• education to be union list, currently in the concurrent list
• technical subjects to be formulated by centre with inputs from industrialists, technical experts, world best faculties and universities
• subjects like history will have inputs from concerned state and centre, where centre can emphasise on nationalistic values, while states can add on their own state legacy and values
• subjects like lang can be under exclusive prerogative of the states
• ? In the past seven years alone, approximately 70 instances of paper leaks have been brought to light. Paper leaks in Bharat ,Paper leak prevention in UP , China's paper leak Print - NTA one size doesn't fit all

June 2024

Biannual admission in universities

• Indian universities and higher education institutions will be allowed to offer biannual admissions twice a year, similar to foreign universities. (UGC)
• The two admission cycles will be July-August and January-February from the 2024-25 academic session.

February 2025

What other countries teach and what we teach?

• Israel: Let's teach our children how Jews were killed by Islamists & Hitler.
• Spain: Let's teach our children about Islamic conquest of Spain & how we got rid of it.
• England: Let's teach our children about Hitler who killed millions of Europeans.
• India: Let's teach our children Ganga Jamuni Tehzeb and how Mughals brought Architecture, Biryani, Rasgullas & Kulfi to India. DGP

April 2025

Tamil Nadu to introduce AI and coding from class 6th

• Tamil Nadu to introduce AI and coding for classes 6-9 starting in 2025-2026.

July 2025

New social science textbook of class 8

Omits references to Tipu Sultan, Anglo Mysore wars

• The new NCERT Class 8 Social Science textbook omits references to Tipu Sultan, Haidar Ali, and the Anglo-Mysore wars of the 1700s in its section on India’s colonial era.
• The previous Class 8 textbook covered the East India Company’s expansion from 1757 to 1857, highlighting resistance from Mysore rulers Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, “the Tiger of Mysore,” as well as the four Anglo-Mysore Wars in the 1700s.

"One of the richest" to "one of the poorest"

• Describing it as a period when India went from “one of the richest lands of the world" to become "one of the poorest".
• A subsequent section notes that "India’s share of the world GDP kept declining throughout the colonial rule, reaching hardly 5 per cent at the time of Independence. In less than two centuries, one of the richest lands of the world had become one of the poorest.”

2 parts of the book

Part 1 of the textbook, titled ‘Exploring Society: Indian and Beyond,’ was launched this week for the current academic session, with Part 2 expected later this year.

Colonial era: 1400 to 1857

The colonial era chapter spans from the late 1400s, with Vasco da Gama’s arrival, to the late 1800s, including the ‘Great Indian Rebellion of 1857.’

Drain of wealth

• It tracks Britain’s transition from traders to rulers, highlights the 1757 Battle of Plassey, a decisive victory for the East India Company against Nawab of Bengal in 1757, and details the “drain of India’s wealth” during this time.
• A section on the “drain of India’s wealth” says that colonisers extracted “many billions of pounds” from India, with a recent estimate by Utsa Patnaik putting the figure at $45 trillion (in today’s value) from 1765 to 1938.
• “Had this wealth remained invested in India, it would have been a very different country when it attained independence.”

Rebellion during 1800s

The textbook also covers early resistance movements against British colonialism leading to the 1857 rebellion, mentioning the ‘Sannyasi-Fakir rebellion’ of the 1700s, the Kol Uprising, the Santhal rebellion, and various “peasant uprisings” of the 1800s.

Separate chapter on Marathas

A separate chapter on the Marathas in the book discusses the Anglo-Maratha wars (1775–1818) and states that “the British took India from the Marathas more than from the Mughals or any other power”.

Age of colonialism

The textbook describes the “age of colonialism” and European expansion from the 15th century in different parts of the world, noting that while colonisers claimed a “civilizing mission,” the reality was marked by “destruction of traditional ways of life” and the imposition of foreign cultural values.

India contributed to 1/4th of world GDP

The new book highlights that until the 16th century, before European powers arrived in the Indian subcontinent, India contributed “at least one-fourth of the world GDP,” making it one of the two largest global economies alongside China.

Railways and Telegraph - not a gift

• The book argues that the construction of India’s railways “was not a gift from the colonial rulers.”
• It states that “most of it was paid for by Indian tax revenue,” meaning the infrastructure mainly served British strategic and commercial interests.
• The same applies to the telegraph network, according to the textbook.

Indian artifacts stolen

• The book says that colonial powers “stole thousands of statues, paintings, jewels, manuscripts, and other cultural artefacts from India and sent them to European museums or private collections".

Massive theft in the art world

It adds that this “massive theft” occurred throughout the colonised world.

What missed earlier…

The previous Class 8 textbook did not include sections on the railways, the “theft” of artefacts, or world GDP. Swarajya

January 2026

NCERT to get deemed university status by January end

• The National Council of Education, Research, and Training is likely to be granted deemed to be university status by the end of January.
• The University Grants Commission will hold a meeting to decide.
• Universities in India are recognized by the University Grants Commission which derives its power from the UGC Act, 1956.

Announced in 2023

• Union Educational Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan made the announcement to transform NCERT into deemed university in 2023, while stating that the transition into a research university would open avenues for global collaboration and enable it to contribute more actively to the global education landscape.

Autonomous organisation under Ministry of Education

• Currently, it is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Education and plays a central role in improving the quality of school education through curriculum development, textbook publication, educational research, and teacher training.

Benefits of the status

• Once the status is accorded, NCERT will be able to initiate expanded in-house research programs and function as a full-fledged research university.
• The institution will be primarily funded by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education.
• With this new status, NCERT will be able to award its own graduate, post-graduate, and doctoral degrees, significantly expanding its role in India's higher education and research ecosystem.

Deemed to be Universities

• As per the website of UGC, there are around 145 institutes with deemed university status.
• The Indian Institute of Science was the first to receive the status in 1958.
• Tamil Nadu has the highest number of deemed universities.
• With the deemed university status, the institutions
  • enjoy full academic autonomy,
  • including the prism to design the courses,
  • develop curricula,
  • determine admission criteria, and
  • fix fees.