This book explores the construction of the idea of the ‘talented’ student in India and its relationship to the discourse of the ‘nation’. It historically situates the evolution of the National Science Talent Search (NSTS) and its subsequent avatar, the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), with state-sponsored ideas and practices of ‘nation-building’. It also delves into how individuals who wrote and cleared the examination inhabit this identity of the ‘talented’.

Drawing on policy documents and institutional literature of over 50 years as well as interviews with past winners of the NSTS/NTSE, including a Nobel laureate, this book is a major intervention in the field of South Asian studies, public policy, and education.