>I'm not from India, but the country where I'm from also has universities with highly competitive admission exams. The "crazy tough exams that determine your life" thing is a very specific form of tunnel vision that does actually happen in some upper middle class families.

I'm from Eastern Europe and I did have to pass tough admission exams to enroll in CS and Math program in University. Medicine and Law School admissions were even tougher.

Things are much more relaxed today, to the point that for some specialties there are no admission exams.