Social Issues
Education, health, poverty, gender and welfare schemes
India-Bangladesh spar over illegal immigration. New Delhi mum on Dhaka request for consular meeting
India's Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that 2,862 cases of nationality verification are pending with Bangladesh, some unresolved for over five years,...
Caste slurs in Census forms: SC Commission issues notice to Punjab Census office
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) issued notices to the Director of Census Operations in Punjab and the Punjab Social Justice Department af...
NHRC asks Centre to review changes to trans law, ‘revisit’ community concerns on self-identification
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued Advisory 2.0 on May 19, 2026, directed to 11 Union Ministries, the Office of the Registrar General and Cen...
Bengal restores 7 pc OBC quota for 66 communities, scraps religion-based categories
The West Bengal government regularised 66 communities that were included in the state's Other Backward Classes (OBC) list prior to March 2010, restoring thei...
Collaboration with India will help counter ‘future pandemics’, says African Union as Ebola outbreak spreads
The African Union has formally called for deeper collaboration with India in public health readiness, biotechnology, pharmaceutical production, and pandemic ...
Leaked NEET Chemistry question bank found at arrested Maharashtra teacher’s home
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a coaching institute owner from Latur, Maharashtra — Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar of RCC Coaching Institu...
Citizenship rule change: Applicants have to declare, surrender passports issued by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has notified an amendment to the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, introducing a new provision in Schedule IC of the Citizens...
Parliament standing Committee to review the reforms of National Testing Agency
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports summoned the NTA Chairperson and senior officials from the Ministry of E...
38 million full-time jobs may fall if war in West Asia continues, warns ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) released its "Employment and Social Trends May 2026 Update," warning that if the West Asia conflict continues and...
Parliamentry panel summons NTA chief after NEET paper leak; reform in focus
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports summoned the Chairperson of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Se...
Suvendu govt ends religion-based schemes in Bengal, scraps state OBC list
The West Bengal state government has decided to discontinue all welfare schemes introduced by the previous administration that were based on religious catego...
Forest Rights and the Great Nicobar Mega-Project: The case before the Calcutta High Court
Three connected Public Interest Litigations (PILs) challenging Forest Rights Act violations in the Great Nicobar Island development project were admitted as ...
The latest Ebola outbreak is now a global health emergency. Do we have a cure yet?
On 17 May 2026, the WHO Director-General declared the Ebola disease epidemic caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and...
Field Operations for Houselisting and Housing Census commences in Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and MCD area of Delhi
House-to-house field operations for the Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO) — Phase I of Census 2027 — commenced on May 16, 2026, in Rajasthan, Meghalaya, ...
NEET-UG | Test in turmoil
The National Testing Agency cancelled NEET-UG 2026 on May 12 — nine days after it was conducted on May 3 for 22.79 lakh candidates — following confirmation b...
Centre to roll out pilot programme for linking out-of-school adolescents to open school
The Union Ministry of Education convened a high-level meeting on May 16, 2026, chaired by the Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL),...
NEET paper leak: CBI arrests Pune botany teacher who NTA appointed as expert
The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, a botany teacher from Pune, in connection with the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak — bringing...
‘She was a very normal teacher’: CBI arrests another professor from Pune in NEET-UG paper leak case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a senior botany professor from Pune — who had been appointed as a domain expert by the National Testing Ag...
CBI arrests ‘mastermind’ linked to NEET-UG 2026 biology paper leak
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a Pune-based botany teacher — appointed by the National Testing Agency as a subject-matter expert and dire...
NEET-UG paper leak: Doctors’ body moves Supreme Court to make NTA a statutory body accountable to Parliament
Following the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 after a confirmed paper leak, the United Doctors Front (UDF) filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court under Arti...