And if you're one of those who is itching to tell me that it's not a tradeoff, that having the bomb doesn't mean we have to ignore education, please save those precious fingertips. Save your theories. In the real India, we are indeed ignoring education, along with innumerable other pressing headaches. Me, I worry very personally about that. I have a child now, all of four months old this week.
Today there are millions of Indian kids like that.
Tired from agonising like this through his speech, I leaned over and asked the DAE man what must be done to improve the situation. First, make exams less important, or get rid of them altogether. That will puncture the entire coaching racket. Second, raise teachers' salaries. Third, reform the monitoring system.