“If you’re in a country where it’s hard to start a business, it’s going to bite a lot. The US is super easy… In India it’s still complicated… If they don’t fix that ease of doing business,  it’s even more consequential now than it was before AI.”

Gita Gopinath, former IMF deputy chief (Financial Times Weekend, August 29-30)

“The longer-term investment must begin in schools. Food, nutrition and lifestyle literacy should become part of the everday school routine, not another subject children memorise for an examination. “

Pawan Agarwal, fomer CEO, FSSAI, on how to make India eat healthier (The Times of India, August 31)

“I want to say this to the whole education world, that we have to get out of books, get out of syllabus, and get into the lives of children.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with teachers on Teachers Day (September 5)

“The student in India today lives between the violence of the cracking earth and flooding homes. The Cockroach Janta Party protests, led by Gen-Z, may have stunned the ageing political establishment, but clearly we have light-years to go before the sanctity of either life or learning can be assured for our students — particularly for those from vulnerable sections of society.”

Saikat Majumdar, professor of English at Ashoka University (Indian Express, September 8)

“Ideally, government should not dictate universities what to teach, how to teach and  what not to teach. Nor should universities deny this freedom to departments and faculties… Universities are communities of highly educated faculty and intelligent young people; they require dialogue, trust and openness — not excessive control and surveillance.”

Faizan Mustafa, Vice Chancellor, Chanakya National Law University, Patna in an essay titled ‘Reclaiming universities through trust, student voice” (The Hindu, September 9)