Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) professor Uma Kanjilal said the university will discuss a proposal to offer blended engineering or B Tech degrees through with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)."IGNOU VC Professor Uma Kanjilal said Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) would take up a proposal for offering blended engineering/ B Tech degrees with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Talking to journalists in Pune at IGNOU Regional Centre on Tuesday, Kanjilal said the similar proposal had not been accepted by AICTE earlier.

She said, “Currently there is no permission from AICTE for B Tech through online or distance learning modes as the course is practical and lab heavy. However, if AICTE permits us, we can have B Tech degrees in a blended mode where students can learn theory through distance learning while they will physically attend the practical classes.”

“There have been discussions with AICTE regarding this previously but it was not approved. We will speak to them again regarding this proposal,” Kanjilal added.

The IGNOU Pune Regional Centre has set up its Swayamprabha studio. Swayamprabha is a group of 40 DTH channels that telecast educational programmes on a 24x7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Original content of four hours is repeated five times everyday on these channels. IGNOU is the National Coordinator for Swayam Prabha for six channels (Ch 11 to 16). The centre is expected to be active from April onwards and will record content exclusively in Marathi.

IGNOU is an institution established by an Act of Parliament in 1985 to democratise education in India. It is India’s top open university with A++ accreditation from NAAC. It has over 69 regional centres and offers over 325 programmes. It offers multiple arts, commerce, and science courses however technical degrees or degrees with a significant practical component have not been allowed through online or distance learning programmes.

The registration for IISER Aptitude Test (IAT) 2026 is now open. The test is for the students who want to take admission in the UG science programmes of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research. You can register online at iiseradmission.in.

Officially the last date to submit the form auto registration is April 13, 2026 (11:55 pm) However correction facility will be available from April 16 to April 18, so that you can do the changes in your form already submitted.

On May 24, you will be able to get your admit cards. The entrance test will be held on June 7 2026 from 9 am to 12 pm. The provisional answer key will be out on the same day. Candidates can lodge their objections from June 9 to June 13. Document uploading is from June 13 to June 21.

Application Process

Candidates need to register themselves online by providing personal and academic details, including upload of mark sheets, and submitting the form via the application portal. It includes steps like initial registration, verification, and final submission.

Application Fee Structure

The application fee is 2,000 for General EWS OBC and OBC-NCL categories. On the other hand SC ST, PwD and Kashmiri migrant categories are charged only 1,000 and the foreign nationals need to pay an amount of 12,000.

Admission through IAT

IISER Aptitude Test is a mode of admission to the dual degree five-year BS-MS programmes and four-year BS courses at IISERs. The institutes are renowned for their emphasis on research-led science education as well as interdisciplinary learning.

Applicants must ensure they complete their application by the last date and keep themselves updated with the information related to admit cards and examination instructions.

The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a man named Harish Ali from Saharanpur for allegedly promoting ISIS ideology and recruiting members for terrorist activities in India.

Harish, a BDS second-year student, was arrested from Moradabad while acting on inputs received by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) over the past few months regarding the suspect's activities.

The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a man named Harish Ali from Saharanpur for allegedly promoting ISIS ideology and recruiting members for terrorist activities in India. Harish, a BDS second-year student, was arrested from Moradabad while acting on inputs received by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) over the past few months regarding the suspect's activities.

According to the police, Harish not only initiated but also controlled several online discussion forums on the photo-sharing site Instagram and encrypted communication apps like Session and Discord. He mostly used false names, and with the help of VPNs, he concealed his real identity.The channels were used by him to share ISIS propaganda magazines, videos and audios of killed terrorists being glorified etc. Besides that, he was also seen recruiting new members to the organisation through these channels. He started Al Ittihad Media Foundation, a completely different group to help improve the work of ISIS in India.

Harish was also in touch with ISIS in Pakistan and other countries and reportedly arranged plans with them. WANTED TO OVERTHROW DEMOCRACYAuthorities said Harish attempted to overthrow the democratic system of India and establish a caliphate based on Sharia law. He incited his followers to get involved in fidayeen-type missions and propagate the jihadist ideology.

