The Department of Psychology at Chandigarh University, part of the University Institute of Liberal Arts and Humanities, recently hosted a one-day seminar connected to World Mental Health Week 2025. The event was dedicated to using technology in mental health to positively influence its impact on people and bring students, faculty, and mental health advocates together in a day of learning and discussion.

Prof. (Dr.) Shubh Mohan Singh, a prominent psychiatrist of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, was present at the seminar. Dr Singh is renowned as a community psychiatrician and a pioneer in brain stimulation treatment. His speech emphasised the increasing significance of digital devices like teletherapy services, mental health applications, and digital literacy programs in promoting emotional well-being and expanding access to mental health services.

Respondents addressed questions regarding the use of technology to build stigma-free spaces and encourage inclusive mental health treatment. The seminar closely corresponded with the mission of Chandigarh University of the comprehensive development and sustainability of students, with their mental health being one of the most important educational pillars in modern times.

Some of the points discussed were the advantages of tele-mental health in accessing remote communities, the role of mobile apps in providing emotional support in everyday life, and the effects of technology-based therapies in the clinical environment. This event promoted the discussion of mental health, breaking the old boundaries and emphasising the potential of modern technology.

This is an activity that is being done as Chandigarh University continues to help enlighten mental health awareness and offer practical resources and tools that help in taking care of emotions. The University remains on the leading edge of blending mental health education to modern solutions in a supportive campus atmosphere to both students and the staff.

With the challenges of mental health increasing worldwide, the initiative of Chandigarh University represents a progressive and timely solution in the quest to achieve improved mental health with technology being treated as an important partner.

The 7th International Conference on Sustainability Education (ICSE), organized by the Mobius Foundation, in association with UNESCO, NITI Aayog, and other co-operative organizations, concluded at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Educators, policymakers, business leaders, and youth representatives from all over India and the world participated for two days of deliberation under the theme "Sustainability Education for Green Jobs.".

Session also evidenced that professional careers in sustainable renewable energy, agriculture, eco-tourism, biodiversity preservation, and circular economy require a break with conventional learning and training approaches. References also mentioned the blue economy with emphasis on skills and learning that will allow ocean resources to be used sustainably. The stakeholders were concerned to align education with India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and global priorities according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), i.e. SDG 4 on quality education and SDG 8 on decent work. Issues of equity and inclusion were also raised, prioritizing provision of access to green job opportunities to the disadvantaged groups.

Dr. Benno Boer, Chief, UNESCO South-Asia, underlined: "It's crucial to have proper partnership between governments and private sector for developing and upscaling programmes which create new jobs. Green jobs lead to a more equitable and robust world."

Pradip Kumar Das, CMD, IREDA Limited, added: "India's 2070 net zero journey will necessitate decarbonisation with discipline and increased emphasis on green education. Empowering farmers and scaling up green energy are also part of the journey."

Amit Verma, Director, Green Transition, Environment and Climate Change, NITI Aayog, further added: "To equip a workforce for the green economy, one has to fill the gap between innovation and implementation via education and vocational training."

Prof. Prithvi Yadav, President & Vice Chancellor, Shri Padampat Singhania University, further stated: "Green jobs call not only for technical competency but stewardship."

Universities must create conscience global citizens. Kartikeya Sarabhai, Founder Director of CEE, stated: "Classrooms must be converted to sustainability laboratories.". "Experiential learning empowers youth for green jobs that count". Youth people representatives such as sustainability influencer Anuj Ramatri and Aalekh Kapoor spoke to masses with voices on the ground and climate action plans.

APG Shimla University (Alakh Prakash Goyal Shimla University) is a leading private university located in the scenic environment of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, which is dedicated to providing quality education in various fields. The university was established in 2012 by the A.P. Goyal Charitable Trust and has fast become an education hub providing a wide range of academic programs and developing international contacts and experiential learning opportunities.

Establishment and Recognition 

The APG Shimla University became operational in 2012, through the APG Shimla University Establishment and Regulation Act. It is recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC). It is also a member of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). It has been granted approvals by statutory organisations such as the Bar Council of India (BCI), the Council of Architecture (COA) and the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). The university campus covers 44 acres on the outskirts of Shimla city, offering students a perfect surrounding without pollution and city noises.

Courses offered

With over 10 departments, the university offers programs tailored to meet industry demands, emphasizing a blend of theory and practical skills. Their academic approach includes international guest faculty sessions from partner universities, enriching the student experience with global perspectives. Following are the courses offered: 

1. Allied and Healthcare Science

1. 1. B.Sc (Hons.) Forensic Science
   2. Bachelor of Optometry
   3. Bachelor of Medical Lab Technology
   4. Bachelor of Physiotherapy
   5. Bachelor of Radiography
   6. B.Sc. Cardiovascular Technology
   7. B.Sc. Medical Microbiology
   8. M.Sc Forensic Science

2. Hospitality & Tourism Management

1. 1. Bachelor of Hotel Management
   2. Bachelor of Kitchen and Culinary Arts
   3. Master of Hotel Management
   4. Diploma in Airline Management
   5. Diploma in House Keeping
   6. Diploma in F&B Service
   7. Diploma in Kitchen and Culinary Arts
   8. Diploma in Tourism Studies

3. Management & Commerce

1. 1. Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.)
   2. Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons.)
   3. MBA HR/Marketing/IB/IT/Finance
   4. Master of Commerce
   5. PhD in Management

4. Engineering and Technology

1. 1. B. Tech Computer Science and Engineering
   2. B. Tech Civil Engineering
   3. Bachelor of Computer Application
   4. Master of Computer Application
   5. M. Tech Computer Science Engineering
   6. M. Tech Civil Engineering
   7. PhD in Civil Engineering
   8. B. Tech Electrical Engineering
   9. B. Tech Mechanical Engineering

5. Humanities

1. 1. Diploma in Yoga

6.Legal Studies & Research

1. 1. Bachelor of Arts - Bachelor of Law
   2. Bachelor of Law
   3. Master of Law
   4. PhD in Law

7.Pharmacy

1. 1. Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharma)
   2. Diploma in Pharmacy (D. Pharma)

8.Media & Mass Communication

1. 1. BA (Hons.) - Journalism & Mass Communication
   2. MA - Journalism & Mass Communication
   3. PhD in Journalism

9.Design

1. 1. B.Sc in Fashion Design

10.Sciences

1. 1. M.Sc. Chemistry
   2. M.Sc. Physics

Faculty of APG Shimla University 

The APG Shimla University has a team of skilled and committed faculty who not only impart theoretical knowledge but also work on the practical skills and the development of a holistic personality. The faculty is supported by visiting experts and guest lecturers from reputed national and international institutions, enhancing the learning experience.

FDPs

The university also participates actively in Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) on recent developments in the field of education and new research, cultivating a progressive, dynamic academic culture. It is recommended that students study the most innovative courses in AI, Cybersecurity, Data Science, and Machine Learning, which will make APG Shimla University set the trend in the sphere of modern technology education.

Non-academic initiatives

The university enhances a multifaceted development strategy, providing state-of-the-art facilities such as advanced laboratories, computer centres, libraries, hostels, and Wi-Fi-enabled hostels. It also promotes student involvement in sports, cultural activities, and entrepreneurship in the form of special clubs, workshops and innovation hubs. APG Shimla University has also promoted the culture of research and international engagements to incorporate the global academic standards. 

Scholarships and Aid Offered

To help meritorious students, APG Shimla University provides generous scholarships and other financial help, such as the APG सहायता Test, offering discounts on tuition fees upto 50%  depending on high school performance, which increases the accessibility of education.

Placement Opportunities 

The university works hand-in-hand with the industry partners, so there are good placements of graduates in the various sectors with the help of specialised training and career guidance.

Why choose APG Shimla University?

APG Shimla University is an ideal institution for the younger generation that provides a rich academic experience with a combination of up-to-date curricula, international student exchange, and long-term campus life in the picturesque location of Himachal Pradesh. Its dedicated faculty, diverse academic courses, and forward-thinking skills training and research have helped it keep expanding as a student destination seeking a good education and international experience. 

Potential students can see APG Shimla University as a competitive and holistic institution that guarantees academic rigour and quality personal development in the calmness of nature. 

Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced Amity University as one of 54 state private universities in the country, flagged as defaulters due to non-compliance with the mandatory disclosure requirements under Section 13 of the UGC Act, 1956. This action comes after several reminders and directives by the UGC to institutions of higher education to provide relevant information and public disclosure on their official websites.

