Mumbai: In an unexpected surgical strike, the Cockroach Janta Party has questioned why a massive corpus of thousands of crores of rupees, lying in the Prime Minister CARES Fund, is kept idle when there are dire needs for funds in various sectors, particularly government schools – kicking off a new political storm – on Wednesday. CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke today directly asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what he termed as “so much of public money lying untouched and unutil

The real question is not what education costs, but what educational outcome every rupee delivers. Bharath, a 34-year-old salaried professional, recently sat down to calculate the annual cost of his child’s education. On one side was a government school, where education is substantially supported by public expenditure. On the other was a private school, charging tuition fees along with transportation, books, uniforms, activities, and other expenses. Bharath had a simple questi

Mumbai: After ending the day one with high-packed energy, the Malhar festival had more to show on the second-day. The day two of the conclave session had a star-packed line-up of Tukaram Mundhe, Divyenndu Sharma, Richa Chadha, Saina Nehwal, Imitiaz Ali and Priyanshi Sharma. But, the most awaited of them all was the Tukaram Mundhe’s session. An IAS officer who is currently the part of chatter everywhere across the state. Mundhe, the Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration

A resignation answered one question, and a new law addressed another, but lasting confidence depends on whether the system itself improves. The NEET protest at Jantar Mantar began with a specific cause: allegations of paper leaks and irregularities in the examination, along with a demand for accountability and meaningful reform. At its core, the protest reflected growing concern over the credibility of one of India's most important entrance examinations and the need to restor

We often complain that today's youth are difficult to understand. Perhaps the real problem, however, is not Generation Z-it is our inability to communicate with them. Instead of learning how they think, speak, and engage with the world, we often expect them to fit into frameworks created by previous generations. Generation Z is among the most informed, courageous, and globally connected generations in history. Born into the age of the internet and social media, they have gr

Education is a nation's premier capital investment. Its return is realised only when a degree translates into a pay cheque or a successful startup. Imagine Bharath, a graduate from a middle-class Indian family. His parents spent their life savings on his degree. The government supported his journey through subsidised schooling, public university infrastructure and scholarships. Upon graduation, Bharath expected to begin earning, support his family and contribute to the nation

It is worth asking whether the movement remained true to the cause that gave it life. The NEET protest at Jantar Mantar ended with the resignation of the Union Education Minister, but one question remains: whose playbook was actually being run here? The shape of what unfolded was not new. It closely tracked a well-documented set of organising tactics — the same ones laid out in Saul Alinsky’s 1971 manual Rules for Radicals, the foundational text for a certain style of activis

As the recent protests over the NEET paper leak showed, India’s examination system has reached a point where incremental repairs are no longer enough. The appointment of a high-powered task force on examination reforms, headed by technology pioneer Nandan Nilekani, is therefore not merely an administrative response to the NEET-UG paper leak crisis but a concrete attempt to rebuild confidence in one of the country’s most important public institutions. Examinations are gateways

A CJP supporter celebrates in Nagpur on Saturday. Pic: PTI Mumbai: For only the second time in its 12-year tenure, the Modi government has been forced to bow down. The dramatic resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is not just a cabinet reshuffle; it marks the climax of a gruelling political standoff that has left the ruling dispensation visibly wounded. What began as a student outcry over exam irregularities morphed into a massive siege, exposing cracks

A protest for a genuine cause or problem earns public sympathy by appealing to the nation’s conscience. It begins to lose it the moment its members indiscriminately start abusing the nation’s institutions. That is where the CJP agitation now stands. It has outlived its purpose. The movement began with a legitimate grievance against the NEET paper leak and demanded some systemic education reforms. Millions of students deserve an examination system that is transparent, secure a

Every political crisis produces its defining image. The Emergency had press censorship. Anna Hazare’s movement had Ramlila Maidan. The farmers’ protest had Delhi’s borders. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) agitation may be remembered for turning a medical entrance examination into a major youth movement. Whether the agitation has succeeded depends on how success is defined. If it means forcing the government to defend its credibility, compelling Parliament to confront examinat

The Maharashtra government’s decision to regulate school bus fares arrives couched in the language of safety, accountability and parental convenience. GPS tracking, CCTV access, panic buttons, digital attendance and fare oversight are all welcome measures. For years, parents have had little bargaining power against private school transport operators, who have often functioned in a regulatory grey zone. But buried beneath the promise of reform lies a more uncomfortable questio

Mumbai: Maharashtra government unequivocally declared its commitment to implementing the Uniform Civil Code across the state, assuring the legislative assembly that a comprehensive legal framework is already in the advanced stages of formulation. Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam categorically stated on the floor of the House on Tuesday that the ruling Mahayuti administration is entirely positive about the swift introduction of the Uniform Civil Code to standardize pers

For years, Faizal Khan, known across the country by his affectionate moniker of ‘Khan Sir,’ has cultivated the image of an educator fighting a noble battle against an exploitative coaching industry. To millions of students, he is not merely a teacher but a folk hero, someone who is an outsider challenging entrenched interests while offering affordable education to the masses. But the recent episode surrounding the attack on Khan Global Studies in Patna raise uncomfortable que

The NEET scandal exposes the commercial ruin of Pune’s academic legacy. For generations, Pune wore its scholarly reputation with great pride. It was known by its famous sobriquets - Vidyeche Maherghar (“abode of learning”) and ‘Oxford of the East’. Students from across the country flocked to its colleges and libraries. Reformers built schools there not for profit but for social transformation. Teachers once commanded the sort of reverence now reserved for celebrities and poli

The NEET scandal, which has shaken the futures of nearly 23 lakh students across India, now leads unmistakably to Maharashtra. The alleged ‘kingpin’ of the paper leak racket, according to the CBI, is a chemistry professor from Nashik who ran a private coaching centre. He was a man entrusted with access to examination material through his association with the National Testing Agency and now stands accused of converting that privilege into a criminal enterprise. The symbolism i

As the new academic year starts, many parents once again experience how quickly education costs are rising. School fees, tuition classes, books, uniforms, transport, extracurricular activities and other expenses keep increasing every year. As your child grows older, these costs only become bigger, especially when it comes to graduation, post-graduation, professional courses and foreign education. A child’s education is not only an emotional priority for parents but also one o

In an age where our phones rarely stay silent and our minds are constantly occupied, focus has become one of the most valuable skills a person can possess. We live in a world designed to capture attention-notifications flash, messages demand replies, social media feeds never end, and entertainment is available at every second. In such an environment, staying focused is no longer just a good habit; it is a competitive advantage. Distraction has quietly become the default state

AI generated image A recent article that I had authored titled ‘Why Teachers Matter More in the Age of AI’ drew thoughtful and encouraging responses from readers across diverse backgrounds. Many agreed that despite rapid advances in artificial intelligence, the role of the teacher remains not only relevant but essential. The response made clear that the question is no longer whether AI will change education, but how we must respond to that change. This naturally leads to a de

As IT hiring collapses, India’s universities stand exposed as assembly lines for jobs that no longer exist. Consider three names. Google. Facebook. Dell. Each of them was built inside a college dormitory. Google was a doctoral project at Stanford in 1996; its parent company is today worth over three trillion dollars. Facebook was a side experiment in a Harvard dorm in 2004; it now reaches half the planet. Dell began in a University of Texas dormitory in 1984, assembled by a n