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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed new regulations that could radically change the experience of international students in American universities. The plan would substitute the existing duration of status (D/S) system with specific admission durations of F-1 (students), J-1 (exchange visitors), and I (foreign media) visas. The changes have brought about serious concerns on the part of educators and students, particularly the Indian students.

Fixed stay 

Instead of being admitted for an entire duration of an academic program,international students would be entitled to up to four years. In the case of English-language programmes, the stay would be no longer than 24 months; in the case of public high-school students, no more than 12 months. J-1 visitors might remain for up to four years meanwhile I- visa visitors would be restricted to 240 days in total, and Chinese journalists to 90 days.

Extension Requirement To Study More

To study further than the predetermined restriction would mean re-applying to USCIS, submission of new documents, biometric information, and possibly subject to greater scrutiny. The inability to submit extensions in a timely manner may attract the unlawful presence, which leads to the imposition of 3- or 10-year re-entry bans.

Loss of Academic Flexibility 

Limitations of Switching Programme or Major: First year undergraduate F-1 students in the first year are not allowed to switch majors or university unless in exceptional circumstances. Students would not be able to switch programmes altogether at the graduate level. Once having completed a degree, students could not immediately start a new programme, either at the same or at a lower level, under the same visa, which would bar, e.g., a person from having two bachelors degrees in the U.S.

Impact on Career Shifts: The experts claim that the rules overlook practical academic and career realities, like retraining to change careers or developing new skills, which prevail in rapidly developing sectors such as technology and the creative industries.

Tighter monitoring and “virtual checkpoints” 

More paper work and more difficult work pathways. There will be an increase in the number of forms that students and post-doctoral researchers will have to file in the course of their studies. Opponents refer to these extra requirements as virtual checkpoints.

The new rules could interrupt work opportunities for students on Optional Practical Training (OPT). Extensions will become more difficult to get, and delays will leave students with no legal work authorization even with valid permits.

How are People Reaction to This?

• U.S. immigration lawyers and university associations claim that this proposal will introduce more bureaucracy to an already highly scrutinised student population by SEVIS.
• Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, warns that the changes will create a “sea of administrative delays” and could push talented international students to choose other countries over the U.S.
• Indian students, over 330,000 in the U.S., nearly a third of all international students, face greater uncertainty and financial and career obstacles if the changes take effect.

Next Steps and Legal Challenges

On August 28, 2025, the regulation will be published in the Federal Register and will have a 30-day period of public comment. Education administrators and law observers presume that, should the rule be adopted, strong resistance and even legal battles are probable.

This restructuring, which will check so-called visa abuse, may negatively impact the capacity of the U.S. to receive the best world talent because the biggest group, besides China, are Indian applicants who are closely watching the developments and making informed decisions in the current era. 

Delhi University (DU) has provided a big chance to old students to finish their unfinished degree. Students will be able to provide a maximum of four papers under special opportunity by filling the online application till 15 September 2025.

There is some good news for those Delhi University students who had discontinued their undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), or professional course studies in between for whatever reason. DU has again brought a special opportunity. That is, old students will be able to finish their left-out degrees now. 

For whom will the benefit be?

This chance is particularly for those students who admitted in graduation (UG) between 2012 to 2019 or postgraduate (PG) between 2012 to 2020. If you were connected with DU in this timeline and unable to finish your studies due to any cause, then now you have a golden chance to finish it.

Until when do I need to apply?

As per the notification released by DU, the process of application is initiated. Interested applicants may apply online until 11:59 pm on 15 September 2025. No application will be accepted after that.

Special opportunity got for the fourth time

This chance is a part of special centenary year program of DU (2022). Previously too the students have received this chance three times and now the application process has been launched for the fourth time. Students who have an incomplete degree will be able to apply for a maximum of four papers. After applying, confirmation and verification process at college, faculty and department level will be finalized by September 19.

How to apply?

Old students will need to come to this portal to finish their degree:

http://durslt.du.ac.in/DuExamForm_CT100/StudentPortal/IndexPage.aspx

Those students who wish to take a special opportunity under the centenary year can apply here: http://durslt.du.ac.in/DuExamForm_CT100/Login.aspx

The fee will be accepted only in online mode and after payment, it won't be refunded under any condition.