According to the UGC directive, all universities must post institutional comprehensive data such as academic programs, faculty, governance details, infrastructure, research activities, and financial reports. The university registrar must attest to this data, and it must be visible on the home page without using login credentials. Further, it should have a search option to facilitate easy navigation of such disclosures.

Amity University and other institutions have not implemented these transparency measures comprehensively, even though there were several follow-ups via emails and online meetings. UGC Secretary Manish Joshi emphasised, “transparency builds trust and ensures accountability. Universities were directed to upload the completed formats along with appendices on their websites to make the information accessible to students and the general public.”

The fact that Amity University is listed as a defaulter specifically refers to campuses like Amity University Patna and Ranchi, among others. The university has been encouraged to fill in the necessary information on time. Non-compliance during the stipulated time can lead to additional notices.

This regulatory tightening is part of the broader attempt by UGC to enhance governance and data transparency among private institutions of higher education in India. Madhya Pradesh has the greatest number of defaulters, which is 10, and then there are Gujarat, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and some of the other states, such as Bihar and Jharkhand, where Amity campuses are flagged.  UGC has provided the complete list of defaulter universities on its official site that can be accessed by the public. Check the official list for the details of the flagged campuses. 

Although the University Grants Commission (UGC) recently declared some of the campuses of the Amity University as defaulters due to their failure in meeting disclosure requirements, it is noteworthy that potential students should pay attention to the entire picture. Amity University is a UGC recognised institution with an A + grade accreditation by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Its enrollment degrees are popular in national and international competitive exams such as GATE, CAT, UPSC, and GRE. 

The university also has numerous campuses both in India and overseas and presents a wide range of approved courses with wide industry networks and placement services. Students who come to Amity have access to the latest infrastructure and an effective academic system that is supported by international accreditation, including WASC (USA) and QAA (UK). 

However, for prospective students and parents, the UGC has appealed to verify the compliance status of universities before admission to ensure enrollment in well-regulated and accountable institutions. Disclosure and compliance with regulations are also a major consideration in determining the general position of any university.

Stay updated and make informed decisions because your college influences your career.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) every-three-years review of the future direction of all education has informed colleges and universities that they need to prepare for change in a world that is being revolutionized by generative AI, as they discuss how to advance the global aspiration of sustainability.

The Trends Shaping Education 2025 report highlights how improvements in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technology may revolutionize teaching and learning.

Such concerns are affecting the way education – and even higher education – is looking to build sustainability objectives, the OECD stated, emphasizing that its report is "aimed at provoking reflection and guiding strategic thinking on how global trends may reshape education and how education can make a better future possible".

At a launch event on Thursday 23 January, the OECD's director of education and skills, Andreas Schleicher, discussed in depth the technological and environmental trends that are shaping education today.

He stated the report must be considered as a resource for teachers and countries' education systems to facilitate a sense of 'human flourishing' in the midst of increasing uncertainty about the major disruptors of education – climate change, the pandemic, and the emergence of AI, to name a few.

"Climate change is going to turn our lives upside down much more than the [COVID-19] pandemic and AI is questioning nearly everything that we take for granted about education," he added.

The more rapidly the world is changing, the further ahead we must look, and this is becoming increasingly difficult for individuals to do, Schleicher went on. "All we ask from this publication is to get individuals to think about what are the factors that might form the future in different combinations?"

That encompasses how the world can be rocked to its social foundation by technological transformation, and how youth are responding. The report inquired: "How dramatically will technological advances and sustainability demands affect the demand for human labour and how humans interact with one another?"

Shifting priorities

Changing attitudes signal that, for more and more young people, work is no longer a central part of their self-definition. AI is opening up the ability of robots to collaborate with humans across various industries, so more of us will be working alongside smart machines in the years ahead.".

And while human relationships are still at the heart of caring for others, new technologies have the ability to revolutionize social interaction. With more time spent away from direct human contact, can education assist in preserving a sense of community and in developing socio-emotional learning and well-being?"

AI will certainly change the world, but "humans will stay at the centre", Schleicher argued.

So, the education systems of the future need to enable a transition in skills and lifelong learning, endowing the people with the capacity to learn, unlearn and relearn – capacities that are essential to survive in an uncertain world, he elaborated.

The balance of work and life is obviously changing, and with the growth of technology and AI, we will see it change even further. People will, at some point, be required to spend more of their time on other things than simply creating things for other people," he said.

This change requires us to prepare individuals not merely with information but with the capability to use it in novel ways and, as such, highlights the necessity for education systems to assist learners to develop critical thinking capabilities beyond mere processing of information.

"Our world no longer compensates us for delivering answers; it compensates us for asking the right questions," Schleicher stated.

This will need to involve vision and integrated higher education policies. And learning will need to look ahead to the consequences of future technological change on the way that human beings navigate a sustainable future, added the report.

"The demand for green jobs is increasing, yet a skills gap has the potential to hinder the transition and destabilize local labour markets. Likewise, the diffusion of recent innovations such as artificial intelligence is likely to automate many tasks and produce new ones, with new skill sets demanded."

Higher education and sustainability

In this context, the OECD report conceded that sustainability offers both challenges and opportunities for education systems.

Telling University World News about these matters following the report release, Dr Debra Rowe, president of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and global champion for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, stated one of the concerns was preparing students to utilize technology like AI as a tool for changing societies to become sustainable.

That involves relocating goals and prestige from exclusively material and career personal objectives, to community, voluntary and emotional satisfaction in the activities of consumer, investor and civic participant for political regimes, policies and programmes. Technology will take on more technical and administrative functions that were once performed by trained humans.

"If there isn't as much work as in the good old days, human beings shouldn't be penalized for working hard to find jobs with economic uncertainty tied up in food or shelter or other necessities.".

A fundamental lesson in sustainability must be how the pie of well-being is divided and how it can be remade with the science-based knowledge that there is plenty on this world to enhance the quality of life of all significantly while securing the planet and its life-supporting systems for current and future generations," Rowe said.

"Students and non-students can be taught the possibilities of civic participation and policy influence in achieving human improvements. Tales of success stories of transitioning into sustainability can be presented in learning materials in every academic field."

Solving the biggest problems of our time

Considering that climate change "poses a threat to the stability of societies and economies around the globe, underlining the need for international co-operation", the OECD report wanted to know how education can promote learning about the global, regional and local aspects of these issues.

Actually, research collaborations are increasing and more individuals will be collaborating to address the world's most significant challenges, such as solving the climate emergency, Schleicher stated.

Acquiring skills to work an efficient economy and society is essential, asserted the OECD, posing the question: "How can education systems best help equip individuals with the right skills and support people in switching out of polluting industries so that no one is left behind?"

It went on to state that education may build capabilities and innovations that underpin a greener and more diverse energy sector, "while providing employees in the fossil fuel sector with opportunities to upskill or reskill.".

And the work is there. A sub-group of green 'new and emerging' jobs that make up 14% of sustainability-driven often high-skilled occupations like managers, professionals and technicians have "seen the most growth over the last ten years", the report stated.

In fact, when considering the wider climate agenda, the world needs to appreciate that real progress has already been achieved in this sector, Schleicher added.

He went on to say: "The world is changing. We can see very clearly that jobs in the clean energy industry have now overtaken jobs in the brown energy industry – people are in transition; they have switched careers and have used their skills in various manners. That is the reality and the good sort of forces that we see."

Education's contribution to sustainability

In addition, education can get consumers to improve sustainable behavior through purchasing decisions by promoting environmental literacy and sustainable behavior.

Stated the report: "Education plays a crucial role in promoting sustainability and supporting healthier, environmentally friendly lifestyles. Can it also help reshape attitudes toward consumption, materialism and the value of sharing?"

Education can also indirectly promote behavioral change by making new kinds of political participation and cultural expression possible, increasing innovative climate activism and advocacy, the OECD said. One of the major issues at play here is fighting disinformation and political polarization – routinely pushed by social media – that are "undermining constructive debate".

The report concluded: "How can education foster trust in democratic institutions and responsible citizenship to help societies address complex, systemic challenges?"

Debra Rowe has stated: "Students are frequently requesting and must be given assignments that give the knowledge and skills to empower students to deal with the complication of our societal issues with resilience and effective self and community care."

She added they also require guidance on functioning as change agents "who can facilitate scaling up for systems change at societal scales, including how to form coalitions and identify leverage points for change in society".

That involves abilities of working collaboratively to focus goals and bring about change, which demand effective emotional interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities, strategic thinking, thinking about the future, systems thinking and implementation capabilities.