He was always tuned to ISIS media outlets such as Dabiq magazine and Al-Naba new-channel and was forwarding extremist guides and news to his contacts.

PUNJAB POLICE BUST ISI-BACKED TERROR MODULE

In a separate incident, the Punjab Police on Saturday arrested Gursevak Singh alias Suraj and Amarjit Singh alias Rohit in connection with an ISI-backed terror and arms smuggling module.

During the operation, officials recovered an AK-47 rifle, three 9mm Glock pistols, two magazines, and 36 live cartridges from the suspects. The arrests were carried out near Muhawa village by teams from the Gharinda police station area, acting on specific intelligence inputs.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the accused were communicating with foreign-based handlers via social media, DGP Gaurav Yadav said. The module was also involved in radicalisation efforts and spreading narratives against India and the police.

"The weapon consignment was sent by foreign handlers through the Pakistan route," added SSP, Amritsar Rural, Suhail Qasim Mir, noting the arms were intended for terrorist activities in Punjab.

The construction of the proposed Jhajjar Campus was stopped because the load-bearing capacity of the land was too low due to the land's topography and waterlogging, which made it unsuitable for IIT Delhi facilities. Sonipat Campus: IIT Delhi has a functioning Sonipat campus equipped with 35 advanced research facilities including sophisticated microscopes, 3D metal printers, and devices for environmental monitoring which collectively support the research in a number of scientific fields.

Ideas & Partnerships: The Sonipat campus is home to Atal Incubation Centre, I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics, and the Atmospheric Observatory, creating a setup for industry interaction, entrepreneurship, and research at the forefront of the field. The Jhajjar campus of IIT Delhi may not be launched as the land that was sanctioned for the project was found to be unfit for the construction of IIT Delhi Extension Campus in Jhajjar. This update was shared by Sukanta Majumdar, Minister Of State In The Ministry Of Education, in Lok Sabha on Monday (March 16).

"An extension campus of IIT Delhi at Jhajjar, Haryana was earlier proposed, however, based on the technical survey held at the location, it was concluded/found that the load bearing capacity of the land is very low due to its topography and water logging and therefore, the land could not meet the requirements of IIT Delhi for construction of its planned facilities," Majumdar said.

"IIT Delhi has already set up its extension campus on 50 acres of land situated within the Rajiv Gandhi Education City (RGEC) in Sonipat, Haryana. The campus is the center for advanced research, innovation and industry collaboration. At present, there are 35 state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities, the capital value of which is approximately INR 190 Crores, to support the research of chemists physicists biologists, materials scientists, and engineers from academic and RND institutes as well as MSMEs and industry, " The research facilities include high-end light and electron microscopes, a 3D metal printer, chemical and material synthesis and characterization devices, spectroscopy/spectrometry, and environmental monitoring devices. In addition to the centralized research facilities, the Sonipat campus contains the laboratories of the Optics and Photonics Unit of IIT Delhi, the Atal Incubation Centre for translational research, and a new High Performance Computational Facility," Majumdar said.

"The campus also hosts the Atmospheric Observatory, operated by the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in collaboration with IMD, NASA, ISRO, and the University of Helsinki. Beyond research, the campus has emerged as a center for technological innovation. The institute hosts the I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), which unites academia, industry, and government to develop technologies that enhance human–robot collaboration and the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), part of the Atal Innovation Mission, which supports entrepreneurs in building scalable and sustainable ventures," he added.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M))Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament John Brittas, referring to the government data released as a reply to parliament question, lamented that the money set aside for the Scheduled Castes (SC), other backward classes (OBC), economically backward classes (EBC) and denotified tribes (DNT) students have not been fully utilized. In a letter addressed to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, 11th March, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale, shared information about different scholarships available for students of SC OBC EBC and DNT in the realm of higher education along with the allocation and the usage of the scholarship funds.

Money in the thousands of crores reserved for the scholarships of SC OBC EBC, and DNT students remain unspent, Brittas wrote in a post on X. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment was given a total budget of Rs 14,164.42 crore according to the figures. The department actually made the expenditure of Rs 8,679.02 crore in 2024-25.

