New Delhi, June 29 -- A casual remark by Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran has travelled farther than he perhaps intended. He observed that engineering and MBA degrees may no longer guarantee rewarding careers in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

It quickly escaped the context of a longer and more thoughtful conversation. What went viral was that engineering and MBA are no longer worth pursuing.

For decades, these degrees have carried enormous weight in Indian families. They promised not merely jobs, but status, mobility, marriage value, migration possibilities and middle-class entry. So the CEA's comments put parents in a panic.

But the viral headline misses the larger point. The CEA was not wrong to warn again...