India, May 28 -- At 19, most students are deciding which college to join after school. Nisarga Adhikary says he has already worked with startups, contributed to open-source projects and handled cybersecurity research - experiences that, according to him, justify calling himself a "software engineer" even before entering college.

Adhikary recently found himself at the centre of a national controversy after claiming to have uncovered major vulnerabilities in the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal. But beyond the hacking claims, the teenager's age and credentials also sparked widespread curiosity online. CBSE, however, denied that its actual evaluation system was compromised, saying the vulnerabilit...