Ashoka University introduced 500 new scholarships for undergraduate intake in 2026. These scholarships, while crucial for bridging academic access across regions, also shape the kinds of minds most likely to enter Ashoka’s classrooms from the 2027 batch onward. At first glance, the increase in scholarships appears reasonable but there is more to what these scholarships look like. Previously, about 50% of Ashoka  students received need-based financial aid (2021-2024) , making

In December 2025, Ashoka University designated  a dining space for its outsourced workers in the basement of an academic block. The space has four tables for a workforce of over five hundred people. Workers report  that it is cold, poorly lit, rarely cleaned, and largely unused. Many continue to eat where they are posted instead of entering this ostensibly inclusive space. This dining facility did not emerge spontaneously. It followed months of meetings, inspections, and writ

In Memory of Andre Beteille I did not know Andre Beteille in the ordinary way one knows a teacher. I never took walks with him, shared coffee on a porch, or spoke to him across a desk, as many who are writing memoirs now have. I came to Ashoka University after his years here had passed. By then, he existed for me only as an inheritance of a name I had encountered in texts, and then found on a board in the administrative block at Ashoka. But I think that distance is fitting fo

Ashoka University is an intergenerational quest of idealism without illusions   Educational institutions are endeavours of profound optimism; they believe human capital is the only renewable national resource, nations must be their own light (आत्म दीपो भव), and systematic study offers children the most powerful path to overcome or leverage their opening balance. Ashoka University aims higher than optimism: Idealism without Illusions. History suggests that adding success to id