AI and sustainability education

Presenters at the launch emphasized the promise of generative AI for such work, highlighting the need to approach AI in education empirically and evidence-based to avoid risks such as possible bias, the disproportionate effect it could have on some groups and the effect on students' cognitive and social development.

Anita Lehikoinen, a permanent secretary at the Finnish ministry of education and culture, stated: "Something that we ought to discuss about the deployment of AI is whether it liberates people from various socio-economic backgrounds on an equal level or does it just liberate those individuals who are further empowered due to their background?"

Singapore's deputy director general of the ministry of education, Chern Wei Sng, stated that his ministry had already started testing with AI technology and its potential uses in schools.

There are already AI tools that create teachers' lesson plans and assist in individualized learning, so it's a quite strong technology which can potentially enhance teaching and learning," said Sng. Nevertheless, teachers should evaluate the threat brought about by AI so that it will not become a type of cognitive outsourcing for students, which damages their adaptive learning capability and resilience. 

Sustainability investment, ethics, politics

And regarding sustainability investment, the OECD reported that since "the era of cheap energy is over," schools and other centers of learning will have to struggle with mounting demands on their budgets, and energy bills sucking up resources that would otherwise be spent on staff or learning resources.

Therefore, energy efficiency and conservation not only makes good environmental sense, but it's good business: "Enhancing the energy efficiency of school buildings will save money in the long term and enhance sustainability."

Ethical leadership and political policy in building trading can also assist in enhancing sustainability – driven by empathetic and integrated education, the OECD observed: "While scientific collaboration has expanded, geopolitical tensions and trade dependencies on key raw materials threaten innovation and sustainability."

Observing that although COVID-19 had illustrated the worth of worldwide science collaborations, with diplomatic rivalry increasingly fierce between rival country-based states, "concerns around research security are on the rise.".

Education could assist in making the views run deeper that a globalized approach to resource development and innovation can be fruitful in enhancing sustainability, according to the report: "In constructing ethical frameworks, common purposes, and competencies to guarantee scientific and technological advancement profits humanity and the earth while protecting cooperation and security."

Lastly, the OECD moved to advise that education must lean towards making the elderly acquire sustainability awareness and capacity, as well as youngsters.

"How can this be met in formal, non-formal and informal education and training? How can education and training deliver good environmental literacy for all, and develop specialist skills for some?" the report asked.

'Human flourishing'

In a speech at the launch, Susan Acland-Hood, permanent secretary at the Department for Education in the United Kingdom, observed that it is vital to examine existing and evolving demographic trends when considering the future of education.

[There in the UK] we did take a lot of time last year right across the entire government to look in fact at demographic trends and the focus on learning for life," she added.

Acland-Hood asserted that sustainability will be hand in hand with education in the future, when human development's next phase – economical, ecological, social and cultural – ought to be based on the idea of human flourishing.

I think the most important addition to high-performing education systems, or human flourishing systems, is that humans must thrive and the planet must thrive for humans to truly thrive. It's two easy things: humankind and the planet," she said.

Rowe said to University World News: "With the acceleration in the rate of change with AI and maybe with the declining necessity for human labor, lifelong learning could be and ought to be cherished. That would be new provision for all ages. Students could learn how access to quality education can be expanded.".

"Mis- and dis-information skills should be a fundamental skill. Being able to understand the ways in which we have organized economies up until now and how we can reorganize them in the future gives us a space that is both creative and necessary for all students and community partners to learn about sustainability."

APG University, in collaboration with the Shimla Forest Division Rural, marked the 75th National Wildlife Week with a special event held at the university campus on October 6, 2025. This significant effort is a great way to change the mindset of young people about wildlife conservation and environmental protection.

Students were eager to participate in different activities that aimed at teaching and motivation. The most important one was a speech competition based on the topic Single Use Plastic - A Threat to the Environment. The event motivated students to be proactive activists of plastic pollution and become responsible in nature protection.

Wildlife Week is celebrated every year on the 2nd to 8th October all over India to raise awareness of the need to conserve the rich biodiversity of the country. The 75th edition this year also saw the tradition of involving young people in conservation activities, emphasizing that education is key to a cleaner and greener future.

The program of APG University aligns with the national goal of empowering communities to become the custodians of wildlife and the environment. The university hopes that this might lead to the students' creativity, responsibility and lifetime commitment to conserve wildlife and the natural habitats.

“Your voice matters. Your actions matter. Be a part of the change!” stated the university’s message which encouraged students and the community to engage in environmental conservation.

As the country marks this critical week, APG University and Shimla Forest Division’s collaboration serves as a valuable example of how institutions can inspire the next generation to care for nature and wildlife. 

The commission strives to implement improvement of healthcare quality through the assurance of competence and professionalism of the practitioners on a national level. It regulates the education, training, registration, and standards of practice of allied and healthcare professionals not regulated under any of the other councils such as the National Medical Commission or Indian Nursing Council. 

NCAHP divides allied and health professions into ten general categories such as Medical Laboratory Sciences, Physiotherapy, Nutrition Science, Occupational Therapy, Medical Radiology, and Health Information Management, among others. The wide variety of categories is intended to group different health professions under a single regulatory act to achieve a uniformity across the nation.

Some of the key functions of the NCAHP are curriculum planning and delivery, accreditation of education institutions, practicing registration management, and conducting continuous professional development. Registration for health professionals must be renewed by the commission every five years through ongoing skill acquisition and learning to deliver quality patient care.

The NCAHP recently brought out guidelines to launch new competency-based curricula for ten allied health care professions from the academic year 2026–2027. Universities and deemed universities need to form boards of studies as per NCAHP norms, and governments and state councils need to oversee compliance and report progress.

The commission has also issued draft regulations for registration of allied and healthcare professionals where professionals have to register on state councils and a central register in return for the release of a Unique Identification Number in return for practicing all over India. Provision is made for provisional registration for those with informal qualifications and appeals, renewal, and penalties for failure to register.

With its policy of regulation, curriculum reform, and professional development, the NCAHP is consolidating India's allied and healthcare industry human resources into a better, responsible, and harmonized healthcare industry that serves practitioners and patients across the country.

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) and Design Thinking are transforming education by putting the student at the center of learning and ready him to deal with an increasingly globalized world. Both these related methodologies compel the young people to learn, think creatively, and work innovatively as well as collaborate. Students tackle real-world issues, rank issues, and construct relevant solutions—most of them defined through collaboration—so learning is contextual and experiential, not abstract and passive.

Design Thinking embeds its active position through a cyclical, empathetic process. Students start with gaining insight into other people's needs, proceed to ideation, test the solutions, and iterate based on testing and feedback. Students become change-resilient, innovative problem solvers who are proficient at change management.

These pedagogies blended together close the gap between traditional content transmission and the requirement of society—creativity, collaboration, flexibility. Best practices that result from their interaction include interdisciplinary course design, universal learning, external partner co-design, and tech-enabled experience. Evaluation also changes, to competency and actual impact assessment and from rote memorization.

Teachers and scholars across the globe are applying working models, research, and implementation of CBL and Design Thinking at all education levels with the vision of turning learning and teaching on its head in the direction of triggering motivation, interest, and future-readiness. The revolution is positioning schooling systems as adaptive, inclusive, and heterogeneous as the students will encounter.

Facial recognition enabled by AI can recognize a person with distorted or obscured CCTV images and handwriting and voice through machine learning. International Conference on Forensic Science 2025 (ICFS 2025) is multidisciplinary Forensic Science research and development. It invites students, researchers, scholars, and experts to gather and present and share knowledge and advances in the field.

Forensic science in 2025 is transformed by cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS), and digital forensic technology. AI technology may be able to enable the investigator to rapidly scan massive data sets for discrepancies and patterns that it could take a human investigator months to identify. 

The conference aims to achieve the latest advances in forensic technology and determine future trends, challenges, and technological advances which are revolutionizing forensic investigation. Crime investigation and prevention will be addressed by forensic science professionals, digital forensics professionals, forensic medicine professionals, criminology professionals, cybersecurity professionals, law enforcement professionals, and psychologists. public security and support seeking justice, ICFS 2025 involves lawyers, legislators, data analysts, sociologists, legislators, and forensic experts. Information exchange and forensic practice support will be provided through keynote lectures, research papers, and panel sessions.

