‘A chain is only as strong as its weakest link’ — Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, 1786

The idea of Corona gap year 2020

While, by now, we all are well aware of the advantage of #socialdistancing in combating corona virus, we now need to take measures to limit the devastating impact of the virus on the world economy in general and more specifically on those who are financially susceptible. We also must think of steps to help students to have a smoother transition and those waiting to enter the job market. I propose that we…

Recently, Pierre Azoulay, an MIT Sloan professor and the researchers from Kellogg School of Management and the US Census Bureau came together to analyse ‘the ages of founders of growth-oriented start-ups’. They looked at ‘1,000 fastest growing new ventures’ of the last ten years and arrived at a startling conclusion. As most of us might tend to believe, the average age of the founders of these companies did not turn out to be 20 or even 30 but 45. In fact, even more surprising conclusion was arrived at when the researchers went on to find the mean age of an…

Let’s just address the elephant in the room. Why at all sugar-coat what we want to say about the ones who pick non-STEM subjects in the final years of schooling? Of course, we all know what Indian society thinks when it compares the ones studying science, technology, engineering or mathematics to those studying arts, humanities and social sciences.

Observe this conversation between two parents:

Parent 1 — ‘So what subjects your child has taken?’

Parent 2 — ‘He has taken literature, history, geography and psychology.’ Parent 2 (without waiting for a reaction) — ‘But you do know that he is…