Can a tech titan ace a test to fix India’s crisis-hit education system?

Nandan Nilekani’s efforts to reform the nation’s education sector face employability and AI challenges amid anger over exam scandals

Analysts say the real test for a reformer best known for building digital systems at population scale is whether he can help push deeper changes in India’s education sector and boost youth employability.

Nilekani is the architect of a national digital identity platform that serves as the backbone of India’s digital public infrastructure, providing access to an array of services even for remote communities.

Yet delivering quality education on a massive scale remains a challenge despite platforms like Diksha (a digital platform for school education) and Swayam (an online learning portal for higher education), partly because of gaps in device ownership, language diversity and economic inequalities that leave many children dependent on underfunded schools.