Sharing of knowledge and innovation in forensic practice would be facilitated by keynote addresses, panel discussions, and research papers. The conference would also address hot topics of the day on Forensic Science, where latest technologies like artificial intelligence, DNA Forensics, and Data Science application for crime investigation would come into focus. The conference will receive top-class-trained lecturing in forensic use of the justice system, crime scene analysis, and manipulation of digital evidence. ICFS 2025 will facilitate the implementation of new forensic science investigation and real implementation in practice through inter-disciplinary intervention by the police force. Finally, the conference will unite research and practice to fill the gap, delivering quality and technology-based forensic solution.

In response to a spate of drug and child abuse cases, Kerala stands at the verge of a major upscaling of its forensic science labs (FSLs). State Director General of Police (DGP) formally requested the government to introduce 31 new scientific officer posts to address growing delays in forensic analysis for NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act and POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act cases. This was suggested in an integrated meeting held between the state government and the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC), following a high court directive for accelerating forensic reporting.

The government has approved 28 more posts in different divisions last year—12 in biology, six in chemistry, and ten in documentation. However, the volume of cases being processed by forensic labs has almost doubled over the past year, exerting enormous pressure on the existing workforce. The backlog of NDPS and POCSO cases has attained a critical phase, jeopardizing swift delivery of justice to survivors and accused both despite tireless efforts by scientific officers.

In order to counter this burden, the DGP has now recommended the appointment of eight biology officers, seven chemistry officers, and sixteen documentation officers, underlining that the increase should be carried out as quickly as possible in order to meet legal and social demands.

The Kerala High Court, understanding the seriousness of the situation, instructed that the DGP submit a fresh proposal to the state government within 15 days. The official process of creating such posts is multi-phased: post-filing, the state government scrutinizes and forwards the proposal to the finance department to sanction, after which Kerala PSC will go ahead with the recruitment.

The latest appeal for increased forensic staff came on the heels of a petition laid before the government by the Kerala Legal Services Authority, which highlighted how excessive delays in forensic reports stall trials and impede the administration of justice under NDPS and POCSO Acts. With Kerala also fighting the growing pattern of crimes committed as a result of drug abuse and child welfare, the government action to strengthen forensic laboratories aims at reducing this critical arrear and providing justice on time to all.

Forensic science is an expanding and dynamic discipline that applies scientific knowledge to help in solving crimes. If you enjoy investigating crimes and wish to work in a forensic laboratory, police department or a legal agency, pursuing forensic science is the best choice. By taking the AIFSET exam you can gain admission into top universities offering forensic science courses. 

Vivekananda Global University (VGU), Jaipur, is one of the top Universities in India to study forensic sciences. VGU also has well-organised forensic science coursework, providing hands-on experience and theory. Their programs include such significant areas as DNA profiling, forensic toxicology, cyber forensics, ballistics, and the analysis of fingerprints.

Forensic Science courses at VGU.

UNDERGRADUATE

B.Sc. (H) Forensic Science (As per NEP)

POSTGRADUATE

M.Sc. Forensic Science

M.Sc. Digital and Cyber Forensics

DOCTORAL PROGRAM

Ph.D. Forensic Science

The courses emphasise practical training, research, and exposure to real-life case studies,  ensuring students have the skills and knowledge to work in the professional roles.

Views of HOD

Dr. Umema Ahmed, Head of the Department of Forensic Science at Vivekananda Global University, states, “Our department is committed to promoting quality education and enhancing employability by equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary in the evolving field of forensic science. Our curriculum integrates experiential learning to prepare students to effectively support law enforcement and deliver justice. Alongside academic training, we nurture students’ physical, mental, and emotional development so they become responsible citizens contributing meaningfully to society and the nation’s progress.”

The Role of the AIFSET Exam

The national-level entrance examination to select top forensic science courses, including VGU, is the All India Forensic Science Entrance Test (AIFSET). AIFSET is a test of forensic basics, crime scene, forensic biology, toxicology and legal procedures.

A forensic career and quality courses can be available to a person willing to prepare for AIFSET with knowledge of its syllabus and pattern.

Why Choose Forensic Science?

Forensic science is essential in criminal justice with the advancement of technology. The fields include forensic scientist, crime scene investigator, forensic toxicologist, and cyber forensic analyst. In India, the demand in this area is increasing in government laboratories, in private investigation agencies, and research companies.

If you are passionate about forensic science, a good score in AIFSET for  VGU admission can help you create a rewarding career in the field of forensics with practical knowledge, research skills, and right mindset. 

Mahindra University, Hyderabad, andApollo Healthcare Academytodaydeclared the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to introduceBachelor's programs in Allied Health Sciences jointly. This strategic partnership will address thegrowing allied health professional deficit in India and around the world and equip students with the academic excellence along with extensive clinical training.

The courses will be high-demand areas of specialization likeAnesthesia & Operation Theatre Technology, Medical Laboratory Technology, Cardiovascular Technology, etc. With the convergence of Mahindra University's world-class academic facilities and Apollo Healthcare Academy's clinical skills, the partnership will yield practice-oriented graduates to satisfy the needs of the healthcare sector.

The curriculum will be on par with that set by the National Commission for Allied & Healthcare Professionals (NCAHP) in order to enable national regulation and international accreditation. Clinical rotations in Apollo Hospitals and partnering healthcare organizations, including a final-year internship, will also be provided to the students.

Meeting a Global Need

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the health systems worldwide are also concerned with the dire allied health professional shortage, which is predicted to grow as populations age and healthcare needs rise. The program directly tackles this through the preparation of health professionals who are competent, confident, and ready to make an impact from day one.

Voices from the Partnership

Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University, stated: "This partnership is our collective vision for creating highly competent healthcare professionals. By integrating Mahindra University's multidisciplinary academic excellence and Apollo's established healthcare experience, we are confident that we can create graduates who will leave an immediate lasting impact in society."

Dr. Rajinder Singh Chauhan, Professor & Dean, Centre for Life Sciences, Mahindra University added further: "The courses are a blend of academic rigor and experiential learning. Our students will not only study but also execute in actual healthcare environments, and thus they will be ready for jobs as well as for the future."

Mr. Sivaramakrishnan Venkateswaran, CEO, Apollo Knowledge, further said: "Apollo Healthcare Academy aims to bridge learning in the classroom and doing in hospitals. This partnership will give students the confidence, exposure, and skill set to succeed not only in India but also in overseas opportunities. This is all part of our global workforce development initiative to build and empower the next generation of health professionals who can drive genuine impact in health systems globally.".

Dr. Jagadeswaran, Head & Dean - Allied & Healthcare Professions, Apollo Institute of Hospital Management & Allied Sciences, said: "We are thrilled to take Apollo's model of experiential training to Mahindra University. Together, we will render allied health graduates relevant in the world and impactful at the local level."

What Students Can Expect

Shaping the Future of Healthcare

With this MoU, Mahindra University and Apollo Healthcare Academy reiterate their commitment to innovation in allied health education along with addressing the global shortage of the healthcare workforce. The two institutions will jointly create a strong pipeline of well-trained allied health professionals who are ready to make their impact on redesigning the future of healthcare in India and beyond.

Avani Institute of Design inaugurated Kerala's first integrated design programme — a five-year dual degree course that combines B.Des and M.Des. The programme is a landmark as the institute is completing a decade of academic achievement.

Integrated Design Program has multiple points of entry and exit as per the National Education Policy (NEP). The students can graduate with a Bachelor's degree within four years or go on to obtain a Master's degree in five years and thus offer flexibility at the cost of depth.

Product Design and Interior Design specializations balance broad learning with specialized, advanced industry-specific skills and foundational learning and prepare students to meet India's design industry's shifting requirements.

"The education in design today must go beyond the conventional limits," asserted Tony Joseph, Chairman and Principal of Avani Institute of Design. "This program demonstrates the way Avani believes that design is not so much about creating things or buildings, but about affecting ideas and solutions that can assist in changing a positive impact on society."

As a not-for-profit institution of higher learning, Avani has defined itself as more than a campus. Its NEP-mapped and world-charged curriculum combines architecture and design with liberal arts, philosophy, culture, and technology. 

Faculty note that the curriculum is designed such that it produces socially responsible designers, merging multidisciplinary learning with a value system that promotes community, culture, way of life, and economy. Balance between theory and practice, merging liberal studies, technology, and socio-cultural studies, the graduates become confident and possessing the skill set to succeed in rapidly changing industries.

Avani reiterates its dedication to the development of design leaders who are adept at creativity, critical thinking, and application in this revolutionary program in designing solutions that will matter tomorrow.

Forensic science is a growing career that gives scientists the opportunity to become specialized in a number of different techniques. Two of the reasons that people are drawn to the forensic science field are to be involved in preventing crime and witnessing justice. Forensic scientists gather evidence from the crime scene and test the evidence in a laboratory.

