Dr. Akshita Bahuguna

The Day I Realized Fear Was the Hidden Curriculum in Education

Fear in education

Years ago, during my PhD, I got stuck with an academic problem that refused to go away. The problem itself was bad enough. What hurt more was the feeling that nobody wanted to listen. But there was one teacher who gave me hope. She was articulate, confident, and famously outspoken. The kind of person who […]

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The ₹500 Coffee Lesson- pending habits, career growth, and customer psychology, explained over one cup

I do this thing where I carry my laptop to a cafe, open a very serious-looking spreadsheet, and then spend most of the time listening to other people’s conversations. As a career coach, I tell myself this is “research.” My sister calls it eavesdropping. We are both right. Last month, two young people sat at

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Representation Is Not Presence. Empowerment Is Not Performance.

Representation Is Not Presence. Empowerment Is Not Performance.

We’ve become comfortable with the optics of empowerment. A woman at the table.A woman in the photo.A woman on the panel. It looks right. It signals progress. But look a little closer and a tougher question appears:Who is actually deciding? Because real empowerment is not about being seen. It’s about being heard, and more importantly,

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The Marshmallow Moment India Has Been Waiting For

Karnataka bans social media

Karnataka bans social media for under-16s. Is this the act of delayed gratification that rescues a generation — or just another policy that sounds brave but blinks at enforcement? “76% of Karnataka’s 14-16-year-olds spend more time on social media than they do studying. We don’t have a content problem. We have a childhood problem.” In

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Misadventure at the AI Summit: Galgotias’ Honest Mistake and the Discipline National Platforms Demand

Misadventure at the AI Summit: Galgotias' Honest Mistake and the Discipline National Platforms Demand

Galgotias University’s abrupt exit from the India AI Impact Summit 2026 is more than just a headline.It is a moment of reflection for anyone building in education, innovation, or nation-led ecosystems. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:Ambition without precision can backfire—especially on national platforms. The Story Behind the Incident Galgotias has not built small. With an

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When I Dreamt Schools Had Forgotten to Be Human

Schools Had Forgotten to Be Human

Reverse thinking and reverse calculation — that’s what entrepreneurship has taught me. I often begin from the outcome and walk backwards. Perhaps that’s why dreams feel so familiar to me. They are unfinished thoughts, completing themselves without permission. A few weeks ago, I was facilitating a CBP session on life skills with in-service teachers. The

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Mid-Career Burnout: When the Grind Feels Like Starting Over

Mid Career

“Why do I wake up with this sinking dread, forcing myself to that office every single day? This relocation didn’t just move me—it shattered everything I’d built over more than a decade: my cozy home, my easy routine, my peace. Now it’s back to square one—squeezed on crowded buses, dragging my exhausted body through the

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Silos of Care, Networks of Neglect: Why Our Children Feel So Alone

Silos of Care, Networks of Neglect: Why Our Children Feel So Alone

To the grieving parents of Shourya Patil and sisters Nishika (16), Prachi (14), Pakhi (12): Your love was real, yet it slipped through exhausted fingers. To the teachers at St. Columba’s and the Ghaziabad family: You nurture in silos—lessons planned, homes provided—but in the vital interplay, signals crossed, and our children paid. NCRB data screams

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Gen Z’s IQ Shock: A Story We Can’t Scroll Past

Gen Z’s IQ Shock: A Story We Can’t Scroll Past

For more than a century, humanity had a quiet superpower. Each generation got sharper than the one before it. Better food. Better schools. Better medicine. IQ scores climbed year after year, so reliably that psychologists gave it a name: the Flynn Effect. Then something strange happened. Around the time smartphones slipped into backpacks and bedrooms,

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