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India's ambitious human space mission is coming to a pivotal new stage, with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) set to launch the Gaganyaan-1 (G1) mission in December.

Isro officials have assured IndiaToday.in that this historic mission, which is the first in a series of seminal unmanned test flights, will remain three days in orbit around Earth to test all the systems and procedures undergone to send Indian astronauts into space.

G1 mission marks a milestone for India's space programme when it will test the systems for safety and reliability to transport humans to space. "G1 is indispensable in testing our technologies under real space conditions. We will be testing life support, navigation, re-entry and other key parameters to safely send people to orbit and bring them back home," said the official.

The rocket vehicle, to be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, will fly around the world in a low-Earth orbit for nearly three days before returning in a controlled mission.

On board are sensors to gather vital information on how the vehicle performs against the stresses of launch, radiation, exposure to microgravity, and re-entry from the atmosphere—a dress rehearsal exercise for a future crewed mission.

DROP TEST AHEAD

Since the launch is planned in December, Isro is also planning to perform an integrated drop test of the crew module.

The test will simulate parachute-guided landing by letting the module drop to a specified altitude, increasing the accuracy of the recovery operation and confirming that all the landing systems function as intended.

Even though Isro has not made it official, a Notam has released speculating the possibility of Crew Module drop test.

ASTRONAUT TRAINING TO RESUM

Meanwhile, training of astronauts for Gaganyaan is also commencing. Indian Air Force pilot Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, one of the four officers selected to go on the first mission, will return to India this month after additional training at Axiom Space in the US.

The four-member team's crew training schedule will begin in October and Bengaluru's Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) is ready to complete a high-tech crew training simulator.

The simulator will improve mission readiness immensely by simulating launch, orbit, and re-entry conditions for cosmonauts.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday instructed the officials of education to relocate anganwadi centres into buildings which became vacant following the pairing of schools with fewer students.

"This will improve early childhood education and make maximum use of infrastructure," he said while presiding over a review meeting with officials of basic education.

Yogi added schools having over 50 students must operate as separate institutes to further administrative effectiveness, accountability and academic supervision.

"The paired system should be introduced on a long-term, composite vision. The officials must project its advantage for the students, teachers, and parents through improved utilisation of resources and quality of education," he added. Stressing that the relocation of anganwadi centres must be time-bound and without any letup, Yogi also instructed the school management committees (SMCs), which include the headteacher and village head, to let no child in the age group of 6-14 remain outside school education.

Demanding proper implementation of the 'School Chalo Abhiyan', CM directed officials to ensure that each child is enrolled and is regularly attending school.

He also directed officials to transfer Rs 1,200 for purchasing uniforms, shoes, socks, stationery and study material into parents' bank accounts without delay.

"The DBT process has to be done in a transparent, fair and time-bound manner," he added. Speaking about the problem of poor infrastructure in certain schools, Yogi directed officials to provide the required facilities so that students are able to learn in a clean, secure and favorable environment.

Emphasizing the importance of having an ideal teacher-student ratio, yogi urged immediate recruitment to fill vacant teaching positions. He also instructed the department to dispatch requisitions for all vacancies forthwith and finalize the appointment process on a time-bound basis.

Indians have sent a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore abroad in the last decade to finance studies of students who are studying abroad, new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) figures have revealed. The amount is so colossal that it would have been sufficient to build over 60 new IITs.

In 2023–24 alone, students transferred a combined total of almost Rs 29,000 crore abroad to pursue studies, slightly short of last year's figure. A decade ago, this figure was a paltry Rs 2,429 crore. That is education remittances have grown as much as 1,200% in the past decade.

The RBI released this data in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application, in US dollars initially and subsequently converted into rupees based on the existing exchange rate.

Although there is a decline in student travel, yet the spending remains high. The number of Indians traveling abroad for studies actually declined by 15% in 2024 as opposed to 2023 since several nations strengthened their visa conditions.

Government data reveal that 7,59,064 students left the country for studies in 2024, down from 8,92,989 in 2023. But the number is still much higher than during the pre-pandemic period. In 2019, only 5.9 lakh students had left the country.

OVERSEAS SPENDING VS INDIA'S EDUCATION BUDGET

The level of spending abroad becomes clearer by contrast with India's higher education budget. The Union government has budgeted approximately Rs 50,078 crore with the Department of Higher Education for 2025–26. Indians alone spent more than half this amount on overseas education over the last year. Over the decade, the total so far is well over three times the government's aggregate higher education budget annually.

That is, if it is taking approximately Rs 2,823 crore to set up one IIT currently, the amount of money drained out of the nation in a single year alone could have established over 10 IITs. The total outflow for 10 years could have built some 62 of them.

