Delhi University professor Sangeet Ragi faces complaints from INTEC and a Congress functionary over remarks linking “Dalit mentality” with slavery during a television debate.
A complaint has been filed against Delhi University Political Science professor Sangeet Ragi over remarks he made during a television debate, with the Indian National Teachers’ Congress (INTEC) seeking disciplinary action, including his expulsion from the university.
The controversy arose during a debate in which a video featuring Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge was discussed. The video allegedly showed the singing of Vande Mataram being stopped midway to arrange a chair for Kharge.
Referring to the incident, Ragi said, “This is a mentality of slavery, this is a Dalit mentality.” Following objections from other participants, Ragi withdrew the statement but maintained that “Dalit” was not a community-related word and was instead a political term.
INTEC subsequently submitted a complaint to Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, accusing Ragi of making derogatory remarks against the Dalit community. The teachers’ body described the remark as “deeply offensive and derogatory towards the Dalit community”, alleging that it “perpetuates harmful historical prejudices, promotes social division, and flies in the face of our constitutional values of equality, dignity, and social justice.” It has sought strict disciplinary action against Ragi in accordance with university rules and due process.
A separate complaint was also filed at the Parliament Street police station by Aditya Goswami, former media coordinator of the All India Congress Committee. The complaint seeks registration of an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Goswami alleged that equating “Dalit mentality” with “slave mentality” amounted to an “intentional insult and humiliation” of a member of the Scheduled Caste community and sought immediate registration of an FIR, investigation into the matter, and preservation of the full video and related material.
The complaint comes amid renewed scrutiny of caste-related remarks in public discourse involving university academics. The allegations against Ragi remain subject to due process, and no disciplinary action has been announced by the university so far.
As of August 20, University officials had not publicly commented on the complaint or indicated whether any formal inquiry had been initiated.
Applications are open now for Shri Ram College of Commerce and EY India’s jointly launched 12-month programme combining AI training, industry mentorship and applied learning under the name AI VIBE
Shri Ram College of Commerce and Ernst & Young India announced the launch of AI VIBE (Varsity for Innovation, Business and Economics) on 17th August 2026. The 12-month programme aims to equip SRCC students with AI skills increasingly required in entry-level roles across industries and is being described by the organisers as a first-of-its-kind industry-academia initiative in India.
The programme is open to SRCC students from Semester 3 onwards and will admit candidates through a selective process involving a Statement of Purpose, an assessment, and an interview with Senior Management at EY. A maximum of 100 students will form the first cohort of the programme. The admission process commenced on 17th August 2026, Monday, and the deadline is scheduled for 23rd August 2026, Sunday. Once admitted, participants will be evaluated through continuous project-based assessments throughout the year, culminating in a final evaluation.
The curriculum is built around applied AI training, covering machine learning, Generative AI, AI agents, decision intelligence, data analytics, financial technologies, blockchain, responsible AI, and AI governance. Beyond technical training, the programme incorporates hackathons, mentoring sessions, and industry engagement designed to build business problem-solving capabilities alongside technical skills. Students will learn directly from AI specialists at EY India and other industry professionals.
Rajiv Memani, Regional Managing Partner of EY’s Africa-India region, said the programme was designed for students to build AI literacy as a foundational capability. “Through AI VIBE, we are helping shape the next generation of talent and leaders in India, beginning with SRCC, one of the country’s premier undergraduate institutions,” he said.
SRCC Principal Prof. Simrit Kaur described the programme as a departure from traditional classroom instruction. “Through AI VIBE, SRCC and EY India are collaborating to create a new learning model that enables students to engage with real-world business challenges, industry practitioners and emerging technologies in a structured and meaningful way,” she said. The launch also coincides with SRCC’s centenary year.
The programme follows EY India’s existing efforts on AI skilling, including EY AI Varsity, which has trained roughly 50,000 employees. Further details on theAI VIBE admissions process are available on SRCC’s official notice portal. Further details on the evaluation of the programme are enlisted in this brochure.
An RTI filed at Ramjas College reveals lakhs in library funds left unspent for 2025-26, including grants for visually challenged students, prompting student demands for a written explanation.
An RTI reply, dated March 25, 2026, and shared by student activists from Ramjas College on 6th August has surfaced questions over how the college library handled its 2025-26 budget, with several departmental grants, including one earmarked for visually challenged students, has been left completely unused.
According to the official response, Ramjas College’s Library Committee allocated a total of ₹18,73,562 for book purchases in the financial year 2025-26 (April 1, 2025 to the date of the application). Against this, actual expenditure was ₹16,26,635, which left roughly ₹2.47 lakh unspent. The reply also notes that no funds were allocated separately for journals or e-resources, since these are already accessible through the University of Delhi’s subscriptions.
The department-wise breakdown shows uneven utilisation. While departments like English, Hindi, and Economics recorded high book requisitions and near-full expenditure, others lagged sharply behind. The ₹16,822 allocated for Operations Research and the ₹5,000 UGC grant meant for visually challenged students both recorded zero requisitions and zero expenditure. Departments such as Botany, Political Science, Sanskrit, Statistics, and Music also showed notable gaps between funds allocated and funds actually spent.
