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The technologist who sold 2 million books in Hindi says language is India’s next skill
RNTU Chancellor Santosh Choubey argues that language skills are essential in India's job market, especially as AI transforms industries.
When a technologist who sold two million copies of a computer textbook in Hindi says that India’s next big skill is language, it demands attention. For Santosh Choubey, Chancellor of Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), Indian languages are no longer just cultural identity markers — they are career accelerators in a global economy transformed by AI.
“Everyone talks about IT skills,” he says, “but there is a thing called language skills. And careers are emerging where both go together.” It is a simple formula but a powerful one: skills + language.
The Employability Conversation Is Changing
Choubey has watched the Indian education system from both sides — as a social entrepreneur working with rural youth across various states, and as a pioneer of IT education through Hindi. His first book, Computer Ek Parichay (1986), helped launch computer awareness programmes in Hindi schools with support from state governments.
That experience shaped the way he sees future skills.
Germany and Japan, he argues, are offering jobs to engineers who understand local language + technical discipline. Within India, the fastest-growing markets are rural and semi-urban, where careers depend on local language proficiency — whether selling insurance, running Panchayat services, or building health networks.
“Ninety per cent of jobs in India are created in the unorganised sector,” he says. “Even engineers talk to artisans in local language. That bridge is essential.”
The old hierarchy — English for careers, Indian languages for culture — is collapsing.
AI Turns the Conversation Upside Down
Choubey’s argument for languages is not nostalgic. It is strategic.
AI, he says, will take over routine work.
It can write emails, draft reports, and process data. But it cannot take responsibility for decisions — and the quality of those decisions will depend on how widely a student understands the world.
“To prompt AI properly, you need a broad knowledge of the world,” he says. “You can’t be a one-dimensional person.”
In this view, language, literature and culture become competitive advantages — they give students the soft skills, imagination and context that machines cannot replicate. It is also why Vishwarang — the festival Choubey founded — places drama schools and robotics labs in the same academic ecosystem.
A New Kind of Classroom
Under the National Education Policy (NEP), universities now offer industry-embedded programmes: students learn inside factories and IT companies while earning theory credits from universities. This, he says, directly addresses India’s well-documented degree-employability gap.
But the deeper shift is happening inside classrooms.
“Teaching methodology is undergoing a revolution,” he says. The traditional lecture is being replaced by flipped classrooms — students learn from AI tools, digital content and videos, while teachers become facilitators. Many universities still lack infrastructure, but the direction is clear: self-learning supported by technology.
The NEP also embeds Indian Knowledge Systems, Sanskrit, drama, music and languages into engineering and science degrees. RNTU has created seven Centres of Knowledge — from diaspora studies to theatre — where students earn academic credits for cultural disciplines.
For Choubey, this is not dilution. It is future-readiness.
Beyond Prestige: A Personal Choice
The argument is rooted in biography.
Choubey was selected for the Civil Services twice but never joined. At 25, he walked away from what most Indian middle-class families see as the ultimate career.
“I wanted freedom,” he says. “A calling that gives you Anand — inner satisfaction. If you do something you love, money will come to you.”
Instead, he built IT centres, promoted science literacy in Hindi, then founded universities and an international literature festival. The path was unlikely — but it gives him confidence to argue that the future of careers will not be decided by prestige or language elitism.
The Next Leap
His message to students at Vishwarang is concise: follow curiosity, not stereotypes.
“Do something of your own calling,” he says. “Money is attracted to a good idea. Don’t choose what the world tells you. Choose what gives you happiness.”
In a decade where AI threatens to flatten human creativity into algorithmic output, Choubey’s ideas reverse the logic: technology makes languages more valuable. The jobs of the future will need engineers who can negotiate with local communities, prompt AI systems with world knowledge, and think across disciplines — from Kautilya to coding.
The world may be writing its future in code.
But in India, it will still be spoken in many languages.
