“Today, the shambolic performance of an electoral authority that has deleted a global record 130 million voters from the rolls, has reduced India’s reputation as the world’s largest and most respected democracy to a farce.”

Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, on the Election Commission’s SIR exercise (The Indian Express, October 2)

“It’s a classic case of a labour market failing to connect supply with demand: young people are looking for jobs while industry is looking for talent, yet the two fail to meet because the skills employers need are not the ones the education system is providing.”

Sonal Khetarpal in a cover story titled ‘Education vs. Jobs: the Big Mismatch’ (India Today, October 5)

“What academic institutions — and it starts before universities — need to focus on is to better prepare people for a lifelong journey. Everything that universities need to do shouldn’t stop with graduation. In some ways, it should start with graduation. Academic institutions have to reflect that the world is changing faster than they are changing. Programs remain stale…”

Johannes Heinlein, President & CEO, Project Management Institute on why India’s universities need to move faster to prepare students for the AI economy (The Economic Times, October 6)

“National laboratories need to be liberated from insularity. The bulk of our national labs are currently poorly accessible to researchers, students and companies outside their walls.

Vijayaghavan, former principal adviser to the government of India and Archish Mittal, vice president Iron Pillar in an essay titled ‘Indian research can reshape the world’ (The Hindu, October 7)

“How did a diplomat with Oxford English become a mass brand in a country that loves three-word slogans? That’s Brand Tharoor.”

Sandeep Goyal, Chairman, Rediffusion, in an essay titled ‘The making of brand Shashi Tharoor’ (Business Standard, October 10)