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Comment by _tw9j | Hacker News Reader

> The top academic institutions in the exact sciences and engineering (old IITs, IISc) are excellent by any standard, and the students are top notch, due to the large pool from which they are selected and the brutally tough selection process.

It's a result of huge population and most institutions being trash so students are concentrated in one place. That is in no way a feature of the education system itself.

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The quality of your peers is an important feature of any educational system (if not the most important) -- by that measure alone the top institutes in India are excellent. The top researchers/professors at those institutes are also a product of the same institutes, and the same selection process, so the top institutes are generally of a high standard (in terms of workload, choice of topics, teaching quality, etc.). Although, here, admittedly the draw of industry and universities abroad has a large effect and the teachers are not the top 0.01% of their age group in the same way as student are.

I don't think that is relevant to the education system still. That is a very small share of Indian student population. 15k/37.4 million.

What do you think about reservation in those institutions?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_policy_in_Indian_I...

2. https://theprint.in/india/education/iits-take-womens-quota-t...

3. For 10% poor all catch reservation which will be implemented soon - https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/10-reservation-for...

I'm not indian, so I only see the surface of all the socio-economic issues, some of which go way back -- as far as I know, the reservation issue is highly charged and sensitive (similarly to gender/race issues in the US), and I have no strong opinion on them.

As far as I see, all energy spent railing against the reservation system is better spent improving yourself.

I only mentioned it because you said that the consistent brutal selection process is a feature.

> As far as I see, all energy spent railing against the reservation system is better spent improving yourself.

You have approximately 60% seats reserved, the remaining 40% seats are left for everyone else to compete on equal grounds.

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