#342 Andrew Thangaraj: The $5,000 IIT Degree: Can India Fix Its Broken Education System?

What if the most competitive exam in the world is also the most destructive?

In this episode of Eye on AI, Craig Smith sits down with Professor Andrew Thangaraj, faculty at the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras, to explore how one of India's most prestigious institutions is quietly dismantling the system it helped build.

Andrew lays out the honest reality of higher education in India. Two and a half crore kids reach college age every year. Only 90 lakh make it to college. And the IITs, the most coveted institutions in the country, take just 17,000. The competition to reach those seats has become so extreme that students are losing their childhoods, their development is stunted, and even those who make it through are often unemployable because the system rewards knowledge over skills.

Andrew walks through exactly how IIT Madras is responding. A full, IIT-branded undergraduate degree in data science delivered entirely online for under five lakhs, roughly $5,000. No JEE required. No elite school background needed. Just a 10th standard foundation and the willingness to do the work. The program flips the traditional model, putting hands-on skills and real projects before theory, building in multiple exit points for students who need to start earning before they finish, and scaling to over 40,000 active students through a hybrid of faculty-recorded lectures, full-time instructors, and a remarkably active student community.

We also get into the bigger picture. Why India's AI talent gap is as much a culture problem as a numbers problem. Whether India can leapfrog into AI leadership the way China did after rebuilding its research ecosystem. Where AI tools are already being tested inside the program and where they still fall short. And how AI deployed in Indian languages, in agriculture, and in the courts could drive the kind of societal change that no corporate productivity tool ever will. 

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(00:00) Introduction and Andrew Thangaraj's Background

(01:29) India's Higher Education Bottleneck

(03:45) Designing a $5,000 IIT Degree 

(09:27) Why Graduates Still Lack Skills

(12:31) When the Program Started and How It Got Approved

(13:56) Program Structure, Diplomas and Multiple Exit Points

(17:52) Who the Program Reaches and Surprising Student Stories

(24:57) Older Students, Working Professionals and International Enrollment

(29:55) Can India Leapfrog in AI

(34:03) Data Centers, Power and Infrastructure Gaps 

(40:57) How Involved Are the IITs in India's AI Mission

(46:00) AI for Languages, Farms and Courts