Archive
All 12 pieces
Everything published so far, newest first. All dated 4 August 2026 — this is a new publication and we have not backdated anything.
Added 12 August 2026
Rankings are marketing: the argument, made properly
The table looks like an instrument reading. It is an editorial product, and the student is not the customer it was built for.
AdmissionsThe entrance-exam industrial complex: who profits from the gate
Coaching, mocks, forms, counselling, a dropped year. Every toll on the queue has a collector — and the gate is often theatre.
ProductsDual specialisation is underrated — a defence
The sneer says dilution. The people actually enrolling hold jobs that are already two functions wide, and careers too long for one bet.
RecognitionYour picture of distance learning is twenty years old
The parcel of notes and the rented exam hall described a real period. Four things ended it. Keep only the specific suspicions.
DecisionsDegree inflation: what happens when everyone has an MBA
A common credential stops sorting candidates. It does not stop being required. From sword to ticket — and tickets have fair fares.
This siteAI search will change how students choose colleges — and sites like this one
When an assistant answers the comparison question directly, the aggregator era closes. What survives being summarised, and where we sit.
The ₹2 lakh online MBA is selling you the same degree as the ₹38,000 one
Below a certain price the differences are real. Above it, you are buying teaching and a cohort — not recognition. Almost nobody says which one they are selling you.
Recognition“UGC approved” is the most misleading phrase in Indian education marketing
It is not technically false. It is just answering a different question from the one you asked.
ProductsThe mini MBA is not an MBA, and everyone selling one knows it
A twelve-week course borrowing the name of a two-year degree. Sometimes genuinely useful. Never the thing its name implies.
DecisionsAlmost nobody needs a second master’s degree
If you already hold one, the MBA is usually solving a problem you do not have — at four times the price of the thing that would.
HistoryWhat the IIM Act of 2017 actually changed — and why it matters to you
For decades India’s most selective management institutes awarded a diploma, not a degree. That single fact should end the argument about which is better.
MoneyPlacement claims on online MBAs are almost entirely unverifiable
The number in the brochure is the highest package, from an unstated cohort, over an unstated period. Ask for the median and watch what happens.
MoneyThe real cost of an online MBA is not the fee
Two years of evenings is the same for everyone, whatever they paid. That is what makes the cheap programme such good value and the abandoned one so expensive.
RecognitionDistance education’s reputation in India is about twenty years out of date
The stigma is real and it is also largely inherited from a period that has ended. Knowing which parts still apply is the useful skill.
RecognitionThe one document nobody tells you to ask for
Almost every avoidable problem in Indian distance education traces back to a letter that was never requested at enrolment.
AdmissionsAn entrance exam has nothing to do with quality
CAT rations scarce seats. It does not measure teaching. Confusing the two is why people overpay.
This siteWhy we grade programme types and not individual colleges
There are nearly three thousand institutions on the register. We can defend a judgement about routes. We cannot defend three thousand judgements about names.
MoneyThree fee tiers, and what each one actually buys
Under ₹1 lakh, ₹1–2 lakh, above ₹2 lakh. The differences within a band are far smaller than the marketing suggests.