'Mugging up random trivia for 500 seats': Founder criticizes UPSC, IIT system for killing talent

India is silently bleeding talent—not due to brain drain, but due to its own harsh entrance test culture, startup founder Akhil Suhag writes in a LinkedIn post.

His criticism? A system that siphons off would-be engineers through chemistry question papers, forces programmers into textile courses, and encourages memorization at the expense of mastery.

A 13-year-old coding-fanatic wants to be world-class," Suhag explains. "What does the system do? It compels him to spend 4–5 years memorizing chemistry and physics to make it into IIT/NIT.

Even when they pass the entrance exams, Suhag writes, students are randomly allotted branches—Textile, Mining, Metallurgy—neither because of any aptitude nor even because their rank was "high enough." This, he contends, sidetracks not only individual promise but the nation's innovation pipeline in the long run.

In his blog, Suhag deconstructs the deeply held notion that elite college labels are the sole indicators of intelligence. "We test how good a computer engineer one can be based on his chemistry skills," he says, going on to point out that fever, anxiety, or a single bad day can sabotage an entire career path.

He also identifies the trickle-down effect on career changes such as MBA applications: "Your college determines your first job, your first job determines your MBA profile." In a system where where you graduated looms larger than what or how well you learned, says Suhag, the deck is stacked against even the most talented.

His attack also covers the UPSC exam, India's door to its most sought-after civil services. "Hundreds of thousands of bright youngsters throw away their prime years memorizing irrelevant trivia for 500 posts," he states. "Even the military tests psychological ability—not UPSC."

"It's not only unjust. It's dimwitted. It's destructive," concludes Suhag. "India kills its own talent before the world even gets to see it."