New Delhi, March 5 -- Two contrasting pictures emerged out of India's favourite industry last week. At the 28-year-old LTIMindtree, majority-owned by the giant conglomerate L&T, senior managers have to take tests for future promotions. The barely two-year-old startup, smallest.ai, on the other hand, hires people irrespective of the college they went to or even if they dropped out of one.

LTIMindtree says the competency exam allows it to assess the performance of its people. Mind you these aren't freshers but managers, team leads, and lead architects with more than four years of company experience. That they have to sit for a test to prove their continuing benefit to the company seems a bit odd.

Exams as a way of measuring learning are i...