Evidence at a crime scene can include bodily fluids, fibers and weapons. Crime fighters that use chemical and biologic technology to analyze the evidence they can recover are forensic scientists. They document their observations in photographs and sketches and reconstruct crime scenes. 

Cleveland Miles, the deputy director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab, learned about forensics while interviewing a lab technician at the GBI crime lab. He was working as a drug chemistry technician at the time and went back to school after two years to take a course in biochemistry so that he could apply to be a scientist.

The GBI subsequently promoted him to forensic biologist, in which capacity he worked in the serology and DNA sections. The GBI trained him in those sections. He was "working cases and working evidence," which was very fulfilling for him as a scientist, he states.

"I was doing science and I was helping people," Miles says. "They were victims of crime. Some of them were killed. We could investigate the evidence that arrived and connect some factual detail about it that could help that investigation and lead to someone being arrested, or clear someone who was falsely accused."

He spent five years or so working as a scientist before transitioning into management. He saw there was room to help more junior professionals who had career aspirations in forensics.

To work in his department, applicants must pass drug and polygraph tests. When Miles talks to young individuals about a career in forensics, he warns them that they should be ready for such tests, something he has seen a lot of applicants fail at.

Along with these qualifications, as stated by the BLS, technicians may also be subject to taking proficiency tests in such fields of laboratory science, for example. 

The BLS also predicts employment growth in forensic science will be robust – it will increase 13% from 2024 to 2034. In May of 2024, the median for forensic science technicians was $67,440.

The bureau also reports scientific and technological progress will increase the application of forensic data available to courts, and consequently will require more employees working in conjunction with law enforcement administrators.

Thanks to crime investigation television shows and films, competition for jobs will probably be stiff, say experts.

The students asked for the type of course, and Meader persuaded administrators to allow her to pilot it. She consulted with police department acquaintances and also attended an American Academy of Forensic Science conference, where she picked the brains of forensic experts about how to prepare her course to best effect.

"It was a great experience that mushroomed into something bigger than anything I ever could have dreamed," she says.

Meador explains how the students learn to apply their categorical science in a three-dimensional context: looking at a crime scene from biology's perspective, the availability of living tissue; chemistry, in chemical reaction; and physics, taking into consideration angles such as the way a gun was shot.

She informs them that what they are used to viewing on a Hollywood show is not real. "It is not always possible to solve a crime in 45 minutes. Not that it can happen, but the whole process from receiving a call about a crime to what the end result of the crime is, is a time-consuming process."

Careers in Forensic Science

The majority of Meador's forensics students have gone into law enforcement and homicide investigation, she says. "I have some students who went into the lab work doing DNA research in biology and chemistry, students who've gone into medicine, and some who've gone into doing law."

Agriculture is an important branch of the Indian economy and society as it provides access to food production, agribusiness, biotechnology, rural development, and environmental sustainability. This has led to a situation where private universities in India are now associated with high quality programmes both at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level in the field of agriculture and allied sciences. The following are the top private institutions and the best agriculture courses that they offer.

Leading Private Universities for Agriculture

Amity University: Known for industry ties, practical training, and cutting-edge labs.​

• B.Sc (Hons) Agriculture
• M.Sc Agronomy, M.Sc Genetics and Plant Breeding
• PhD Agriculture/Economics/Extension

Lovely Professional University (LPU): Offers ICAR-accredited courses and strong placement statistics.​

• B.Sc Agriculture
• M.Sc Agriculture (various specializations)
• PhD Agriculture

VIT Vellore:Popular for research, biotech overlap, and modern campus.​

• B.Sc Agriculture
• M.Sc Agriculture
• PhD Agriculture

Shoolini University: Known for research and innovation in agricultural biotechnology.​

• B.Sc Agriculture
• M.Sc (Agronomy, Plant Pathology, Soil Science)
• PhD in Agriculture Sciences

Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education: Focus on sustainable farming and high-tech training.​

• B.Sc Agriculture, M.Sc Agriculture, and PhD

SGT University: Specialized programs and ICAR approval.​

• B.Sc Agriculture
• M.Sc Agriculture
• PhD Agricultural Sciences

Mansarovar Global University (MGU): Offers diploma to postgraduate agriculture courses covering core and advanced subjects.​

What Are the Most Popular Agriculture Courses?

1. Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Agriculture: Four-year degree covering agronomy, soil science, entomology, crop protection, and extension.​ Practical study and regular internships are also offered.
2. Master of Science (M.Sc) in Agriculture: Advanced training in fields like genetics, plant breeding, horticulture, soil management, and agricultural economics.
3. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Agriculture: Research programmes focusing on new tech, crop improvement, extension education, biotechnology, and rural development.
4. Specializations: Agronomy, Plant Breeding, Agri-Genomics, Biotechnology, Soil Science, Agricultural Economics, Extension Education, Plant Pathology.

Admission and Accreditation

ICAR-accreditated many private universities are guaranteed in the quality of the curriculum and recognition on the national level. Entrance tests (such as LPUNEST, AIACAT, university-specific tests or ICAR tests) are typically required to take up admissions, and M.Sc and PhD programmes usually require good academic background and research proposal.​

Why Select a Privatised University to study Agriculture?

1. State-of-the-art facilities
2. Good placement support and industry connections.
3. Technology and entrepreneurship in modern curriculum.
4. Cooperation with agro-companies, start-ups, and research laboratories.

In short, Amity, LPU, VIT Vellore, Shoolini, Kalasalingam, SGT University, and MGU are currently popular in India for offering agricultural courses. They offer all-inclusive education, cosmopolitan exposure and career based training, which equips future leaders in Indian agriculture.

A special session on 'Child Psychology' was organized by Global Wisdom School, Dera Bassi, for the teachers. Dr Sonia Sharma, an experienced researcher and administrator with teaching experience of more than 18 years, presented the session. Dr Sharma's presentation was a lecture-cum-entertaining journey inside the child's mind. Through her experience, she removed the intellectual, social, and emotional layers of growth that motivate children. She challenged teachers to attempt to view things the way children do, examine their requirements, and develop a positive learning environment. Her presentation contained practical tales, case studies. Practical skills on diagnosing behavioral patterns, classroom management, and establishing teacher-student relationships were imparted to the teachers. The session ended with Principal Dr Basundhara thanking Dr Sharma with honeyed words and once more placing emphasis on the necessity for teachers to keep learning.

Global Wisdom School, Dera Bassi, recently conducted an insightful session on 'Child Psychology' for teachers exclusively by Dr. Sonia Sharma, distinguished researcher and administrator with a rich experience of more than 18 years. Instead of a formal lecture, Dr. Sharma's talk was an infectious journey through the complex mental, emotional, and social growth processes in children that have implications for learning.

Learning from her years of experience, Dr. Sharma implored teachers to experience the world with children's eyes and look to each child's unique needs. She pleaded with teachers to build healthy, positive classroom environments in which students feel valued and heard.

The session was also replete with the experiences of the teacher himself and actual case studies where the teachers were able to relate theory with practice. Behavior patterns and handling of the common classroom problems were dealt with as appropriate, stressing their identification. Techniques on how to improve the all-important teacher-student relationship were also delivered by Dr. Sharma, whom she reaffirmed as the most important for students' development.

Teachers were left with a clearer idea of how psychology knowledge would enhance classroom management, maximize emotional growth, and modify teaching styles to meet the unique individual learning styles of children. It taught them how to comprehend child psychology to excel academically as well as raise well-rounded, resilient learners.

The workshop concluded on a note of grateful appreciation by Dr. Basundhara, the principal of the school, who once again stressed the importance of professional development of teachers on an ongoing basis. She valued the worth of Dr. Sharma in motivating teachers and deepening their pedagogical practice with better child development understanding.

For decades, the calculus for selecting a college in the United States has appeared simple: Compare the quality of the education to the cost, and select the school that provided the best combination of prestige and affordability. Now that formula has been made more complicated by a host of additional factors, including politics, campus safety, and even TikTok.

Based on the 14th annual survey of Spark451, a Jenzabar company that focuses on enrollment management, the landscape of higher education decision-making is changing in real time. The 2025 report, drawing on feedback from over 1,800 graduating high school seniors and 1,400 parents, indicates that academic rigor and affordability continue to be the foundation of preference but that families are now examining institutions with a wider and, sometimes, more contentious framework. This is what the report indicates:

The lasting pillars: Quality and cost

Not surprisingly, quality of academics ranked first, followed by cost and scholarship availability. However, cost's primacy has a caveat: A revealing 59% of parents acknowledged that the college their child ended up attending wasn't the most affordable one. The fact speaks to how families are more and more willing to pay a premium for perceived quality, safety, and institutional commitment to their values.