The RTI response further states that unspent funds were not reallocated to other departments, and that the library does not hold a certified copy of the final conclusion page from its latest audit report, as required under the General Financial Rules, 2017.
In an Instagram post shared on August 6 by the student page @tejasva._, the account framed the findings as a matter of institutional accountability, writing that “the library isn’t just a room full of books” but central to student life on campus. The post calls on the administration to explain in writing why funds remained underutilised, why some grants saw no use at all, and why no audit report is on record.
As of publication, the Ramjas College administration has not issued a public response to the claims.
As we celebrate the 80th Independence Day of India’s gaining freedom from The Raj, it becomes important to remember those youth, too, whose names we seem to forget when counting the innumerable heroes who laid down their lives for the nation that now is—India.
It is time to celebrate the 80th anniversary of a moment that comes but rarely in history—the day India freed herself from decades of British rule. But it is worth noting that the names we hear every day associated with this historic day were certainly not the only ones behind it. Long before Delhi University or Jawaharlal Nehru University became spaces synonymous with protests, Indian students were already doing so. They were walking out of classrooms and going to jail before most could vote. Universities were not the inventors of the culture of student protests, but rather its inheritors. That culture was built decades earlier by students whose names rarely make it past a footnote in history books.
University of Delhi itself was born inside this tradition. When the University of Delhi was formally established in 1922, its founding colleges—Hindu College, St. Stephen’s, and Ramjas—were already deeply entangled in nationalist politics. Hindu College had been a hub for Swadeshi and Quit India activity, with figures such as Lala Har Dayal among those associated with its early history. A group of Ramjas students were jailed during Quit India, their names reportedly inscribed on a plaque near the college auditorium. St. Stephen’s counted freedom fighters like Asaf Ali among its alumni, and its principal corresponded directly with Gandhi.
When Bengal was partitioned in 1905, the British responded with the Carlyle Circular, which threatened to cut off government grants to institutions whose students joined the agitation against Partition of Bengal. But the students walked out anyway—students walked out and built new institutions themselves: the Bengal National College, with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal, and the National Council of Education, established in 1906 to run schools free of British control. This was arguably the first time Indian students demonstrated that they could build alternative institutions rather than simply protest within existing ones.
Non-Cooperation Movement (1920)
Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, appealing specifically to students over sixteen to leave government-aided schools and colleges. An estimated 90,000 students across India responded, enrolling instead in roughly 800 newly formed national institutions. This is also how several Delhi institutions came into being: Jamia Millia Islamia was founded in October 1920 after a group of nationalist teachers and 300 students walked out of Aligarh Muslim University’s MAO College, rejecting its pro-British character. Dr Zakir Hussain, later President of India, was among them. In Bengal, Subhas Chandra Bose gave up a secured position in the Indian Civil Service to become principal of Calcutta National College.
Civil Disobedience Movement (1930)
By the time of the Salt Satyagraha, colonial administrators had learned to see students as a genuine threat. In Assam, the British issued the Cunningham Circular, forcing students to sign loyalty pledges to the Raj. This order, however, backfired almost immediately for them, triggering mass protests and picketing inside schools across the province. Students also took part directly in salt-law defiance, picketing, and the boycott of foreign cloth alongside peasants and women who, for the first time on a mass scale, joined the movement in large numbers.
Quit India Movement (1942)
It was in 1942 that the role of students became particularly prominent via the Quit India Movement. With most senior Congress leaders arrested within twenty-four hours of Gandhi’s “Do or Die” call, students took charge. In Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, college students shut down their institutions and organised a complete market shutdown by mid-August, briefly losing the British administration’s control of the district. In Cuttack, 200 students stormed their college on 14 August, burning government records and setting up an underground bulletin network called the Secret New Service. At Banaras Hindu University, students raised slogans calling for police stations to be burnt and railway stations to be torched, spreading the movement’s message to surrounding villages.
Among these students, perhaps the most striking example is Usha Mehta; not a leader in any formal sense, but a 22-year-old master’s student at Bombay’s Wilson College. Days after Gandhi’s arrest, she set up a clandestine radio transmitter, Azad Radio, also known as Congress Radio, broadcasting nationalist messages across India and, briefly, into Japanese-occupied Burma. She ran it not as a trained revolutionary but as a student who refused to let the British monopolise the airwaves.
The most frequently remembered names from the freedom struggle are those of men and adults. But some of its youngest, least-resourced participants were teenage girls with no institutional backing at all. Kanaklata Barua, a 17-year-old in Assam, was shot dead by police in 1942 while leading a procession to hoist the national flag at a police station. In Chittagong, Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutt, both students, trained in combat and helped plan an armed raid on a British-only club in 1932. Waddedar died by suicide rather than be captured; Dutt was arrested the following year and sentenced to life imprisonment while still in her twenties.
By 1936, the scattered energy had coalesced into a formal organisation. The All India Students’ Federation, founded in Lucknow, became India’s first nationwide student organisation, a sign that students were building their own political infrastructure.
