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The demand for food continues to rise with the growing population, while most of the food crops face challenges such as a shorter season, infestation by pests and erratic weather. Therefore, scientists at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology SKUAST Kashmir are turning to 'speed breeding', a technology in fast-tracking the development of climate-resilient and high yield crops meant for the growing population in the valley.

This has put immense pressure on resources and overall food demand, with Jammu and Kashmir's annual population growth rate ranging from 1 to 2.6% after the year 2000. This comes amidst a backdrop of declining land area, vagaries of climate change, soil erosion, water deficit, short growing seasons, resurgence of new pests, and a constant shortage of quality seeds.

In SKUAST, scientists are resorting to speed breeding to fulfill the growing demand for food in the face of these difficulties. Speed breeding is a new technique that involves hastening the growth cycle of crops under controlled environmental conditions. Although conventional breeding has limits that allow only one or two generations of crops per year, depending on the nature of the climate, with speed breeding, as many as four to six seed-to-seed cycles per year can be achieved by scientists.

According to Asif Bashir Shikari, Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding in SKAUST- Kashmir and Principal Investigator of Speed-Breeding programme in Kashmir, the concept behind speed breeding technique is that 'the idea is to accelerate the breeding'. Though not a crop cultivation system, when a variety comes out of the speed breeding programme, it can be released for commercial cultivation, he clarified.

Shikari explained that the development of a new variety of crop generally takes eight years. After that, it would take another two to three years for regulatory approval before the variety reaches the farmers. It can take up to a decade before a new improved variety is available in the market.

"Speed breeding shortens this entire process considerably. It grows plants under controlled environmental conditions using advanced full-spectrum PPFD lights, accurate temperature and humidity, and optimized photoperiods for the length of time each day that plants receive light. This enables the growth of multiple generations of crops per year-up to five or six in rice-compared with only one or two generations using traditional field or glasshouse conditions," Shikari said

Education is becoming more dynamic than ever, and the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the center of this transformation. What used to require years of research and study is now being revolutionized by the fast technological advancement. The CEO of the first generative AI team at Google and founder of Google, Jad Tarifi, says that a PhD is becoming obsolete in this new age of faster innovation.

According to Tarifi, AI is changing so rapidly that by the time a person finishes a PhD, the technology they are reading about has already evolved. Tarifi describes the process of his doctorate as 5 years of studying and suffering, but he must admit that it wasn’t painless.

PhDs are Becoming a Relic of the Past

Tarifi is of the opinion that the doctorate degree is only worthwhile to individuals who are highly interested in research. The issue, he says, is that research and academic programs are changing at an incredibly gradual rate that by the time a student earns a five- or seven-year PhD, their curriculum and the technology that has supported it has advanced.

That is, the formal academic systems are failing to follow the lightning speed of the digital world. Subjects that had to be memorized or learned by heart are in danger of becoming automated, being done more efficiently and less inaccurately by an AI system.

There are some grave threats to the Memory-Based Professions

Tarifi cautions that careers that rely so much on memory such as medicine or traditional clerical work are at risk of being disrupted in the long run by AI. According to him, in case your job is all about remembering facts, AI will soon perform it faster than you.

He recommends that students should redirect attention to areas where AI is still developing like in the biological, environmental and botany fields. Human intuition, creativity, and decision-making will continue to be important in these areas and cannot be substituted by algorithms. 

The Future is in Skills, Not Degrees.

Academic qualifications can soon be placed second to the job market as smart skills and emotional intelligence are valued. Tarifi believes that what certificate is hanging on a wall will be of lesser importance than practical capability and adaptability to change.

He stresses that technical expertise alone does not suffice, but rather the ability to learn fast, accept change, and be responsible with technology is what makes a person successful in the era of AI. The most important characteristics of the future workforce are emotional intelligence (EQ), adaptability and creativity.

‘Degrees tell what you learned; skills show what you are capable of doing’, Tarifi says. In the AI-driven world, it is your capability to think, learn and feel, which will make you really different.