The politics of campus gates

One of the most surprising changes disclosed by the survey is the politicization of the college selection process. Almost three-quarters of students (74%) responded that a university's political leanings affected their choice to attend, and an even higher percentage of parents, 78%, reported the same. In addition, 70% of parents mentioned a state government's political climate as a determining factor in whether or not they felt it was safe to send their child to study there.

In an age when college campuses are hotbeds of controversies surrounding free speech, diversity, and control, this information indicates that universities are no longer apolitical havens of education in the public psyche. They are seen as political ecosystems that influence not just career but also character and identity.

Safety trumps sports

The survey brings a sobering message to college officials still counting on athletics as a recruitment tool. Intercolligate athletics placed 15th of 17 factors, well behind campus security, which has increased heightened prominence amid national alarm concerning gun violence and psychiatric crises on campuses.

Academic quality, price, and value continue to be priorities for parents and students alike, but this year's results indicate increasing sensitivity to considerations such as campus safety, political climate, and values," said Michael McGetrick, Vice President of Creative and Interactive Services for Spark451, in a press release.

An arms race in applications

If this year's students are apprehensive, they are also prolific. A record number of more than half applied to 10 or more schools, from 45% in 2024 and 39% in 2023. The Common Application remains the champion, with over 80% of students opting for it as their application platform.

Application fee waivers were the tipping point for most: 65% of students applied to more institutions than they had originally planned on after being offered waivers. But for parents, such incentives barely registered: 63% reported that fee waivers did not influence their child's application plans.

Direct admissions: Intrigue without conversion

Direct admits—when colleges provide room without a full application—has been touted as a democratizer of access. The poll indicates 32% of students applied to at least one college through such a program, but only 41% actually enrolled in the institution that directly admitted them. The system piques interest but has yet to be a determining enrollment force. Parents are still interested, though: 78% indicated they preferred such arrangements, up from 73% last year.

The virtual battlefield: TikTok, AI, and the influence of a written letter

If safety and politics mark the emotional landscape of college selection, technology marks its pragmatic one. A staggering 93% of students utilized social media to seek information on schools, with Instagram (70%), YouTube (52%), and TikTok (49%) emerging as the most popular. Almost one in every three used AI tools like ChatGPT, with 62% of those using AI for admissions questions and affordability issues. Parents are less digital, however—only 4% said they used AI in searching for college.

Nevertheless, in the midst of digital saturation, the survey provides a near-paradoxical note: email (97%) and even direct mail (64%) still top students' lists for preferred modes of college communication. For a generation that is daily immersing itself in notifications, there is still something to the physical heft of a letter or a one-to-one email.

A new calculus for colleges

The Spark451 survey finally presents students and families as pragmatists increasingly operating in ideological mode, digitally adept but old-fashioned, price-sensitive but value-aligned and paying to be so.

The age-old question of "Which college is best?" no longer has one answer. It now hinges as much on the statehouse as on the classroom, as much on a school's position on social issues as on its academic standings.

Not more AI—but all-pervasive AI. Just as we no longer pause to appreciate the light flickering on or the inaudible HTTP protocol behind the internet, AI is going about becoming an ambient thing in our world.

Technology has become so integrated into our lives these days that we barely even notice it's even there. That is what AI is building, and one closer than you can think of. The "Tech Trends 2025" report represents a turning point for India, where AI-fueled breakthrough technologies fuel record levels of innovation, productivity and social transformation.

This year's Tech Trends report sets at the front of mind how AI is preparing the ground for nearly all of this year's new technology trends. AI is the foundation, which accelerates and enables innovation in many industries. It is not about AI itself—it is about how it creates a tidal wave of innovation and stimulates innovation in technology enablers. In India, this diffusion and integration of AI are already gaining steam in the tech landscape, transforming industries and creating the grounds for disruptive change. India's diverse and rapidly changing ecosystem only serves to underscore the growing need for leaders who will generalize across silos. Experts can excel in-depth, but the world of today needs generalists—visionaries who will connect the dots between industries and technologies.

With industries and technologies being increasingly convergent, Indian firms have just one agenda: they must embrace interdisciplinary approaches so that they are able to take advantage of game-changer prospects. If intersectoral collaboration merges agriculture with technology or by merging sophisticated AI with blockchain technologies, India has the ideal convergence of events to become a global innovation powerhouse.

That’s the no-man’s land many graduates of the COVID years find themselves in—left behind by a world that has seemingly moved on. While the rest of the country debates moon missions and startup booms, there exists a silent generation still stuck at the starting line, scouring LinkedIn for entry-level jobs that no longer exist, and falling prey to an exploitative ecosystem thriving on false hope.

During the pandemic, college placements vanished overnight. Offer letters were revoked. Careers that had barely begun came to a halt. And now, nearly half a decade later, what remains is a gaping hole—one that private training and placement institutes have rushed in to fill. These aren’t your standard coaching centres. They operate in the grey—promising plum tech jobs, experience certificates, and quick-fix career makeovers, all for a fee and your original degree certificates as collateral.

Rohan (name changed), a B.Tech graduate from Jamshedpur after completing his industrial training with Tata Motors led nowhere after the pandemic. By 2023, approaching 30 and still unemployed, he turned to five such institutes in Chennai. They dangled backend developer roles in top firms with ₹16 LPA salaries. All he had to do was pay ₹1.2 lakh upfront—and hand over his original certificates. Today, he’s still chasing interviews, unpaid internships, and living in fear of HR audits. His documents? Locked away in an office drawer.

Then there’s Pooja, a young mother from Hyderabad with a BCA degree. After a two-year career break, she was told she’d never be considered unless she “fixed the gap.” An institute “rebranded” her—rewrote her resume, coached her, fabricated her experience timeline. She’s employed now, but lives under constant anxiety.

The worst-hit are those who neither fit the mould of a fresher nor the comfort of experience. One electrical engineer, now 31, travelled south for a job training program—only to end up depressed, isolated, and betrayed. “I had dengue, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t talk to anyone due to language. I kept asking about my placement—they finally said, ‘We only train, we don’t guarantee jobs.’”

And yet, the price tags are all too real:

• ₹20,000 for admission
• ₹50,000 per interview (after an offer letter)
• ₹1 lakh for an “experience certificate”
• Another ₹1 lakh post-placement as “success fees”

The institutes don’t sign contracts. They communicate through vague promises. “Placement depends on the candidate,” one helpdesk executive told me, conveniently avoiding any written assurance.

This isn’t a one-off scam. It’s a systemic rot. A survival economy built on the backs of pandemic graduates too desperate to question, too exhausted to resist. What should have been a temporary setback has become a career death sentence for many—unless, of course, they pay.

Where are the regulators? Where are the safeguards? Why is it so easy to open an institute that takes degrees hostage in the name of employability?

COVID-era graduates don’t need fabricated resumes or illegal shortcuts. They need bridges back into the workforce. They need structured returnship programs, flexible apprenticeships, re-skilling pathways, and, most importantly, recognition from the system that they failed—and still are.

Until then, these shadow networks will thrive. Not because they’re invisible. But because we’ve chosen to look away.

Bio: Nibedita is an independent journalist honoured by the Government of India for her contributions to defence journalism.She has been an Accredited Defence Journalist since 2018, certified by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.  With over 15 years of experience in print and digital media, she has extensively covered rural India, healthcare, education, and women’s issues. Her in-depth reporting has earned her an award from the Government of Goa back to back in 2018 and 2019. Nibedita’s work has been featured in leading national and international publications such as The Jerusalem Post, Down To Earth, Alt News, Sakal Times, and others.

There’s a popular adage - “Fast, cheap, good—pick two.” Pursue all three, and you risk collapse. Now, transpose that logic to the Indian development model, and a similarly impossible triangle emerges—except this one decides the future of half the population.

In India’s case, the three corners are female labour force participation (FLFP), care infrastructure, and demographic stability. Strengthen one, and the other two teeter. Ignore one, and the whole structure falters. It’s not just a policy dilemma—it’s macroeconomics cracking under a gendered fault line.

The Numbers Show Growth. The Reality Reveals Strain.

The spike from 23.3%female labour force participation in 2017–18 to 41.7% in 2023–24 deserves scrutiny, not celebration. Much of the increase comes from rural India, driven by distress, not opportunity. Women are entering informal, unpaid, or subsistence-level work—not careers that empower, but jobs that barely sustain.

