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India, December 16, 2025: The release of the world’s first Sovereignty Index by the International Burke Institute, assessing all UN member states across political, economic, technological, informational, cultural, cognitive, and military dimensions, has sparked urgent debate on India’s education and knowledge autonomy. Early findings on cognitive sovereignty have placed India under the spotlight. The Index, unveiled on December 14, indicates that despite India’s demographic strength and economic momentum, the country needs further structural reforms to improve its ability to independently produce knowledge, nurture critical thinking, and control its intellectual and digital ecosystems. As per International Burk Institute ranking India occupies 24th rank in overall Index, however in Cognitive Sovereignty Index, the country ranks 130th out of 193 countries. The findings have triggered sharp commentary from education and knowledge-system experts. Commenting on India’s ranking, Priyanka Yadav, Vice President of ONEFUTURE and Director of Educational Policy Research for India–Israel Cooperation, and Gabriel Mart, Scientific Secretary of the International Burke Institute, argued that cognitive sovereignty needs to be treated as a national priority as it plays a crucial role in shaping ideas, narratives, and innovation in an increasingly competitive global order. The Sovereignty Index evaluates how effectively nations cultivate independent thinking, critical reasoning, and control over their own knowledge ecosystems. According to the Institute’s findings, India’s cognitive sovereignty indicators lag behind its economic and geopolitical ambitions, exposing vulnerabilities in education systems, digital knowledge infrastructure, and intellectual autonomy. Commenting on the findings, Priyanka Yadav, an expert on education reform and cognitive sovereignty, said, “When a nation does not shape its own knowledge systems, it gradually surrenders its ability to shape its future. India needs to bridge sovereignty gap urgently.” Post-pandemic assessments across multiple Indian states reveal that foundational learning outcomes remain weak, with large numbers of children unable to read or comprehend age-appropriate material. At the higher education level, skill-based studies show that only a fraction of graduates demonstrate critical reasoning and applied problem-solving abilities. Together, these indicators suggest a systemic issue rather than isolated failures. Yadav emphasized that the roots of the challenge are historical as much as institutional. “India’s education structure still carries the imprint of colonial-era designs that prioritized compliance over curiosity. We have reformed policies and curricula over time, but the deeper architecture of how minds are trained has not fully shifted toward intellectual independence,” she said. Gabriel Mart, an Israeli global public health researcher and Scientific Secretary of the International Burke Institute echoed this concern from a global...