This included proposals worth Rs 9,163.98 crore but utilization was only Rs 8,008.79 crore. Similarly, Rs 8,874.14 crore was the planned amount, while Rs 7,762.82 crore was spent. At the same time, Rs 8,165 crore was planned and Rs 6,372.38 crore spent in 2022-23. The figures show that a sum of Rs 4,446.24 crore was used in 2021-22 out of Rs 6,220.62 crore allocated.

Furthermore Brittas highlighted that there has been an alarming drop in the number of scholarship recipients among various segments over time.

The official reports show that the number of SC pre-matric scholarship beneficiaries went down from 31.22 lakh in 2020-21 to 21.65 lakh in 2024-25, whereas the SC post-matric recipients have fallen marginally from 50.16 lakh to 48.04 lakh. Actually, the reduction was even more serious for the OBC/EBC/DNT groups students: pre-matric beneficiaries were cut by over half from 54.95 lakh to 20.61 lakh, and post-matric beneficiaries from 45.45 lakh to 24.53 lakh.

“Millions of students have simply disappeared from scholarship rolls. For marginalized students, this is not just a statistic - it is lost opportunity,” he said.

Meanwhile, The Hindu reported that the Union social justice ministry also said that it is planning to raise the annual family income eligibility criteria for post-matric scholarship schemes for students from marginalised categories from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh from the 2026-27 fiscal year onwards.

Informing a departmentally related House panel, the government has also noted that widespread revisions are being planned for various scholarship schemes administered for students from SC, ST, OBC, and DNT communities, the report said.

As per the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), nearly 90% of the 2,409 students who participated in a referendum voted in favour of the vice-chancellor of the university, Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit, stepping down. stated this at a press conference held at the Press Club of India on Wednesday.

The union mentioned that the results of the referendum mirror the sentiments of the larger student community.

JNUSU carried out the referendum, A casteist and corrupt VC has no place in JNU, on Tuesday. Sixteen booths were installed at different schools on the campus. Former members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) oversaw the entire exercise, the union stated.

The referendum followed a number of protests by the JNUSU resulting from the comments made by Pandit in a podcast interview. In that interview, she is said to have made a derogatory remark about Dalits.

"The total number of students who participated in the voting was 2 409 out of which 2,181 students (90.54%) voted to not have the vice-chancellor continue. A total of 207 students (8.59%) voted in favour of her continuing as V-C and 21 votes were declared invalid,” the JNUSU said.

“The referendum clearly reflects the overwhelming sentiment of the student body. The students of JNU have delivered a decisive democratic mandate demanding accountability and the resignation of the vice-chancellor,” the union added.

The JNU administration did not comment on the matter.

Calling the referendum undemocratic, Christhu Doss, a professor at JNU’s Centre for Historical Studies, said the VC’s comments should have been examined through debate and discussion.

“I find the vice-chancellor’s remarks debatable, and given JNU’s rigorous academic and intellectual culture, it should have been discussed and debated rather than addressed through a referendum,” Doss said.

Work at the Government Dental College on the Civil Hospital campus in Asarwa was severely affected after intern doctors went on strike two days ago, protesting the lack of hostel accommodation. The protest created a situation where routine academic and hospital activities came to a halt.

Students pursuing dental studies are required to complete a four-year academic programme followed by a year-long internship. According to existing rules, hostel facilities are not provided to students during their internship period. Based on this regulation, the college administration recently instructed intern doctors who were staying in the hostel to vacate their rooms.

The students launched a strike demanding that hostel accommodation be provided during their internship. As a result, intern doctors stopped performing their internship duties two days ago.

The students are protesting because they think that accommodation should be arranged for them while they are doing their internship. The strike has worried the college administration as the absence of interns might lead to a disruption or change of the regular services/activities.

On the other hand, the college officials stood firm that this is a direct implementation of the current policy. They explained that the students are expected to move out of the hostel after finishing four years of academic studies so that the rooms can be given to the newly admitted students particularly given the limited hostel capacities.

On the topic of stipend, the authorities spoke that interns receive their stipend only after the date on which the internship officially starts. They also assured that no one has had any stipend or scholarship held back.

The college management explained that talks are taking place with the students in order to resolve the issue and convince them to return to the internship activities at the earliest.

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