Knowledge and human resources: Educational policies, systems, and institutions in a changing India

New opportunities appear every day in India. Which are real and will lead to equitable and sustainable development when taken, and which are a mirage? Today, many do not see India's obvious and enormous problems and drawbacks as obstacles to change. These optimists exude confidence in mechanisms whose implementation will make India a knowledge superpower in 20 years. The pessimists, seeing barely half a dozen experts in each major area of science, see a system without content or form, where the ballast of the past keeps the ship of change in port, and chaotic spinning is mistaken for progress. Both optimists and pessimists talk constantly about China as an example to follow—or not—depending on the day of the week. Is India's knowledge economy actually headed somewhere? Or is it impossible to meaningfully use the words policies, systems, institutions, and India in the same sentence?