Education Must Be Revisited Radically

A big crossroads is currently being encountered by the global education system. As AI is not only changing how students study, but also what they should study, universities are also being called upon to revise curricula that develop emotional development, problem-solving and digital fluency in addition to theory.

Future generations will be successful individuals who could combine both the smartness and the compassion, the ingenuity with rationality, and the numbers with the understanding of people. Artificial Intelligence can substitute work, but it cannot be used to emulate passion, purpose, and depth of emotions.

In Kerala, a controversy over a school uniform has again put the hijab at a crossroads of education, rights, and institutional freedom. On Friday, the state government informed the Kerala High Court that preventing a Muslim girl from attending school in her headscarf (hijab) was an "invasion" of privacy and dignity and a "denial of her right to secular education," PTI reports.

The affidavit, lodged against a petition by St. Rita's Public School, Palluruthy, Kochi, put the issue in the context of basic freedoms under a secular constitution. The state contended that the right of a student to appear in the headscarf "does not stop at the school gate," asserting that uniformity cannot anticipate constitutional liberty.

From classroom rule to courtroom argument

The issue started when the church-run St. Rita's Public School objected to a General Education Department directive permitting the student to go to classes wearing her hijab. The minority institution, affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), said the directive was "illegal" and out of the department's jurisdiction.

In its affidavit, the state government maintained that the Education Department has "sufficient functional, financial and administrative control" in certain areas over CBSE-affiliated schools, citing the Affiliation Bye-Laws and connected government orders.

The parents of the student, at the time of the hearing, told the court that they had withdrawn the girl and had applied elsewhere. The court, accepting the withdrawal, did not find it appropriate to investigate the contentious points further. Justice V. G. Arun noted that "better sense has prevailed" and that "fraternity", a pillar of constitutional values, was not disturbed, PTI adds.

The state's stand: Rights and reconciliation

Some days back, Kerala Education Minister V. Sivankutty had responded directly to the controversy. "The decision of the school officials was unconstitutional," he stated, continuing to add that "a child's rights cannot be denied," reports ANI.

He called on schools to come up with a proper headscarf that could be integrated into the school uniform as a reasonable middle way. If schools do not obey, the government will take serious action, the minister warned.

Sivankutty also warned against efforts to make such disputes communal flashpoints and urged that they be settled at the institutional level. "The government's position is very clear," he said. "We will strictly follow the rights under the Constitution and applicable court orders." 

A broader trend: India's changing uniform debate

The St. Rita's episode is only the newest in a long chain of hijab controversies that have been besetting India on a national level. These controversies highlight the manner in which institutions of learning and higher education are finding it difficult to achieve the fine balance between the maintenance of the rule of the institution and the respect for individual freedom. Governments from Kerala and Karnataka to Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have wrestled with these issues: To what extent can there be a uniform policy without encroaching on freedom of religion?

Ten students in Chatra, Jharkhand, accused a principal of stripping them of their hijabs in July 2025, but the charge turned out to be baseless, say district authorities. In May 2025, an investigation was initiated after a Khalsa Girls Inter College, Meerut student came into focus claiming that she was disallowed from wearing a hijab, informs TNN.

In Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor, students were let go for refusing to comply with instructions on the color of scarves to wear, and in Karnataka, an assistant professor was accused of requiring students on a field trip to wear hijabs.

In each of these, the outcomes have been different. Some through negotiation, some through confrontation, but collectively they identify that there is no uniform policy framework.

Uniformity, autonomy, and the line in the constitution

Indian classroom hijab disputes are no longer a solo event. They are the persistent conflict between constitutional freedom and institutional uniformity. The schools can urge unity and equality with dress codes, but the government must yet ensure personal choice without sacrificing order‍‍‌‍‍‌.

The federal structure introduces yet another layer: states construct rules differently and managements filter these regulations through their own administrative and cultural filters. What results is a patchwork of local solutions as opposed to a national consensus.

