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Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has made various reforms to shorten the recruitment cycle from the previous 15–18 months to 6–10 months. Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written response that the notice period for tests has been slashed from around 45 days to 21 days.

SSC CGL 2025 delayed to September following technical examination of exam platform

The SSC has also shifted entirely from pen-and-paper based examinations to computer-based tests. Apart from this, the number of tiers in some examinations has been minimized.

Descriptive-type papers have been eliminated from all the examinations except the combined Hindi translators examination, Singh added. The interview process has also been dropped. Checking of documents of the shortlisted candidates is presently being done directly by the concerned ministries and departments dealing with the post-specific vacancy.

SSC CGL 2025: Examination rescheduled, new dates to be announced soon

The SSC has launched an online centralised e-dossier system for secure and transparent management of candidate records. Singh mentioned that the system permits role-based, controlled access to authorized users and offers a tracking mechanism with special numbers for data integrity.

The e-dossier system has already been introduced in exams like combined graduate level 2024, combined higher secondary level 2024, junior engineer 2024, and multi-tasking staff and havaldar 2024.

The new system has facilitated quicker validation and forwarding of dossiers, improved coordination between SSC and ministries, and minimized use of physical records, thus speeding up pre-appointment verification and recommendations, the minister added.

SSC to reveal chosen details of non-recommended candidates to recruiters

Regarding the use of regional languages in recruitment exams, Singh reported that since 2022, the SSC has been holding three all-India exams, multi-tasking staff and Havaldar, combined higher secondary level, and Constable (GD) in 13 regional languages as well as Hindi and English.

Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), also hold their exams in 13 regional languages while in civil services exams, contestants can answer questions in any one of the 22 languages specified in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, apart from Hindi and English. 

As part of a latest revelation regarding AI, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has now sounded warnings about the increasing psychological phenomenon which he refers to as 'AI psychosis'. For those who do not know, it is an affliction where people begin to disconnect from actual life due to over-interacting with artificial intelligence machines. According to Business Insider, in a recent interview, Suleyman defined AI psychosis as a "real and emerging risk" that can easily impact vulnerable populations who become significantly engaged in conversations with AI agents. The condition will predominantly impact the people whose interactions make it difficult to differentiate between human and machine.

What is AI psychosis

According to Microsoft AI CEO, psychosis of AI is a mental state where people begin to anthropomorphize AI and give systems that are inherently non-human emotions, intentions, or consciousness. "It disconnects people from reality, fraying fragile social bonds and structures, distorting pressing moral priorities," he said.

The illness can result in psychotic thinking where the people feel that AI is sentiment or possess some kind of personal connections with them. Coupled with this, it may also result in emotional dependence to users who are isolated or psychologically vulnerable. Finally, AI psychosis can also result in a distorted sense of reality since the users depend heavily on AI for endorsement, companionship and even decision-making.

Suleyman also stressed on that fact that while AI can be helpful and engaging but it is definitely not a substitute for human or clinical support.

A call for guardrails and awareness

As per Business Insider, Suleyman also has asked the tech industry to take this risk quite seriously and also help in implementing some ethical guardrails, which include:

* Clear disclaimers about AI’s limitations

* Monitoring for signs of unhealthy usage patterns

* Cooperation with mental health professionals to research and reduce risks

In addition to this, Suleyman also requested the regulators and teachers to inform people about it as AI is gradually getting integrated into everyday life in the guise of personal assistant and therapy chatbots.

"AI friends are a new class altogether, and we need to start having a conversation about the guardrails that we implement to keep people safe and allow this incredible technology to get on with its business of bringing tremendous value to the world," Suleyman added.

As part of initiatives to revamp Indian higher education, the University of Delhi (DU) has initiated a multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud India. The partnership will prepare thousands of students with skills in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and digital literacy.

Under the initiative, DU will implement Google Cloud's cutting-edge training content into the curriculum. The course will consist of in-lab workouts, skill certifications, and access to Google Cloud's AI learning assistant NotebookLM, which will allow students to save time-consuming work by building answers on their own research and class notes.

The partnership is our part of future-proofing DU as a university," said university officials. "We are not only launching our students into careers, but also into spearheading the digital economy."

What DU Students Can Look Forward To:

High-in-demand technology specialty courses

NotebookLM, Google's AI study assistant, at no cost

Google Cloud certifications in GenAI, data science, and security

Hackathons, webinars, and mentorship on campus

Incubation support and cloud credits for student-startups

Faculty upskilling and digital upskilling programs

Implementation of end-to-end Google Workspace for Education at the department level

Google Cloud India Managing Director Sashi Sreedharan quoted the program's potential to bridge the skill gap: "Technology is a powerful equalizer. It's important that India's youth have skills which are not just in demand today, but future-proofed."

Google Cloud will collaborate with DU to code-design learning pathways and grant access to a vast array of technical tools to prepare students for problem-solving and innovation in the global world.

The partnership is aimed at igniting entrepreneurial passion, career preparedness, and pedagogy revolution on DU's inclusive campuses, a monumental step towards a digitally enabled academic future.

As an initiative to narrow the gender divide in innovation and technological leadership, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has introduced a special certificate course in business-focused generative AI for women. The course, "GenAI for Business: A Hands-On Introduction," will be organized by the Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship (DSSE) from September 11 to 13, with September 9 as the deadline for registration.

This foundation course aims to empower women managers, entrepreneurs, and professionals with business-oriented, practical skills in the rapidly emerging area of generative artificial intelligence. The online course is formatted to be convenient and flexible, particularly for working women and aspiring entrepreneurs.

