Schrödinger’s Dilemma and Ajay Piramal: The Mystery Behind “Oxford Talks” — Where Prestige Meets PR
Schrödinger’s Dilemma and Ajay Piramal: The Mystery Behind “Oxford Talks” — Where Prestige Meets PR Posted on 23rd October, 2025 (GMT 05:49 hrs) ABSTRACT Ajay Piramal’s 2025 appearance at the Oxford India Forum, widely promoted as an “Oxford Talk,” illustrates the modern commodification of academic prestige. While held at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, the event was business-led, not university-sanctioned, blurring the line between genuine scholarly engagement and curated corporate spectacle. Piramal’s speech echoed government slogans on India’s so-called development, emphasizing optimism and digital progress while ignoring structural inequalities, institutional failures, and empirical critiques. This case exemplifies how elite actors leverage the symbolic authority of Oxford to perform legitimacy, transforming proximity to knowledge into a marketable status symbol rather than a pursuit of wisdom and truth. 0. Prologue In an era defined by curated prestige, social media ampl...