The administrative question still stands, nonetheless. Can there be one uniform that is absolute?

True, the Kerala experience suggests that the solution will have to be found not in judicial decisions but in wise policymaking. Anything else would render governance a vicious circle of responding to scandals, and schools laboratories of more ideological battles.

The Union government's new draft labour policy has triggered a political row for being "inspired" by ancient Hindu texts such as the Manusmriti, which codified the system of caste hierarchy. The draft National Labour and Employment Policy of the Ministry of Labour and Employment employs the word labour as rajdharma, the sovereign's duty, and sets work forth as a dharmic moral obligation in the "Indic worldview". Experts and opposition leaders do not agree, however, and argue that invocation of the Manusmriti contravenes the tenets of workers' rights, fair remuneration, and social justice the Constitution holds dear.

The working draft identifies that social norms view work as a moral and sacred responsibility that maintains social harmony, economic prosperity, and common good.

"Within the Indic system, labor is not merely a means of subsistence but an act of contribution to the greater order of dharma (righteous duty). According to this vision, all workers, from artisans, farmers, and teachers to factory laborers, are recognized as integral actors in the web of social creation," the policy read.

It also alludes to such early Hindu scriptures as the Manusmriti, holding that such writings defined the ethos of rajdharma, the sovereign's duty to deliver justice, fair wages, and protection against exploitation to labor.

The Congress on Wednesday charged the Modi government with going back on the values of Manusmriti through the new draft policy. The party claimed that the paper upholds the text as the moral framework of governance of labor at the cost of contemporary democratic values.

Congress joint secretary Jairam Ramesh characterized the policy as an expression of the ideological leanings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and blamed it for having "attacked the Constitution just after it was adopted".

'The Modi Government's working paper Shram Shakti Niti 2025, released last month for public feedback, explicitly avers that the Manusmriti situates 'the moral basis of labour regulation within India's civilisational heritage, centuries before the advent of modern labour law,'\" Ramesh said in an X post.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday ordered the secretary, department of school education, Punjab, to submit a response to a suo motu petition on poor infrastructure in state schools.

The case was shifted to suo motu proceedings by the bench of justice NS Shekhawat in September, when it ran into two petitions opposing the order of local authorities not to remove a middle school teacher from the school in spite of the transfer order. It had subsequently been revealed that said petitioner was the only instructor in an Amritsar school. The second was by a lady primary teacher who came up in court in a case regarding a dispute regarding her deputation to a school at Ludhiana having only one teacher.

"It appears that the state as much as schools don't prioritize the education of young children and schools totally lack the basic infrastructure, class rooms, toilets and no qualified teacher/head teacher have been appointed," the court has observed while referring both the cases to the chief justice for registration of these cases as public interest litigations.

Now the court has also requested the education department reply on lines of queries issued by the single bench judge by December 15. The details sought included a roll of middle schools, wherein there are fewer than five rooms. Other such information needed from the government were of schools to which no permanent head master had been appointed, in which fewer than five teachers were appointed, and in which boys', girls', and staff toilets were not available separately. It was also instructed that details should be given regarding the schools where there were fewer than 50 students and whether any attempt was made to admit more students in such a school. The same details were sought in the matter of primary schools

Selecting the appropriate entrance exam can, in fact, make a great deal of difference to your higher education life; no question about it. There are so many private university entrance exams accessible in India that they must be well-versed with their pattern, advantages, and drawback. Out of all these, Chandigarh University Common Entrance Test (CUCET) is one of the most common used option amongst thousands of students every year.

This article is comparing CUCET with some of the best private university entrance exams so that you can make an informed decision. So, without further ado, let us get started —

What is CUCET (Chandigarh University Common Entrance Test 2026)?

CUCET is Chandigarh University's authorized entry test for admittance into a very high number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It is not only a gateway to academic excellence but also an opportunity window for students to gain from high-value scholarships.

