'A Rat Race To Extinction', Zoho CEO Slams Competitive Exam Pressure In India

New Delhi, March 17 (IANS): Zoho founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu on Sunday called the competitive exam pressure India “a rat race to extinction”.

Sridhar shared his comments, in a post on X, on an advertisement by the leading educational Institute FIITJEE, which criticised a student for scoring low marks in the competitive exam. The advertisement claimed that the girl scored less because she left FIITJEE to join another institute.

“India has to get out of this ultra-competitive exam pressure on children and young adults,” Sridhar said.

“Intense pressure at a young age all too often destroys talent and creates zombified adults. It is the rat race to extinction.

“Intense competition is for companies serving a market and for sports, not for children in education,” said the CEO of the global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company.

The advertisement was initially flagged by Katyayani Sanjay Bhatia, Deputy Commissioner, IRS.

“We talk about parents putting pressure on kids for IIT JEE, but what about this manner of advertising where you shame a student for not performing? And claiming superiority by claiming that she would have performed had she been in your institute? Shameful @fiitjee,” she wrote in the post.

Interestingly, the Institute has reportedly withheld salaries of its employees for the last two months, calling them to work harder.

“Coming to the office without clear goals will not take you anywhere. Salary is not a matter of right, it needs to be earned by doing what is expected of you to do,” Dinesh Kumar Goel, founder and managing director of FIITJEE, reportedly wrote in one of the emails.