Those students who had appeared in the previous special opportunity (Chance-1, 2 and 3) but are still unable to complete the degree may also apply. Such candidates will have to pay Rs 5,000 per paper and uploading their previous admit card and earlier result will be required while applying.

15 September is the last date for submitting the form. Verification will go on until 19 September. Once the fee is paid, no refund will be made at any cost. Students can submit applications for a maximum of four papers only.

In a bold response to the announcement of a 50% tariff on Indian products by the U.S., Dr. Ashok Kumar Mittal, the Chancellor of LPU and a member of the Rajya Sabha, banned American soft drinks, including Coca-Cola, in the LPU campus, a big private university of 40,000 students. This action marks the initiation of Swadeshi 2.0 movement. It aims at protecting the economic independence of India and criticizing the U.S. government on its hypocrisy and bullying.

At the Constitution Club of Delhi, on Ganesh Chaturthi, Dr Mittal said that LPU was sending a very strong message of swadeshi moment. He compared this boycott to the 1905 Swadeshi movement that reduced British imports as India sought its independence.  

Mittal stated, “If our forefathers could challenge colonial powers with the Swadeshi movement, we too can resist modern economic pressures. India will not be cowed down,” invoking our leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Aurobindo Ghosh who ignited the original Swadeshi spirit. 

At LPU, the ban is already established. It is finding wide support in India, says Mittal. He blames the U.S. over the way it attacked India yet they continued to trade with Russia. He cautions that a national Swadeshi 2.0 would be damaging to the U.S. economy.

Although the U.S. is the largest export partner of India (87.4 billion dollars in 2024), the economy of India is robust and dominated by internal consumption- nearly 60 percent of GDP to domestic expenditure. Economists reckon the U.S. tariffs would reduce the GDP of India by 0.20% to 0.90%. To counter this, the government intends to do a series of reforms such as GST adjustments and growth enhancing policies.

India and the United States have been experiencing increasing tensions in their trade, and the boycott at LPU demonstrates a tendency toward economic self-sufficiency and just trade. The demand of Swadeshi 2.0 by Mittal is more of a broader demand of India to enjoy greater freedom in global trade with a rising degree of protectionism. 

As a policy shift, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) raised the CAT percentile cut-offs for its highly sought-after Post Graduate Programme (PGP) and PGP-FABM for the 2026–28 batch. The move reflects a better weeding-out process for India's most premium management seat.

Accordinmg to the admission policy of 2026-28, candidates from the General and EWS categories must now score a minimum of 95 percentile overall and at least 85 percentile in each section of the Common Admission Test (CAT)—namely Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA).

"Part of it is to make the shortlisting process more competitive and subtle," Prof Karthik Sriram, Chairperson of Admissions, IIMA, explained. He added that the institute would like to shortlist only the academically most competent candidates to the next rounds—Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI).

Revised Minimum CAT Percentiles by Category:

General & EWS: 95 overall | 85 in each section

NC-OBC: 90 total | 80 in each section

SC: 85 total | 75 in each section

ST: 75 total | 65 in each section

PwD: 75 total | 65 in each section

ST-PwD: 65 total | 55 in each section

In particular, transgender candidates of the General category will be dealt with according to NC-OBC standards.

Weightage in Final Selection:

Personal Interview (PI): 50%

Analytical Writing Test (AWT): 10%

CAT 2025 Score: 25%

Application Rating (AR – academics & profile): 15%

The CAT 2025 examination is to be held on November 30, 2025, across 170 cities, and the registration window is open until September 13, 2025.

This is bound to increase the intensity of competition among candidates competing for a seat in India's top B-school, since displaying severe scholastic discipline and a good profile will now have higher stakes.

The SSC Chairman has stated that all the technical and operational challenges around exam conduction process are being actively addressed and the upcoming 2025 SSC CGL examination would be conducted seamlessly, with a more robust IT security and fairer allocation of exam centres being implemented.

SSC Key Updates

SSC chairman S. Gopalakrishnan responded to recent outbursts posted due to technical hiccups and far-flung examination sites in the July-August entry exams. He assured that they are correcting the glitches and there will be new system reforms promising more openness and fairness to the candidates.