Exam Structure and Eligibility

CUCET, a well-known private university entrance test, is held in different phases of the year and provides convenience to students to sit for the test at their own convenient time. The test is generally on subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics/Biology, English, and General Aptitude. Eligibility differs course-wise. For Undergraduate courses, pass-outs of Class 12 or students who are appearing for Class 12 are eligible, and for Postgraduate courses, graduates are eligible.

Programmes and Highlights

CUCET provides contenders the chance to appear for various programs, such as Engineering, Management, Sciences, Arts, and Law. The most striking feature is its scholarship scheme on the basis of which high CUCET scores can result in students being provided with a full waiver on tuition fees, thus making quality higher education both accessible and affordable.

Common Private University Entrance Exams Compared

Some of the well-known institutes have their own private university entrance exams. Some of the most popular ones are listed below:

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) / Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT): Well known for its health sciences and engineering courses, MIT is extremely competitive.

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) — BITSAT: A challenging private test, BITSAT provides admission to Pilani, Goa, and Hyderabad campuses of BITS.

VIT — Vellore Institute of Technology (VITEEE): The favorite among engineering aspirants, VITEEE is purely technical know-how and mathematical skills.

Symbiosis Institute of Technology (SITEEE): The test, for admission to Symbiosis' engineering courses, tests basic concepts in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

In brief, though these private university entry tests lead to elite colleges, CUCET 2026 gives a balanced combination of accessibility, flexibility, as well as scholarships.

Comparative Analysis: CUCET vs Other Private University Entrance Tests

Now let's take a close observation of how CUCET stands compared to other private university entrance tests in terms of difficulty, syllabus, admissions, and scholarships:

CUCHD vs LPUNEST

LPUNEST has more subjects covered but CUCET 2026 provides more liberal scholarships and multiple attempts for reducing stress among students. In the other one, difficulty level is moderate for both but aptitude and reasoning hold greater weightage for CUCET.

CUCHD vs MET

MET is highly competitive, even tougher than CUCET. While MET provides international exposure, CUCET is famous for being affordable with higher academic diversity. For those who want to benefit from financial aid in conjunction with an academically diversified environment, CUCET is generally the first choice.

CUCHD vs BITSAT

BITSAT has a tough question pattern and speed-based pattern. CUCET has a student-friendly pattern with wider scholarship schemes. Students aspiring for a less stressful academic journey opt for CUCET.

CUCHD vs VITE

VITEEE lays greater emphasis on engineering with higher level to moderate level difficulty. CUCET, however, deals with several streams and provides more career prospects to the students. Scholarship coverage is broad under CUCET compared to VITEEE.

CUCHD vs SITE

SITEEE is a specialized one limited to engineering courses, whereas CUCET is for different streams. Chandigarh University scholarship through CUCET is comparatively larger and hence more appealing for students not in engineering.

Preparation Strategy: Focus on NCERT-level Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics/Biology as these are the fundamentals for all tests. Enhance English and Aptitude since they are part of CUCET and other private university entrance exams.

Admission Process and Flexibility

Perhaps CUCET's biggest strength is its flexibility. The candidates can try the test several times during phases, can apply for two or more courses, and avail scholarship schemes. Contrary to the rest of the private university entrance exams, which are conducted once a year with barely any possibility of a second attempt

If one likes a single-stream concentration (such as Engineering), tests like BITSAT, VITEEE, or SITEEE would be apt. However, if one desires a variety of programmes, scholarships, and room to move, CUCET is definitely the option. It best meets the needs of students who must juggle academic aspirations with affordability.

Key Takeaways

CUCET presents wide educational opportunities, more flexibility, and ample scholarships.

Other Private University Admission Tests are competitive and narrow in scope.

The decision is yours depending on your career aspirations: whether you lean towards a specific engineering discipline or more general, multi-disciplinary development.

Individuals who desire affordability and portability generally opt for CUCET.