not fully represent the diversity of educational institutions and student experiences across India. Having lived outside India for nearly four decades, my perspective comes primarily from interactions with students, trainees, junior faculty, and colleagues with whom I have worked over the years. Through these interactions, I have observed significant changes in educational culture and student expectations, not all of which I view positively.

One trend that concerns me is what I perceive to be a decline in intellectual engagement among some students, including at the doctoral level. Many students remain highly motivated, hardworking, and exceptionally talented. Nevertheless, I increasingly encounter students who view advanced education primarily as a pathway to migration. There is nothing wrong with seeking opportunities abroad, and many have gone on to make important contributions internationally. However, when geographic mobility becomes the principal objective, scholarship, intellectual growth, and the pursuit of excellence can become secondary considerations.

These observations may not be representative of India as a whole, and I readily acknowledge that limitation. Nonetheless, they raise questions that deserve discussion. India has demonstrated a remarkable ability to broaden educational opportunities. The next challenge may be ensuring that educational quality, research capacity, and career opportunities develop in a manner consistent with the nation’s educational ambitions.

India has made extraordinary progress over the past several decades. The question now is not whether the country can produce large numbers of graduates. It clearly can. The more important question is whether India can build an environment in which those graduates can realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to the nation’s future.