Even in urban, formal sectors, the dropout rate is alarming. Nearly 50% of women leave the labor force between ages 30 and 40—just when caregiving needs are highest. Motherhood, care for elderly, and domestic work conflict with career goals. It's not a "choice" when there are no options provided by society. It's quiet surrender.

The Invisible Economy India Refuses to Account For

Unpaid care work continues to be India's invisible engine of households. Millions of women wake up daily to cook, clean, nurse, educate, plan, and keep families together—without contracts, paychecks, or state acknowledgement.

Indian women spend an average of five hours every day on unpaid domestic work; men get through only one. Globally, unpaid care accounts for over 7.5% of India’s GDP—more than we spend on health or education. Yet, it goes uncounted and unsupported.

Without a care economy—affordable childcare, elderly services, domestic help—women are forced out of the paid workforce. Careers end not due to lack of skill or ambition, but because there’s no infrastructure to share the burden.

Falling Fertility and the Price of Aspiration

India’s fertility rate has dipped to 1.9—below the replacement threshold of 2.1. In metros, it’s even lower. Couples are increasingly opting for DINK (Double Income, No Kids) lifestyles. It isn’t a rejection of family—it’s a reflection of systems that make parenthood unaffordable.

There’s little to no institutional support: minimal parental leave, negligible workplace flexibility, and no local childcare access. Fertility is falling not because people don’t want children—but because the cost of raising them is too high, emotionally and economically. This mirrors the demographic crises already battering Japan and South Korea.

We Can’t Patch a Systemic Crisis

India’s efforts, like the Palna Scheme (2,688 creches for ~57,000 children), are symbolic at best. Compare that to France, which spends 2.5% of GDP on childcare, or Sweden’s 480-day paid parental leave model. Even South Korea is now trialing four-day work weeks to ease family stress.

India’s ambition to become a “Viksit Bharat” hinges not only on digitisation or defence—but on how we treat care as infrastructure. Tax credits for caregivers, employer-supported childcare, public-private creche partnerships, and community-based care solutions aren’t luxuries. They are lifelines.

Care Is Not a Private Problem. It’s a Public Priority.

If India wants women to participate in the economy, have children, and lead fulfilled lives, the care economy cannot be an afterthought. It must be front and centre in policy, budgeting, and social reform.

We ask women to rise, but hand them broken ladders. We laud working mothers, but build no scaffolding to hold them up. We want economic growth—but ignore the invisible labour enabling it.

India’s triangle—labour, care, and demography—can become a virtuous cycle. But only if we stop demanding impossible trade-offs from its women. The future won’t be built in boardrooms alone. It begins in kitchens, creches, and caregiving routines we’ve long ignored.

Teaching Children to Travel Before They Literally Start Piling Their Bags

There's an old adage which gets quoted so extensively amongst travelers: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." In a country like India, that book is not merely thick but an encyclopedia of cultures, landscapes, tongues, and tales. But for schoolchildren by the millions, journeys have been the domain of book pages, sepia photographs, and the occasional summer vacation. The Ministry of Tourism, in its recent move, has altered all this. By making itself child-friendly on its Incredible India website, India has, as it were, created an endless classroom where geography, history, and culture become touchable—not recollected facts but to-be-touched.

This is not simply revamping a government portal. It's an unobtrusive revolution in how we think education must be. That we would create things specially for kids—interactive maps, digital stories, quizzes, trivia, and colorful pictures—underscores an awareness that education cannot be lowered to words and chalk. It requires movement, color, questioning, and most importantly, awe. That is precisely what travel offers, albeit virtually.

From Monuments to Memories

Think of how Indian textbooks typically introduce places. The Taj Mahal is presented as a Mughal wonder in marble. Rajasthan forts are categorized under medieval architecture. Kerala backwaters perhaps find a fleeting mention in geography texts on water bodies. They are presented as dead facts without any heart, to be memorized for a test. What the Incredible India website does is present them with a story which gives their heart to them.

A child who comes to the site does not only know that Taj Mahal was built in the 17th century; they are also exposed to Shah Jahan's dream, Yamuna river glimmering its brightness, and the artists' sweat chiseling out its stones. They don't only witness Rajasthan's forts as ruins—instead, they hear the voice of victories attained and the wars fought. The backwaters of Kerala are no longer blue lines on a map; they are waterways lined with houseboats plying down and festivals breaking out.

When children learn this way, they don't just recall the dates but the feelings—a connective emotional bond to heritage, one that textbooks are unable to create.

Education Meets Exploration

The brilliance of the project lies in its timing. Today, in the post-pandemic world, distance learning is no longer an add-on; it's standard for tens of millions of students. Yet, much of it is passive— hearing lectures, reading out of slides, or clicking on MCQs. By combining travel and learning, the Incredible India portal combines a pinch of fun. Games as experiments, smile-wink maps that winkle back, and questionnaires that question incite discovery rather than passive skimming.

It's fully in accord with the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP), which promotes experiential and interdisciplinary study. Travel, of course, is the most interdisciplinary topic there can be—geomorphology, history, anthropology, economics, ecology, even literature are all up for grabs. When the child discovers the Himalayas through the website, he is learning geology, biodiversity, mythology, and mountaineering in entirety. When he visits Varanasi, he feels the coming together of religion, art, town planning, and philosophy. This is exactly the kind of coming together of knowledge that is encouraged in NEP.

Travel as a Civic Teacher

Apart from studies, travel—real or imaginary—learns lessons that no school can teach. It makes them tolerant, respectful of nature and culture, and compassionate. This project exposes them to India's diversity early in life and makes them good students, but good citizens as well. A child who has learned to appreciate the Sundarbans' fragile ecosystem will be worried about global warming by nature. A child who has learned about the Kutch weavers' craft will naturally respect traditional lifestyles.

The Incredible India website thus does more than generate wanderlust; it sows seeds of responsibility. It says to kids: this is your heritage, your country, your duty to protect.

Challenges Ahead

Of course, no editorial ever is without noting omissions. With all its promise, such an on-line site has the potential to be elitist unless it is democratized. Private school children in the urban areas might learn lots, but rural India where the internet hasn't reached yet, what happens there? If mobility is the new teacher, then access needs to be normative. That means not just internet infrastructure but incorporation into school syllabi so that all the kids, irrespective of where they are from, can start this digital journey.

The second problem is depth. The platform can get children to learn about destinations, but will it also get children to think? Will it rise above nice pictures to discuss sustainable tourism, preservation of historic sites, and how tourism affects societies? The responses will tell us whether or not this is still a wishful exhibit case or otherwise a real learning tool.

A Vision Larger Than Tourism

At its essence, though, this project is not necessarily a vision of tourism. It's an acknowledgment that tourism is not necessarily holidays, Instagram selfies, and souvenirs. Tourism is pedagogy—pedagogy of questioning, pedagogy of listening to tales, pedagogy of writing difference. And by doing that with children, India has taken tourism out of being a consumerist luxury commodity but as a pedagogical tool and a nation-building device.

The Road Ahead

With strong leadership, this revolution can transform traveling and learning. Consider school assignments where kids plot travel routes for social studies class. Consider cyber pen-pal programs where students from various states learn about each other's local landmarks. Consider national tests where kids are tested not on memorization but on knowing storytelling heritage. The future is as vast as the nation itself.

In converting travel into the new classroom, India has made a huge leap. But long leaps, like long travels, are an incremental journey. The direction of this movement will be based on how it gets expanded, how it reaches so close, and how it inspires on an ongoing basis.

At least for the time being, here's what's certain: next generation Indians may not have known the nooks and crannies of their own nation, but through Incredible India's website, they will know it, love it, and, perhaps one day, reclaim it. And that's the real alchemy of education by tourism.

In 2014, when the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched, everyone ridiculed it as another slogan, another anniversary on the government calendar. But a decade down the line, the broom has swept away much more than roads—it has swept away the attitude of indifference, lethargy, and the belief that cleanliness is not one's concern. And now that the Limca Book of Records has authenticated it as the world's biggest cleanliness drive, not only has the movement gained legitimacy, but also attained immortality in the pages of history.

What's remarkable about this feat is not really the figures themselves—though they are staggering. Over 100 million toilets were built. Entire villages declared open-defecation free. Cities experimenting with waste segregation and plastic prohibition. These figures add up. But above all is the change in attitude. A child scolding her father for littering, a school teacher organizing children on a cleanliness procession, a neighborhood raising money to fix a broken drain—such little stories hardly get any publicity, yet they are the very beat of Swachh Bharat.

