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Clear Cut Magazine

A Fast for Fairness: Inside the Jantar Mantar Hunger Strike Over India’s Exam Paper Leaks

For weeks, the stretch of pavement around Jantar Mantar in New Delhi has looked less like a historic observatory and more like an open-air classroom turned protest camp. Students in college uniforms, parents carrying folding chairs, and volunteers distributing water bottles have gathered under makeshift tents, their placards demanding one thing: accountability for a paper…

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Classrooms to Campuses: How India’s Budget 2026 Is Betting on AI and Skilled Youth

India’s Union Budget 2026-27 allocates ₹1,39,289.48 crore to the Ministry of Education, an 8.27% increase over the previous year. Samagra Shiksha receives ₹42,100 crore, while the Department of Higher Education includes ₹100 crore for a Centre of Excellence in artificial intelligence for education. On the skilling side, PM-SETU is a ₹60,000 crore scheme to upgrade…

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Degrees, Skills and Uncertainty: Why Career Anxiety is Rising Among Indians

For many years, education has been regarded as the most dependable route to success in India. Families have put their savings into schooling and higher education, believing that having a degree would assure them of stable employment, financial stability, and social advancement. However, this assurance is increasingly being challenged today. Throughout the country, countless young…

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CBSE’s Three-Language Formula Sparks National Uproar: Hindi Imposition Fears, Supreme Court Notice, and a Mid-Session Crisis

India’s classrooms are in the middle of a storm. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has mandated a three-language structure for students from Classes 6 to 9, effective the 2026-27 academic session. Under the revised framework, students must study three languages that are  R1, R2, and R3  with at least two being Indian languages….

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Paper Promises, Shrinking Funds: How Samagra Shiksha Is Losing Ground in India’s School Education Budget

India’s largest school education scheme is facing a quiet funding crisis. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the Union government’s flagship programme covering school education from pre-primary to Class 12, is receiving higher headline allocations on paper. But the real story lies beneath the numbers. Even as Budget 2026-27 increased allocations for Samagra Shiksha, budget cuts have resulted…

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Born Before She Was Ready: Teen Motherhood, Early Childhood, and India’s Intergenerational Crisis

India’s teenage motherhood crisis is not just about early pregnancy – it is about how poverty, anaemia, lack of nutrition, and early marriage combine to shape the lives of both young mothers and the children they raise. Using data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the article shows that millions of adolescent girls in…

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