Economist and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advisor, Sanjeev Sanyal has started a debate in society by expressing that people should take the UPSC exam only and only if they are genuinely interested in administrative roles. He believes that India needs more entrepreneurs aiming to become billionaires. Mr. Sanyal follows this statement by giving examples of Elon Musk and Mukesh Ambani.
Why does Sanjeev Sanyal feel UPSC is a “waste of time” or “poverty of aspiration”?
Sanjeev appeared as a guest on entrepreneur Siddhartha Ahluwalia’s podcast Neon Show on YouTube. On the show, he claimed that the popularity of UPSC exams reflects limited aspirations. Mr. Sanyal further adds that although being a UPSC aspirant is better than being a goon, even that is a poverty of aspiration.
He seemed to question why these aspirants are not dreaming of being successful billionaires like Elon Musk or Mukesh Ambani and fail to understand why so many young kids are ‘wasting their time’ trying to crack an exam.
Sanjeev cited Bihar and West Bengal to support his argument
Mr. Sanyal says that in an environment where pseudo-intellectuals and union leaders are role models (West Bengal), or small-time local goon politicians (Bihar), the only way out is to basically become a civil servant.
He believes that even this is a poverty of aspiration. These states have followed the same path which ended up with them having similar leaders.
Youngsters wasting their best years
Sanjeev advises the Youth that instead of wasting their ‘best years’, they should focus their energy into other endeavors. Although Sanjeev highlights the importance of bureaucracy in a country, he says that in a country where lakhs of people spend years trying to crack an exam where only a few 1000 people are selected makes no sense. He further claims that if this energy was being put into some other field, India would be winning more Olympic gold medals, there’d be better movies, better doctors, scientists, and so on.
He did however state that a change is happening across India. Aspirations across the country have been changing and there are a lot of youngsters pursuing the entrepreneurship field. The no. of startups in India has grown by a lot in the past few years. More and more Innovative and sustainable ideas can be seen across the country.
Read More: Cannazo India’s Founder, Sukkrit Goel Advice for the New Entrepreneurs