IIT Bombay says the program will be an environment of co-learning and interactivity through which AI will be made accessible without the apprehension that naturally hovers over in technology-rich classrooms. The effort falls under a broader institutional drive to increase diversity in nascent technologies and create women leaders in AI-led industries.

The course provides hands-on exposure to state-of-the-art generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Co-Pilot, DALLE, Perplexity, Flux1, Grok, and Notebook LM. Students will be exposed to live demonstrations, practice sessions, and actual business case studies that demonstrate how these tools are redefining businesses.

"This course isn't about mastering tools; it's about releasing new modes of thinking and solving," DSSE faculty said in a statement.e

By providing a dedicated platform for women to learn, work together, and innovate, IIT Bombay aims to generate a new generation of women changemakers who would be able to lead AI-facilitated change in various sectors with confidence.

IIT Mandi Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) has joined hands with Nagent AI to launch what they call a hybrid no-code AI agent creation program. It is for working professionals who want to learn how to develop and deploy AI agents without spending months coding or researching. The initiative incorporates IIT Mandi TIH's intellectual virtues with the already established platform of Nagent AI, which currently has more than 1,000 enterprise customers in the world.

Organisers state that the programme is aimed at directly addressing India's AI talent gap, which is projected to be more than one million unfilled positions by 2027. Vacancies for jobs using AI are expected to reach 2.3 million by the same year, where demand is 51 percent higher than supply. The goal is to allow professionals and organizations to cut time from concept to fully functional AI system from several months to a few days.

A hands-on format with a restricted intake

The hybrid format involves a 23-hour curriculum that includes online sessions and in-person campus immersion at IIT Mandi TIH. Registration is open until August 30, 2025, but seats are capped at 30 participants. According to the organisers, the program will let attendees build fully deployable AI agents using Nagent AI’s Playground. They will also get access to hundreds of AI models, a no-code RAG pipeline, and other tools needed for production-ready systems.

Somjit Amrit, CEO of IIT Mandi TIH, said the initiative is meant to move beyond industry hype and focus on usable skills. “Buzzwords can bury real breakthroughs in hype, so we’re cutting straight across the substance,” he explained, adding that the workshop is designed to show how humans and AI agents can work together in practical ways.

Industry relevance and academic mentorship

The curriculum has also been co-developed by the IIT Mandi TIH faculty and Nagent AI specialists. Some of the topics are agent orchestration, multi-agent collaboration, agentic prompting, and proprietary data integration through the no-code RAG pipeline. Capstone projects will be mentored by industry leaders like Pratap Behera, Senthilraj Kalaimani, Siddharth Kanungo, and Anmol Gupta.

Behera, CEO, and co-founder of Nagent AI said that the alliance "fills the AI skill gap by enabling any professional to build and deploy high-performing AI agents in days." He added that the approach had the potential to accelerate the use of AI within industries by making the tools accessible.

Option to work on enterprise projects

The course participants can opt to implement enterprise projects either through the Nagent AI community or create systems for their organizations. Top-performing projects can get up to ₹1 crore of funding through iHub's Call for Innovation pipeline. Excellent work will also have industry showcase opportunities.

Organizers say the program dovetails with India's "AI for All" initiative and can be beneficial in healthcare, supply chain, and customer experience. The aspiration is to compress the typical six-month to one-year process of upskilling in AI into weeks. This is in order to match the speed at which businesses now expect to get a return on investments in AI.

As the market for no-code AI platforms is estimated to grow from $4.9 billion (₹426 crore) in 2024 to $24.8 billion (₹2,157 crore) by 2029, the demand for existing AI development talent will only increase further.

Emphasizing India's youth power in the tech industry, Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw pointed out that 20 indigenous student-designed semiconductor chips have been successfully produced at the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali.

Taking to social media, the minister announced, "Bharat's Yuva Shakti, 20 indigenous student-designed chips taped out from SCL Mohali."

As per the Ministry of Electronics & IT, the chips were developed by 17 Indian engineering colleges' students, including a few IITs, and successfully produced at its unit.

These designs are under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme, which looks to enhance semiconductor design and manufacturing capacity in India.

The ministry also added that the approved DLI Scheme of Rs 1,000 crore supports homegrown companies, startups, and MSMEs in creating semiconductor products.

The process of designing and marketing semiconductor products has high entry barriers, long development cycles, and fierce international competition.

To overcome these hurdles, the DLI Scheme provides design infrastructure facilities, including Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and Intellectual Property (IP) cores, for early prototyping.

It also gives financial support of up to 50 per cent of qualifying expenses, capped at Rs 15 crore per application, towards design prototyping, scale-up, and volume production.

There are also incentives of 6 to 4 per cent of net sales turnover for five years, with a cap of Rs 30 crore per application, towards deployment and commercialization of chip solutions.

Since its inception in December 2021, 278 education institutions under the C2S program and 72 startups under the DLI program have been cleared for access to sophisticated EDA tools.

The ministry said "The DLI Scheme is implemented in close consultation with stakeholders and beneficiary companies. Any modifications needed will be done based on evolving requirements and feedback.".

The ministry also mentioned that fiscal assistance has been approved to 23 companies and start-ups for chip designing for uses like surveillance cameras, energy meters, microprocessor IPs, and networking.

Among them, ten companies have raised venture capital funds to ramp up their prototypes for commercialization, while six companies have executed prototype tape-outs at different semiconductor foundries.