The most powerful languages in the world

The new education policy in India (NEP 2020) has revived debate around language. While primary school learning in one's mother tongue has its merits, social activist Kancha Ilaiah argues that children should be taught in English from the beginning since that is the language of empowerment.

INSEAD academic Kai Chan's work is relevant to the debate. He has created the Power Language Index to see what language would serve individuals and organisations best. Where should effort and resources be best deployed?

Unsurprisingly, English remains by far the most powerful language in the world with Mandarin a distant second. Indians may be happy to see Hindi clock in at no. 10.

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