WHERE ARE INDIA'S BOARD TOPPERS?

 

20 years on, where are the Board toppers? 

The Indian Express tracked down 86 men and women who stood first in India, between 1996 and 2015, in their Class 10 and 12 exams.

Each is a story of talent, effort & achievement. But taken together, the arcs of their lives & careers tell the story of a generation coming of age in a liberalised India. Of how some aspirations endure & some don’t; how some divides crumbled & some stay intractable.

One’s a cancer physician in New York; another is a PhD fellow at MIT; one is a Harvard professor; one a hedge fund manager in Singapore — and as many as 11 are working for Google.

✈️ Over half the toppers (CBSE & CISCE) live overseas today, USA 🇺🇸 being the destination of choice. 

Three of every four who are abroad are either working or pursuing higher education in USA. Others are in the UK, Australia, Singapore, China, Canada, Bangladesh and UAE.

A quarter of those working in the US are in Silicon Valley. 

Like Rishabh Singh (34), who topped the CBSE Class 12 exam in 2004 and is now Research Scientist with Google X. 

@Google is home to 11 toppers, the most in any one company! 

🔬 Most are in science and technology with IITs their most favoured undergraduate pit-stop

👧 And if you are a girl topper, you are much less likely to move overseas than if you were a boy.

🎓Higher education is the primary reason why toppers left the country. Of those living abroad, over 70% left India to pursue either their undergraduate or postgraduate studies — only a dozen of the 86 went to take up a job.

Janaki Sheth, who left for the US for a PhD in Physics, says Six to seven years ago, scientific research was not very well-funded in India. So while I had some invaluable experiences at IIT, it was not sufficient for a PhD. 

Of the 86 toppers, only one belonged to the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. None was Dalit or tribal. Of the 76 toppers who responded to this newspaper’s questionnaire, just five were first-generation college-goers.

Mohammad Ismat, 29, from Imphal, Manipur, topped the Class 12 CBSE exam in 2012. Ismat, who says his teacher paid his Board examination fee since his family couldn’t afford it, went on to study BSc (Honours) Physics at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College. 

Of the 74 toppers who shared their family income with IE, only one came from the lowest earning quartile. The student, who didn’t want to be identified, said his parents earned less than Rs 1 lakh per annum when he topped the Class 12 Board exam.

More than half the toppers currently study or live overseas but among them, there is a significant gender gap. Just 40% (14 out of 35) of women toppers are studying/working abroad but for men, that ratio is 63%.

Swati Prusty, 27, who topped the Class 12 CBSE exam in 2010, says she was never too keen on settling abroad. Hence studying at a foreign university didn’t carry much appeal. 

👩‍🎓While there is little difference in the academic goals of these achievers at the postgraduate level there is a gap at the higher research level.

After an MSc (Integrated) Economics from IIT-Kanpur, Sohini Chaprala was considering a PhD or another Master’s degree in public policy/administration but, she says, life had other plans.

“I got married and all priorities were re-configured..."

Seven of 10 male toppers have studied engineering as their undergraduate degree. Among women toppers, that number was only a third, with another quarter going for BCom or management.

Less than one-fifth of the women toppers currently working are employed in the STEM sector; among employed men toppers, close to two-fifths are in STEM jobs.

Of the 45 male toppers who responded to this newspaper’s questionnaire, none spoke of being affected by anticipated or actual need to balance academics/career and family.