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From this academic session, all undergraduate admissions to central universities will be based on a single test, the Central University Entrance Test, rather than marks obtained in the school leaving board examinations. The University Grants Commission, the primary funding agency for central universities, announced the change barely three months before university admissions, while board examinations were on. To go by what the media reported, the UGC chairman has called the change “student friendly”, and said it will provide a “level playing field” to students writing a variety of state and central board examinations. Both arguments are hackneyed, and frankly, the institution with the mandate to regulate higher education was expected to give more cogent reasoning.

A section of Bangladeshi media analysts, unlike their more diplomatic Indian counterparts, has taken a distinctively acerbic view of the role played by Ukraine in Europe and elsewhere in recent years. The mainstream Dhaka-based media however is broadly supportive of their country’s present neutral positioning on the war in Ukraine.

For the last two weeks prices on Petrol, diesel and cooking gas are increased twelve times. A litre of petrol costs Rs. 118.4 in Mumbai and diesel Rs 105 in Chittor. Rise in fuel prices has a cascading effect not just on transport but on sectors of economy too. Consequently with rising prices inflation is rising alarmingly. Finally the tax burden is falling on the workers and middle class while the super rich is gifted with tax breaks.

On April 6, The American Bazaar published an article that goes by the headline: Alphonsos arrive in America as USDA okays Indian mango Import. The news story talks about the excitement among the Asian communities in the US on the arrival of famous Indian mango varieties — Chausa, Dussheri, Langara, and Sindoori, apart from Alphonsos. The news story quotes an Indian American HR professional Krishna Kant as saying, “This is great news…. Of all the memories from India, the memories of devouring the sweetest, fleshiest mangoes back home in India bring a smile to all Indians.”

From April 1, 2022, the majority of drugs have become costlier, and the poor patients are doomed to suffer, which is being termed as the highest ever price hike in the country. Even the drugs under price control mechanism many seem no more affordable for the majority of the common people, since they have already spent almost all their savings and surplus money during the last two years of COVID-19 crisis. It is the direct effect of the announcement of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) of India made on March 25 to allow an increase on the prices of essential drugs by 10.76607 per cent, much more than 1.97 per cent in 2017, 3.43 per cent in 2018, 4.26 per cent in 2019, and 1.88 per cent in 2020.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waxed eloquent on April 6, the 42nd foundation day of the Bharatiya Janata Party, dwelling deep into ‘parivaarvad’ and ‘rashtravaad’, besides pointing out that the rise and rise of the BJP is also centred round India’s growing global clout. Who he was giving a pat on the back with that reference was not hard to guess. Also if anybody missed party co-founder Lal Krishna Advani, it wouldn’t have surprised many.

The Supreme Court held on Wednesday that nobody can be deprived of liberty or property without due process, or authorization of law. The recognition of this dates back to the 1700s to the decision of the King’s Bench Court in Britain in Entick vs. Carrington (1765) and by the Supreme Court itself in Wazir Chand vs. The State of Himachal Pradesh (1954), the court observed.

As the bombs drop and the war rages on into the fifth week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden dramatically escalated the danger of a wider conflict by calling for Vladimir Putin’s removal. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” quipped Biden at the end of a much-touted speech in Warsaw.

Even long before independence, in 1888, Sir John Stratchy told the Cambridge undergraduates “...There is not and never was an India, or even any country of India, no Indian nation, no people of India about whom we hear so much...that men of Punjab. Bengal, north west provinces and Madras...should ever feel that they belong to one great Indian nation, is impossible.”It was the base line for the British to restrain our multiplicity from emerging as one. They had realised that India had emerged as one when the first war of independence was launched in 1857.

Within few days of lifting all COVID-19 related curbs from April 2, including mandatory wearing of masks and maintaining physical distancing, Maharashtra reported India’s first case of Coronavirus variant XE on April 6 in Mumbai, though within hours Union Health Ministry disagreed saying the present evidence does not suggest that it is XE variant. Since it is only a preliminary assessment of one variant, and there may emerge others, India needs utmost care and preparedness for any eventuality. The fact is that this new variant has been detected in Britain and it will need a few days for this to infect people in India.