Sometimes received wisdom prevents us from appreciating a larger reality. What if everything we’ve heard about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates for the needs of economic growth and for fuelling innovation is only partially correct?The mantra is insistent: every country is exhorted to produce more graduates in STEM fields, citing their critical, even exclusive importance for economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. In every country, from India to the United States, alarms are being raised about the number of STEM graduates produced by China and their role in promoting the meteoric rise of new growth centres in the economy. It is strongly implied that unless very large numbers of STEM graduates are churned out, it will sound the death knell of prospects for growth, and everything that goes with it, both domestically and globally. There is no disputing the critical role scientists and engineers play in the development of technology, nor the contribution of many technology intensive sectors to economic growth. However, STEM is not the whole story. The STEM narrative comes at the expense of graduates in arts, humanities, and even social sciences. At least some of the latter, above all, economics, are more easily defended in this narrative. Also, sociology, political science, psychology and history are understood to have a direct bearing on the evolution, efficacy and development of institutions of governance, society and economy. Since economics is prone to ever encroaching disciplinary imperialism, its methodology and data also nudge a significant part of the research in other social sciences towards the economic dimension. The traditional approach to education in the arts and humanities has been to stress one of two following broad streams: First, there are those who enter the arts and humanities streams to pursue careers in those fields. They contribute uniquely to society, not just by creating movies, music, literature, all of which are an integral part of being human. It should also be noted that this cultural vibrancy by itself has positive economic consequences. Second, instruction in the arts and humanities provides a broad liberal arts education for a well-rounded, comprehensively educated citizenry. And indeed, this is valuable for a democratic, and socially and economically vibrant future. But there is a possible third stream: we could liberate the arts and humanities from their assigned place for balanced, harmonious development of society and unleash them onto other reaches of the economy, not just in kindred fields of advertising and marketing, but also in product development, and, dare we say it, the process of innovation itself. The broad challenge is to combine the numeracy, systematic data collection, analysis, experimentation, and logic of the hard sciences with the free-flowing yet focused creativity of the arts – the magical prism through which they view the world – in the service of technological innovation. Of course, there may well be many in those fields who may look down upon these humdrum, earthly and practical concerns!An assumption about arts and humanities is that they are soft subjects, without the rigour and rules demanded by the hard sciences. But whether it be music, or painting, or poetry, these are disciplines with structures, systems, and organisation. The rules and structures are often subtle, not overt or obvious to those not in the field. Creativity in those fields is enabled by rules and organisation, and is not about giving free reign to whimsical arbitrariness, a charge often levied by the STEM folk at the arts and humanities practitioners. The arts and humanities could enable a different sensibility, a creative leap, especially in the conception and design of new goods and conveniences. In a deep sense, everything is connected to everything else and people trained in what appears to the uninitiated to be the “unstructured” world of arts and humanities can display sensitivity to the most distant, unconnected relationships and view the world and its challenges through multiple frames of reference.As one of the most innovative economies in the world, Japan places a high value on the contribution of arts to design and innovation in manufacturing. For example, Origami, the traditional Japanese paper folding art inspired developments in tire design, seismic engineering, and innovations in lightweight, yet strong materials. Both artists and scientists look for universal patterns; while Schrödinger is said to have acquired at least some insights for his quantum wave equation from musical harmonics, geometric designs in Hindu/Buddhist art (e.g., Sri Yantra) have influenced computer graphics. Einstein attributed his insights to intuition and imagination, inspired by music and literature, and C.V. Raman believed in the connection between science and music. Even the most prosaic among us can testify to a glimmer of insight, or even some revelation or nourishment generated by the feeling of wonder evoked by a piece of music or literature.Globally, the annual share of STEM graduates ranges between 20 and 40% of total college graduates. With notable exceptions, employers across-the-board are hesitant about hiring language majors and arts graduates, but creativity, the underlying driver of innovation as well as economic and societal growth has many sources, and there is surely no reason to believe that the creative mindset is disproportionately present in science and engineering graduates. At a time when there is no consensus on a universal path of development, we might also want to consider the following: the principles of math, science, engineering, and even economics, are the same across the world. The arts, humanities, and culture, however, are specific to countries and regions. To the extent that each country needs to find its own development path, arts and humanities can be an important input in that process, particularly in the innovative sectors (LLMs may be statistical models but, after all, deal with language as the vehicle of meaning, information and reasoning). At a time when the search for the next big idea is a constant refrain, we should ask ourselves if it is possible to harness the creative outlook inculcated through the arts and humanities to best prepare ourselves for the next stage of human development and economic growth where we can all benefit from a seamless integration of sciences, arts and humanities.Necessity is indeed the mother of invention and innovation, but there are other motivating factors at work, as well. After all, before there was science or engineering, there was art and music, charging us with a sense of awe and amazement, and prompting us to explore, discover and invent.Ashok Bardhan is an economist.