Shashi Tharoor, MP & author
Blending personal anecdotes, global insight and sharp commentary, Congress MP and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor delivered a standout session along with THE WEEK Chief Associate Editor and Director Riyad Mathew at THE WEEK Education Conclave 2025. Speaking with his trademark mix of wit and depth, Tharoor laid bare the cracks in India’s education and employment systems, while calling for a mindset shift that could help Gen Z forge their own meaningful paths.
He reflected on how career norms have changed. “When I chose to pursue the arts, my teacher called my parents, concerned,” he laughed. “Back then, deviation from engineering, medicine or the civil services was unthinkable. But my father backed me.”
Today’s youth, Tharoor noted, are not just deviating, they are redefining. “The idea of job security has dissolved. This generation is building careers from scratch through content creation, coding, marketing and entrepreneurship. Stable jobs are no longer the goal. Flexibility, passion and purpose matter more.” And purpose, he stressed, is everything. “You must feel that what you are doing is contributing to something larger. That when your head hits the pillow at night, you have helped make the world a little better.” Tharoor, who has straddled careers in diplomacy and politics, illustrated this with contrasting examples. At the UN, it was visible in refugee camps and conflict zones. In Thiruvananthapuram, his parliamentary constituency, it has meant tasks like clearing a 40-year-old road project and lobbying persistently with ministries. “It is a different kind of patience,” he said, “but equally necessary.”
On brain drain, he struck a note of realism and hope. “Yes, our brightest still leave,” he said. “But I also met students who stay, like one from IIT Indore who rejected top global scholarships to pursue astrophysics here in India. That’s changing the narrative.” Tharoor also called for ending discriminatory hostel curfews. “We must trust our youth. Especially our young women. If we expect them to lead the country one day, why are we still treating them like children?”
Tharoor criticised exam-centric education and defended the use of English, and Hinglish, as tools of empowerment in a globalised world.