Math, physics or prompt engineering? What Indian students are actually opting for

It started not with conflict, but with a subtle ripple.

On another unremarkable July evening, Telegram's notoriously reclusive founder Pavel Durov posted on X and gave some advice to students that was at once old-fashioned and forward-thinking:

"If you're a student deciding what to study, study MATH. It will teach you to relentlessly depend on your own mind. That's the essential skill you'll have to create businesses and run projects."

Several hours later, Elon Musk weighed in — not to argue, but to clarify: "Physics (with math)."

It was no duel, but a clever duet — a dialogue between two of the globe's most efficient minds, quietly reminding a generation drowning in AI-generated output that human intelligence still has requirements. Namely: numbers, patterns, and logic.

And yet, while this Twitter symposium was ongoing, Indian students had already decided. They weren't choosing math. Nor physics. Their latest craze? Prompt Engineering.

GenAI nation: India's AI learning boom

India currently tops the world in GenAI course enrollments, according to the Coursera Global Skills Report 2025, having reached over 1.3 million learners in 2024 alone. That's higher than the total number of learners in Europe. But here's the catch: India's global ranking in skill proficiency is a sobering 89. In AI-specific skills, we are at 46. Our showing in data (88) and tech (86) isn't a winning medal either.

We’re sprinting into the AI era — with shoelaces untied.

Math replaced by ‘hacks’

The paradox couldn’t be starker. While Durov extols math for its discipline, and Musk praises physics for its depth, the Indian learner appears focussed on something else entirely: Speed. Speed to certification. Speed to skill-badges. Speed to job-readiness.

And thus, Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT is India's number one most trending course (the Corsera Report shows) — a skill that's all about eliciting the correct responses from a language model without necessarily understanding the math or logic that drives it.

It's not a negation of STEM. It's a straining to shortcut the staircase and go by the elevator — in a building where the foundation is yet to be completed.

The shortcut economy

There's no denying that everything is being transformed by AI. The Coursera Job Skills Report 2025 uncovers the most rapidly growing workplace skills:

• Prompt Engineering
• AI Ethics
• Cybersecurity Risk Management
• Python for Data Analysis
• Cloud Infrastructure

It's an exhilarating list — and a frightening one, if you read between the lines.

All of these abilities rest on a foundation of literacy in logic, computation, and critical thinking. And yet, the Coursera report also indicates India lagging in all three.

Indian learners are adopting tools, but not the underlying thinking. This isn't a gap in skills — it's a mismatch in learning sequence.

Big brands, shallow depth

India's highest learner skills in 2025, according to Coursera, are:

• DevOps Tools
• Web Development
• Application Lifecycle Management
• Containerisation

All are beneficial. None demand a hard grasp of math or physics. While AI engineering and sophisticated data science — the true drivers of today's most revolutionary technologies — continue to elude most students without a solid STEM foundation.

It's like learning to fly by memorizing the in-flight safety demonstration.

The true test

This moment — a billion Indians pursuing GenAI and two tech giants nudging us back to first principles so gently — is a test.

Not of cleverness, but of patience. Not of talent, but of hunger — for deep learning, not merely quick learning.

For in 2025, mathematics remains difficult. Physics remains intricate. And genuine AI remains constructed by those who grasp both.

Indian students might be getting certificates at breakneck speeds. But the question that really matters is: Are we creating makers, or merely credentialed consumers?

Until then, Durov's subtle math lesson — and Musk's beautifully phrased nudge — could end up being unread footnotes in India's haste to download the future.