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

India is quietly bleeding talent—not through brain drain, but through its own brutal entrance test obsession, says startup founder Akhil Suhag in a LinkedIn post.

His critique? A system that filters future engineers through chemistry papers, shoves coders into textile degrees, and rewards memorization over mastery.

“A 13-year-old obsessed with coding wants to be the best in the world,” Suhag writes. “What does the system do? It forces him to waste 4–5 years memorizing chemistry and physics just to get into IIT/NIT.”

Even if they clear the entrance exams, Suhag says students are often assigned random branches—Textile, Mining, Metallurgy—not because of aptitude, but because their rank wasn't “high enough.” This, he argues, derails not only individual potential but the country’s long-term innovation pipeline.

In his post, Suhag dismantles the deeply entrenched belief that elite college tags are the only markers of intelligence. “We test how good a computer engineer one can be based on his chemistry skills,” he writes, adding that fever, anxiety, or one bad day can derail an entire career trajectory.

He also points out the ripple effect on career pivots like MBA admissions: “Your college determines your first job, your first job determines your MBA profile.” In a system where where you studied overshadows what or how well you learned, Suhag says the odds are stacked against even the brightest minds.

His criticism extends to the UPSC exam, India’s gateway to its most prestigious civil services. “Hundreds of thousands of brilliant young people waste their prime years mugging up random trivia for 500 seats,” he writes. “Even the army does psychological testing—not UPSC.”

“It’s not just unfair. It’s stupid. It’s destructive,” Suhag concludes. “India kills its own talent before the world even gets to see it.”