ISRO chief V Narayanan has warned that India cannot afford to produce “mere bookworms”, backing value-based education and social–emotional learning over a marks-only culture. Linking his views with NEP 2020, OECD and WEF data, we argue that traits like self-control, respect, empathy and resilience shape employability, well-being and citizenship far more deeply than exam scores alone for today’s students.