NO CLARITY ON BANK CHARGES

Even though the RBI detailed how much money is sent out of India for education, it does not know about bank fees or mark-ups on foreign exchange that students and their parents incur while sending money abroad. The central bank also did not have figures on whether more of these remittances were through banks or non-banks like fintech platforms.

Between FY 2018–19 onwards, RBI statistics show the education remittance transactions have risen sharply — from 3.63 lakh in 2018–19 to nearly 10 lakh during 2022–23, before decreasing slightly to 9.43 lakh in 2023–24.

The figures paint a telling picture: Indian families are shelling out more than ever before to send their children overseas to study at advanced levels. And while the numbers indicate a foreign education spend boom, they also raise challenging questions regarding the quality, capacity, and affordability of higher learning at home.

Age of school entry will remain five years, declares school education secretary B Chandra Mohan. In a telephonic interview to TOI on Saturday, a day after the state education policy (SEP) for school education was released, he explains the policy aims, how the govt intends to implement them, and reacts to criticism that the SEP is on the lines of the national education policy (NEP). Edited excerpts:

■ What is the state education policy aiming for?

With change in Technology, needs are changing, and the socioeconomic context of the state is changing. Artificial intelligence will reshape living, working, and playing. We have to prepare the child as future-ready, though we cannot anticipate everything. How our children become future-ready is the focus of the SEP and vision behind it.

■ How do you intend to do it?There are many. The two-language policy will link us to our culture, origins and identity, providing us with a background to who we are, where we originate and what we wish to attain. It provides us with an appreciation of the social context and lived experience of our people. English competency will enable us to relate to and interact with the world, unlocking doors of opportunity and advancement.

Conceptual clarity, contextual use of concepts, scientific temper, experiential learning, problem-solving and working with multi-disciplinary groups are abilities that will assist. Physical education to maintain fitness and health. Life skills will enable students' minds to be sharpened and equipped to deal with challenges in real life confidently and with flexibility.

■ Educationists opine SEP lacks wider concepts pertaining to school education.

School access was the core agenda of govts in the last several years. Today, govts are preoccupied with quality and transformational education.

■ There is criticism that the SEP is identical to the NEP with the difference of some provisions. 

In educational parlance anywhere on the globe, terms like primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary are universal. Inputs at these stages are determined by proper learning outcomes. There could be some coincidences in certain areas. For instance, children from Class I to III need to learn elementary literacy and numeracy. This is not just at the national level, but globally. It is in what type of stress you are placing, what is the content you are emphasizing, and the way you contextualize it. Each child will be taught about his village, district, state, country, culture, morals, festivals, arts, history and this will help him to remain grounded and develop character and identity.

■ SEP for school education does not speak of early childhood education.

The original report is much bigger in size with three parts – early childhood education, school education, and higher education. We have now published the school education portion. The concerned departments are working on the other portions and will soon be publishing them.

■ NEP states six years as the age of school entry. Tamil Nadu has five years. What would it be now?

What is being done and exists has changed over time according to local requirements. School-going age will still be five years. There are a lot of such things we have been doing, which we will keep on doing.

■ NEP does talk about the new school education system of 5+3+3+4. But, SEP states there would be only board exams from Class X onwards, and it clearly suggests that the 10+2 system is to be continued.

Whatever we are following now, we will continue to do so, I said.

■ SEP lays emphasis on assessment reforms. Are open-book exams on the cards in the near future?

We are in need of the periodic review of the school curriculum. We will essentially make sure the curriculum is redesigned and rationalised with emphasis on future skills, robust conceptual understanding, problem solving abilities, scientific temper, climate literacy, digital literacy, and financial literacy. While revamping the curriculum, it is essential and required that you modify your assessment tools to verify if these objectives are met or not. Thus, we intend to restructure the assessment system. The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and the Directorate of Government Examinations will work out the details, consulting experts.

■ How does the policy aim to eliminate drug abuse, caste violence, and sexual abuse from schools?

The SEP has a whole chapter discussing safe, inclusive schools and holistic child development. We would like to ensure, in different ways, that schools are institutions of social integration. Particularly today, we are noticing caste-based problems arising in schools. The govt has taken a strong view that this is not tolerable. We will ensure that the learning and activity be so framed that children learn, play, and grow with respect for each other and work in a team with diversity. We will also provide gender-sensitive and child-friendly infrastructure in the schools. We also wish to enhance mental health and emotional well-being among students.

■ Some also fault that the existing schemes are offered as solutions to problems in the future. How do you respond to this?

A new policy NEVER overrides all that has been done previously. But a good policy surely builds on what has been done in the past, learns from it, and reimagines it for the future. That is what this policy intends to do.

Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (TGBIE) has asserted a significant increase in student admissions in government junior colleges this year. However, lecturers are expressing their suspicion that uncomfortably large numbers of these admissions are "bogus".

With the TGBIE, up to 94,155 students from 430 colleges in the state enrolled, a rise of more than 10,000 compared to last year's 83,844. Members of the Government Junior College Lecturers' Association, nevertheless, have sounded warning bells, alleging that close to 30,000 of these enrolments are a mere illusion. They maintain the inflated enrolment statistics are because of rumors of college shutdowns, contending there is pressure on colleges to inflate numbers.

This has resulted in student names being included on rolls without their actual presence. For example, the Government Junior College in Huzurabad, where 240 students are enrolled as per records, but only 160 students have produced their transfer certificates. In Kacheguda, among 524 admissions, 72 students are missing, having neither produced certificates nor ever attended the classroom.

Likewise, 42 of the 607 admissions in Government Junior College, Nalgonda, were suspected to be bogus; in the Government Junior College, Malkajgiri, out of 577, only 350 students were found to be attending classes. Lecturers TNIE spoke to, on condition of anonymity, estimated that the true enrolment across the state hovers around 60,000.

Amidst these allegations and counter-allegations, more than 100 colleges have shown enrollments of less than 100. This is being ascribed to poor infrastructure and the fact that the intermediate education system needs 12,000 more junior lecturers.

Madhusudhan Reddy, president of the Government Junior Colleges Lecturers' Association, provided some indication where the discrepancy in numbers could have arisen. "Fearing college closures, lecturers took student memos from neighboring schools and added names of students who might never enter a classroom.".

Some students register to get a certificate while studying elsewhere," he explained. "It is time for the TGBIE to wake up and take action. If the TGBIE can audit private colleges, why not the government ones?" he asked.

Admits 1,000, but a single student in class

A breakthrough by Shiva, a first-year student of Government Junior College, Suraram, seems to substantiate the statement of Madhusudhan Reddy. According to Shiva: "I was informed about 1,000 admissions, but when I joined college, I was the sole student in my class."

Efforts by TNIE to get a comment from TGBIE Secretary Krishna Aditya and top officials were ignored. Now the question remains: how many of such enrolments are genuine, and what does it portend for Telangana's future of education?

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) will open the Tony James Centre for Private Equity and Venture Capital on 6 August. This will be the opening of the first Global Centre of Excellence in research, learning, and networking in the private equity and venture capital (PEVC) space in Asia's third-largest economy

The Centre, named after Blackstone's Hamilton "Tony" James, has been established with support from Mathew Cyriac, Chairman of Florintree Advisors, Co-founder of Yali Capital, and 1994 IIMB graduate.

An MoU for establishing the Centre was signed on 24 August 2024 between IIMB and Cyriac, the top management institute stated in an official release, while mentioning that it is one of the biggest individual alumni gifts in IIMB's history. 

"This is not just a tribute, it is a pledge towards a future where Indian talent defines global investing discussions," Cyriac stated prior to the inauguration.

Cyriac, a gold medalist of his batch and the IIMB Distinguished Alumni Award winner in 2025, has donated one of the most valuable contributions in the history of the institute. His donation covers the new Centre, student scholarships studying finance in the PGP and Doctoral programmes, and naming four classrooms to honor influential faculty members.

The 6 August launch event will bring together the most prominent leaders in the international private equity and venture capital world. The proceedings will begin with a welcome address by Professor Sourav Mukherji, Dean of Faculty and Dean of Alumni Relations and Development.

Professor Dinesh Kumar, Director In-charge of IIM Bangalore, will give the opening address, welcome the newly established Centre, and declare Professor Ashok Thampy from the Finance and Accounting division as its Chairperson, whose appointment has been announced. Professor Thampy, holder of the Florintree Chair in Private Equity and Venture Capital at IIMB, will unveil the vision of the Centre and lay out its future projects.

"The Tony James Centre will be a catalytic influence for shaping the future of PEVC in India and worldwide. Through teaching, research, and continuous interaction with industry, we aim to produce a new generation of leaders who will redefine the boundaries of investment and enterprise," stated Professor Thampy.

Professor Ashok Thampy, who has been designated Chairperson of the Centre and is Florintree Chair in Private Equity and Venture Capital, will give the Centre's roadmap. "The Tony James Centre will be a catalytic influence in determining the destiny of PEVC in India and globally," he mentioned.

Conceived as a premier platform for policy discourse, industry interaction, and academic research, the Centre seeks to pool global experts and cultivate extensive insight into upcoming private equity and venture capital developments. It also seeks to cultivate a next generation of finance professionals based on robust ethics and international best practices.