Niranjan Kumar, the eldest son of a small farmer in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, was one of 12.5 million youngsters who applied for 35,000 jobs when the railways department started recruitment examinations more than a year ago.
The mathematics graduate, 28, and his dormitory mates did not even make it to a recently released shortlist despite preparing for years, a collective setback that triggered protests by a swelling army of unemployed youth in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh last week.
