The resources that we have now is way better than what we had in our time. The interest amongst students have been more or less the same.

>that given an average Indian programmer, they are more likely to be someone who got educated in a substandard setting among unmotivated peers

This too has not changed much from our time to now. The changes I have noticed in students is the rise of memorizing leetcode type problems due to the plentiful jobs now which need this skill for interviewing.