Cleanliness was treated as cosmetic effort for far too long, something done in advance of festivals or VIP visits. The mission defied that assumption, teaching us that sanitation isn't about appearance—it's about equality, health, and dignity. A toilet in a rural home is a woman no longer waiting till dark to use the toilet. A garbage-free street means fewer sick children from infection. A plastic-free school means future generations to develop an instinctive desire to conserve, not contaminate.

The Limca Book of Records award is not just a certificate. It is a reflection held against us, indicating to us that we, the masses, did it. Governments can launch schemes, allocate budgets, and design a campaign. But any cleanliness campaign can never succeed unless people raise the broom—literally and metaphorically. In that context, Swachh Bharat is perhaps India's most democratic movement in the past few years. It is so much the ragpicker's as it is the Prime Minister's who professed it.

Naturally, there are issues. Mountain-high trash dumps still line our cities. Rivers continue to carry untreated sewerage. Behaviour change is unstable, all too likely to be cast aside when convenience is called for. The journey from one campaign to perpetual cultural shift is a long, unfinished one. 

Can we move beyond symbolism and selfies, beyond broom photo-ops, and make cleanliness a part of our habits? Can education systems integrate sanitation awareness as seriously as they integrate mathematics? Can cities create systems that are simpler to obey than to defy? For record books' notice is a privilege. But recognition in our own day-to-days, in the manner in which we live and tend to our world—that is the reward we should seek.

Swachh Bharat is no more limited to a story of toilets and dustbins. It is about reclaiming dignity, health, and pride from our shared spaces. If the Limca Book of Records calls it the world's largest cleanliness drive, we need to make it the longest one as well. Because a clean India is not something we do for others—it is something we owe to ourselves, and to those who follow us.

Bio: Nibedita is an independent journalist honoured by the Government of India for her contributions to defence journalism.She has been an Accredited Defence Journalist since 2018, certified by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.  With over 15 years of experience in print and digital media, she has extensively covered rural India, healthcare, education, and women’s issues. Her in-depth reporting has earned her an award from the Government of Goa back to back in 2018 and 2019. Nibedita’s work has been featured in leading national and international publications such as The Jerusalem Post, Down To Earth, Alt News, Sakal Times, and others.

Armed with nothing but handwritten notes, borrowed books, a laboratory of meagre means and a mind of magnificent depth, C.V. Raman had once proved to the world that scientific genius was not bound by geography or a free country- but a free mind. A spark of pride lit up then colonized India when C.V. Raman brought a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. Raman's triumph was not personal. It was National.  

After him came legends like Srinivasa Ramanujan, Homi Bhabha, and Meghnad Saha who emerged as torchbearers of a generation who believed that science could change lives.

But today, that altar gathers dust.

At times when technology defines power, India's elite institutions like the IITs shine globally producing world-class engineers, data scientists, and AI pioneers. The top international tech firms of India, drive Silicon Valley unicorns, and publish in prestigious journals. But how many of these brilliant minds pursue original scientific research on Indian soil? How many walk the path of curiosity that Raman once did?

The answer is sobering.

Nearly 30–40% of top IIT graduates now leave India annually in search of better academic and research opportunities. The rest are absorbed into corporate jobs that, while lucrative, rarely reward scientific risk-taking or fundamental innovation. The tragedy isn’t a lack of talent—it’s a systemic failure to nurture it.

Every year we mark National Science Day with lofty speeches, name institutions and roads after our scientific giants, and quote their brilliance on banners and in textbooks. And yet, come the next day, we return to a system that fails to build the very ecosystem they once thrived in.

What we lack is not talent—it is research funding, mentorship pipelines, institutional autonomy, and most critically, the cultural imagination to see science not as a mere career path, but as a calling—a lifelong pursuit of truth, no matter how inconvenient or uncertain. India must learn to dream beyond global rankings and tech placements. We must revive the spirit of fearless inquiry, where asking questions matters more than scoring marks, and where institutions empower young minds to explore, not just execute.

The question isn’t whether India has the minds—it always has.

The question is—do we have the will to let them soar?

This brain drain is not a figure—it's a symptom. Indian higher education, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, has been quietly transformed to supply the global labor market, instead of creating global innovation. Our best students are not abandoning science—they're being routinely pushed out of it, by under-resourced labs, antiquated research institutions, red tape, and sheer absence of reward for risk-taking and innovative thinking.

Meanwhile, our public universities—once cradles of discovery—are decaying, chronically short of funds, faculty, and vision. Raman himself emerged from a humble Calcutta University lab, not a gleaming, globally ranked campus. 

The real tragedy isn’t that India lacks Nobel-worthy minds. It’s that we’ve created an ecosystem where even if they exist, they are more likely to be recognized abroad than supported at home.

The reckoning hour has come for the country. India requires a science policy that values blue-sky research over mindless benchmarks, invests in universities along with top institutions, and renders it economically sound for the next C.V. Raman to remain, to innovate, and flourish here.

We can't continue to be a country that produces brilliance but imports innovation. Indian science's next phase calls for more than infrastructure—it calls for imagination, investment, and integrity.

Until then, our celebrations of Raman will remain just that—nostalgic echoes of a scientific golden age we’re no longer building toward.

Bio: Nibedita is an independent journalist honoured by the Government of India for her contributions to defence journalism.She has been an Accredited Defence Journalist since 2018, certified by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.  With over 15 years of experience in print and digital media, she has extensively covered rural India, healthcare, education, and women’s issues. Her in-depth reporting has earned her an award from the Government of Goa back to back in 2018 and 2019. Nibedita’s work has been featured in leading national and international publications such as The Jerusalem Post, Down To Earth, Alt News, Sakal Times, and others.

India's rise to third position in the world in terms of research paper retractions, after only the United States and China, should stir the country to introspection, not despair. Alarming as the increasing number of retractions may be, is the institutional lethargy that has permitted scholarly malpractice to simmer undetected for years.

So far, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has favored quantity over quality, where institutions have rewarded paper numbers and not academic integrity. That policy is now changing. From 2025, NIRF will start penalizing institutions for retracted papers. It is a good decision, but belatedly so.

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is in the news after retired professor Rajeev Kumar blamed his former PhD student Om Prakash for pilfering and publishing his work in an IEEE journal without permission. The questionable paper, Detection of Fake Accounts on Social Media Using Multimodal Data With Deep Learning, was released on August 7, 2023, with seven co-authors from other institutions. The question is: why are professors at esteemed institutions being unethical — or are they being forced to be?

Some of the high-profile examples are like Prof. Zillur Rahman's case from IIT Roorkee who is representative of this broader malaise. Even though five of his papers were retracted between 2004 and 2020 for plagiarism, duplication, and dubious data, he continued to serve as dean up to May 2025. When whistleblower Achal Agarwal from India Research Watchdog brought the matter to the attention of the institute, he was ignored. Neither the professor nor the institute gave any response.

Figures from post-pub indicate that the retraction rate for India rose from 1.5 per 1,000 articles in 2012 to 3.5 in 2022. Pressure to publish—particularly on aspiring PhDs and young teaching faculty—is real. However, the underlying issue is the lack of legal protection. Whereas nations like Denmark and the UK have an independent agency to probe research misconduct, India lacks one. Rather than addressing complaints, they are shuffled between regulatory bodies such as the UGC and Department of Science and Technology—typically with no follow-up.

Even among public universities, the rot does not stop. Private colleges, influenced by the NIRF's measurements, tend to pressure professors to produce research without proper funding. It is no surprise that this creates hasty, subpar publications—many in predatory journals that bypass quality checks altogether.

A few institutions like BITS Pilani are already leading the way by establishing Research Integrity Offices and making ethics training investments reducing AInxiety in students and professors.. Isolated interventions, however, cannot repair a damaged system. It’s a game of quality vs. quantity — which one wins?

The forthcoming Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) can provide more regulatory bite. But with or without participation by state governments, it is questionable whether it will be effective.

If India wants to be a world center for research, integrity cannot be a choice. Academic dishonesty must have actual, career-changing penalties. Otherwise, the harm to India's reputation as scholars will go on—beneath the radar, but never-ending.

Bio: Nibedita is an independent journalist honoured by the Government of India for her contributions to defence journalism. With over 15 years of experience in print and digital media, she has extensively covered rural India, healthcare, education, and women’s issues. Her in-depth reporting has earned her an award from the Government of Goa back to back in 2018 and 2019. Nibedita’s work has been featured in leading national and international publications such as The Jerusalem Post, Down To Earth, Alt News, Sakal Times, and others.