Troubles Faced and Measures Taken

In July, during the Selection Posts/Phase 12 examination (scheduled on July 24 to August 2, 2025) about 5.5 lakh participants had been observed with significant anomalies in two centres, leading to the cancellation of the examination and their rearrangement. The 59,000 affected candidates will now have three extra exam slots on August 29 to continue their fairness. There were no issues with the computer-based Stenographer (August 6th - 8th ) exam, signaling that the corrections made became effective.

New Exam Conducting System

The SSC has been transformed into a multi-agency model where the responsibilities are divided between the content provider agencies, the exam conducting bodies, the IT security teams and the monitoring agencies. Past arrangements with TCS provided easier centre preferences in cities but present arrangements with agency Eduquity had initially matched lesser centres in cities but this is now resolved in 80% cases and frustrated candidates had applied to courts challenging the arrangement. 

Strengthening Security

To fight cyber threats, especially from unscrupulous private test centres, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) is now supporting cybersecurity for exams. Strict service agreements and penalties ensure agencies maintain high quality and security.

The role of Coaching Institutes & Reforms

Gopalakrishnan noted that coaching institutes were angered by the reforms that have minimized the use of the conventional coaching content such as the implementation of e-dossiers and new styles of papers. Digital question vault issues that led to problems such as duplicated questions have been corrected as well, with results moderation to be fair through equi-percentile normalisation.

What Aspirants should Know?

1. Any significant technical glitches of recent exams are being resolved, and the candidates impacted are offered more chances. 
2. Assignment of centres is also growing better with most candidates being allocated centres in their preferred cities.
3. CDAC security is now stringent, which requires a CDAC and stringent monitoring. 
4. New systems and digital reforms have emphasized the need to focus on fairness, transparency and less dependence on coaching.
5. These revisions are set to contribute positively with regard to the CGL 2025 exam (anticipated in mid-September) and the SSC has said it will ensure there are no problems in the administration of the new arrangements.

This year the recruitment process by SSC will be better in terms of fairness, reliability and transparency, better hope to the aspirants who are in the preparation stage of government jobs.

One of the first steps toward enhancing the voter awareness and literacy aspect in the state of Rajasthan has brought about a new system in the education framework of the state where the school curriculum will include an introduction to voting rights and election process to make young citizens aware and help them take informed decisions towards exercise of their vote. 

On 25th August 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Election Department of Rajasthan and the department of  school education to implement this project in all the government and private secondary and higher secondary schools.

Why is Election Literacy so Important?

The inclusion of voter education in the curriculum will help imbibe the values of democracy in students at a tender age, and become conscientious citizens later on as electors. The curriculum addresses issues such as rights and responsibility as a voter, ethical voting, how voting is performed and the significance of democracy. The common activities that make learning about elections appealing and unforgettable to students are dramas, speeches, songs, poems, and classroom games.

Naveen Mahajan, chief electoral officer, said that "for online monitoring of these clubs, an online ELC entry module has been made available on the School Darpan portal and private school portal. Rajasthan is probably the first state in the country to develop digital infrastructure for strengthening school ELC." 

The implementation through Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC)

The electoral literacy clubs (ELC) school based will be enhanced in both government and non-government schools. Rajasthan has become the first Indian state to implement a complete digital tracking of these clubs through Shala Darpan and Private School Portal. Based on the new online ELC entry module, monitoring and reporting of club activities becomes easy; therefore, the implementation becomes transparent and evidence-based.

In July 2025 alone, the ELCs engaged more than 1.69 lakh students in Rajasthan in various voter education activities. The focus of this initiative is making sure that no eligible future voter is left behind, so we are encouraging all 17 year-olds to pre-register, and we will also be sending out voter eligibility dates throughout the year. Although there has been a tremendous development in the districts of Bharatpur, Ajmer, Dausa, Alwar, and Bikaner, as far as participation is concerned in light of participation especially in the perceived world of private schools, it is working on the theme of increased participation.

Listing of Digital Resources and Future Plans

The portals suggest the schools and students of Rajasthan with digital voter education resources, learning material, and games in both Hindi and English to increase ease of accessibility and coverage. The program has plans to be implemented in higher education and rural communities (Chunav Pathshala) to make voter literacy all-encompassing.

The election literacy program is an initiative by Rajasthan that highlights the level of civic education in the country as the program is highly interactive, technology-based and it can equip a child to be a responsible voter in future. The combined effort of the Election Commission and Education Department make this a strong model that urges other states to follow the same.