Kaushik Basu: India brims with talent and promise but there seems no escape from politics and pollution

Last month, I travelled across India— listening, observing and taking stock. While the journey was energizing and often inspiring, it left me with an open question: Where is the world’s most populous country headed? My trip began in West Bengal’s Purulia district, a relatively poor region marked by beautiful landscapes of lakes and rolling hills, some crowned with small ancient temples. Purulia’s population is a mosaic of cultures and tribal communities.

Among them are Santhals, an Adivasi community whose ancestors arrived in the subcontinent thousands of years ago, long before the Indo-Aryan migrations around 1600 BCE reshaped its social order. In the midst of this stark terrain stands something remarkable: the Filix School. Founded in 2014 by two women, it has grown into a state-of-the-art English-language institution, drawing students from villages near and far.

I was there to teach during the school’s week-long Discover the World of Economics course, an annual programme now in its second year that invites upper-secondary students from across India. A select group joins local village students for five days of lectures and field trips. This year’s speakers included Mahan Mj, a monk and renowned mathematician; Prabhat Patnaik, a celebrated Marxist economist from Delhi; and economists from leading universities and the World Bank.

Watching young Hindus, Muslims and Christians from the surrounding villages sit alongside students from Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune—listening intently to lectures on economics, history and math, and occasionally challenging the speakers—was deeply heartening. By cultivating such intellectual curiosity, India could unlock its full potential. My optimism deepened in Bangalore, where I attended the