NTA partially cancels UGC-NET; retest next month: protests resume
ESCALATING PROTESTS: NEET protests just over, students now staging a demo at the NTA office in Delhi on Monday over alleged irregularities in the 2026 UGC-NET examination. Clashes also broke out with the police. The NTA had earlier cancelled the exam partially. Youth protests are escalating across the country over one issue or other since last few months.
ANALYSIS: Not a day passes without a scam, exam-related or otherwise. This happens not because the Government is incapable, but because their agenda is different. Where is the country heading? The emerging situation closely mirrors the 1970s. Setting the clock back!
NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The National Testing Agency on Sunday cancelled the UGC-NET
exams for English, Commerce and Sociology due to paper errors and previous leak
allegations.
However, the students have resumed their protests in Delhi. This time they demand abolition of the NTA itself.
The NTA admits that it has found translation mistakes, wrong spelling of scholars'
names and wholescale repetition of old questions, among others.
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The retest dates are September 9 for English (9 am to 12 noon) and Commerce
(3 pm to 6 pm); and, September 10 for Sociology (9 am to 12 noon). No extra
fee is charged for the retests! Details of city, centre and admit card details
will be notified on the official website.
Answer Key Challenge for the 84 other subjects was issued on Sunday. The results
will be declared as per schedule, says the official website.
Opposition leaders had claimed a 100-page PDF of questions was leaked and sold
before the exam. These issues follow the testing scandals involving NEET-UG
and many other exams over the years.
The errors
An NTA notification of August 16 said, "In respect of three subjects, namely
English, Commerce and Sociology, NTA had received several complaints on multiple
errors in these papers. Accordingly, NTA formed a committee to enquire into
and look into these errors.
"The Committee found that the three papers had many factual, typographical,
translation errors including misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book
titles, errors in the stem wording of questions, grammatical errors, gender
and number agreement errors, punctuation mistakes, and non-standard coined terms
for established concepts, as well as repetition of a significant number of questions
previously administered. The Committee recommended that, in the interest of
holding a fair and error-free examination, these three papers should be re-conducted."
What is UGC-NET
The Department of Higher Education says on the website, the UGC-NET "is a Test
to determine the eligibility of Indian nationals for ‘Award of Junior Research
Fellowship’, ‘Appointment as Assistant Professor’, ‘Appointment as Assistant
Professor and admission to Ph.D.’ and ‘Admission to Ph.D. only’ in Indian Universities
and Colleges. The UGC-NET is being conducted by the National Testing Agency
(NTA)...
"Awarding Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and/ or Eligibility for Assistant
Professorship and/ or Admission to Ph.D only depends on the aggregate performance
of the candidate in Part-I and Part-II of UGC-NET. The candidates qualifying
under the ‘appointment as Assistant Professor and admission to Ph.D.’ category
will be eligible for appointment as Assistant Professor and admission to Ph.D.
but not for the award of JRF. The candidates qualifying under the ‘admission
to Ph.D. only’ category will be eligible for admission to Ph.D. only but not
for the award of JRF and/or appointment as Assistant Professor."
...because money, once in the treasury, has no ownership
Opinion: This type of 'savage' declaration (above), even at first sight, shows
what lies ahead for our higher education. That apart, has anybody looked into
the productivity part of the whole thing? What is the current status of the
millions of unemployed who had already been allocated massive amounts of funding
long ago for so-called 'sham research'? Has anybody bothered to find out where
they are today? While 80 crore people don't have two rupees to buy a roti for
themselves, billions are poured down the drain in the name of higher education.
Higher education in India has become a massive sinkhole for poor people's hard-earned
money. All that rhetoric about higher education is a pretence. And, all this
happens because money, once in the treasury, has no ownership, making it vulnerable
to the whims of clerks and politicians.
The State will have a two-language formula for the schools—Tamil and English.
Goodbye to the fraud called entrance exams: No competitive entrance exam for higher education - Admissions will be based on Class 11 and 12 marks. (See footnote)
The SEP and the State's determination to bring education back to the State
List constitute a structured resistance to the Centre’s ultimate designs for centralisation of governance.
The preliminary probe report claims both the fuel control switches were in ‘CUT OFF’ mode moments after lift-off (FADEC may be set to register like that). But the switches are mounted on the centre pedestal, between the seats of the captain and the first officer at arm's length. Who can switch it off? Transitioning is a two-stage manual procedure and that makes a clicking sound also. Not one, both switches! The switches are so protected by multiple layers of physical and procedural safeguards and guarded by metal brackets for a third party to meddle with easily. The cockpit is locked during takeoff. They are handled only for start and after landing, also in emergencies. Is it possible that the pilot just missed to put the switch to RUN while on the runway and the aircraft, a good one, was running on residual fuel? Which it can do for 20 to 40 seconds. The Air India flight stalled after 32 seconds of passing the Go/NoGo point.
(Soon after the videos came into public domain, the next day of the crash, our aviation expert had stated in these columns, the crash had something to do with the fuel line.)
(Soon we will put together another diverse discourse with experts to dispel any nagging doubts surrounding aviation dynamics that are stirring curious minds in the current context.)
TRUMP: "We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know
what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t
that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies (Tesla and SpaceX)." Nobody on
earth ever got so much of Government subsidies as Musk, The New Trump declared
audaciously when the 'Beautifiul Bill' that scraps Tesla subsidies made its
entry into the Capitol. Musk knew the Bill spelt his death knell...
The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
Many of the victims were charred beyond recognition, making identification difficult. Three hundred nineteen body parts have been sent for DNA matching with relatives to determine the identities.
A comment on social media on Kanimozhi's answer on the question of national language read: "Daughter of Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi. Delivered the Birthday Present to her Father!!" (Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924)
(Today's headlines )
Trump said, "Elon is not really leaving" and will be "back and forth" to the White House because DOGE is his "baby." "I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.”
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
"Coming from a system like in England, empowering," she says she never had an idea of this sort of experience... being asked to “socialise with middle-aged men” who financed the event...humiliating...
Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
"It's a big victory not just for Tamil Nadu but for all Indian States. DMK will continue to struggle for and win State autonomy and Federal polity," Chief Minister MK Stalin said.
Of 2.08 km in length, it features 99 spans and a 72.5-metre vertical lift span that rises up to a height of 17 metres, facilitating smooth movement of ships while ensuring seamless train services to the holy town of Rameswaram on Pamban island.
ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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