Then came the eve of 15 August 1947, when students who had spent their college years in and out of jail cells inherited a country whose borders were being redrawn in blood through Partition. But it is important to note, lest we forget—India’s student movements didn’t end in 1947; student protest culture descends directly from this lineage of asking questions, debating, dissenting, and demanding what’s theirs. Image Source: Enroute Indian History
The Bar Council of India directs DU and other law universities to enrol law graduates covered by the SC order despite attendance shortfall.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has instructed the University of Delhi (DU) to process the enrolment applications of law graduates protected under a recent Supreme Court order, stating that applications should not be rejected or terminated solely on the ground of attendance deficiencies. The BCI has circulated the order to all State Bar Councils, recognised universities, and approved Centres of Legal Education for implementation during the 2026–27 academic session.
The order was issued by Justice Rajendra Menon, Co-Chairperson of the BCI’s Legal Education Committee. The Committee noted that the Supreme Court’s order of 21 July 2025 granted one-time protection to students whose academic sessions were in progress when the Delhi High Court delivered its judgment.
The decision comes against the backdrop of the CAP Round I option form deadline having been extended until 11 August. The BCI stated that an “immediate and exceptional arrangement”was necessary to ensure that eligible law colleges and students were not excluded by the time required to complete the statutory approval process.
Institutions must upload all required documents, furnish the prescribed information, and pay all applicable fees. The order states that failure to complete the process could result in the withholding, modification, suspension, or withdrawal of approval, along with further action in accordance with the law. The BCI has clarified that the current conditional approval neither waives nor regularises any pending approvals or financial liabilities relating to previous academic years.
The Supreme Court directed that students covered by its order should not be denied the opportunity to sit their final examinations solely because of attendance shortfalls. It also permitted those who were unable to appear, either wholly or partly, in their final examinations to sit supplementary examinations for the relevant academic session.
The BCI has further clarified that attendance shortages arising after enrolment with the Bar Council are not covered by the relief. The benefit is strictly confined to the students and academic sessions specified in the Supreme Court’s order of 21 July 2025 and does not extend to future admissions.
To qualify under the scheme, a candidate must have been admitted to a recognised LL.B. programme and permitted to sit the relevant final or supplementary examination. The candidate must also have successfully completed the LL.B. course and fulfilled all other statutory requirements for enrolment.
From dirty dishes to nuclear deterrence, game theory explains why we cooperate, defect, and sometimes make decisions that leave everyone worse off.
Your roommate hasn’t washed the dishes for three days. You could wash them yourself, confront her, or simply wait and see how long she can tolerate the smell. The problem? She is probably running the same calculation in her head. Congratulations. You are playing game theory.
It turns out that the standoff in your shared kitchen, the checkout queue at a supermarket, and the Cold War all have something surprisingly in common. They are situations where what you do depends on what someone else might do. So, What Exactly Is Game Theory?
In very simple terms, game theory is the study of strategic decision-making. It looks at how people, companies, governments, animals, or even computers make choices when the outcome depends not just on what they do, but also on what others do. If you are deciding whether to carry an umbrella on a cloudy day, your decision depends mostly on the weather. But if you are deciding whether to wash the dishes, your decision depends on whether your roommate will wash them first. That is where game theory begins.
It asks a deceptively simple question: given what the other side might do, what is the smartest move for me?
Modern game theory has a more definite starting point. In 1944, mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, laying much of the mathematical foundation for the field. Their work argued that many economic and social decisions cannot be understood by looking at individuals in isolation; they have to be understood through strategic relationships between people. And perhaps the most famous idea in game theory is the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
Imagine Tanya and Cinque have been arrested for robbing the Hibernia Savings Bank. They are placed in separate cells, unable to see or communicate with each other. A clever prosecutor gives each of them the same choice: confess or remain silent. If Tanya confesses while Cinque stays silent, Tanya goes free while Cinque receives a heavy sentence. The same applies in reverse.
Now imagine what is going through Tanya’s head.
“If Cinque confesses and I stay silent, I’m doomed. But if I confess and he stays silent, I walk free. Either way, confessing feels like the safer choice.”
Cinque is probably thinking the same thing. So, both confess. And that’s the trap. From an individual perspective, confessing appears to be the rational choice. Yet when both players make that choice, they end up worse off than if they had both stayed silent. The paradox is simple: what seems rational for each person individually can produce a worse outcome for everyone collectively.
Source: Britannica
The classic Prisoner’s Dilemma was developed in 1950 by mathematicians Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher at the RAND Corporation. It was later formalised and given its famous name by Canadian mathematician Albert W. Tucker.
And suddenly, a story about two fictional criminals starts looking a lot like your kitchen.
Your roommate probably knows that even if she doesn’t do the dishes, you will eventually get tired of looking at them and wash them yourself. From her perspective, doing nothing has an obvious advantage: she gets a clean kitchen without having to do the work. And if you stop washing the dishes to send a message, you might simply create another problem. What if she thinks the same way?
Nobody washes the dishes because nobody wants to be the only person doing all the work. The plates pile up, the glasses disappear under a layer of something suspicious, and eventually your kitchen starts looking like a biological experiment. Neither of you necessarily wants a dirty kitchen. The problem is that both of you have an incentive to wait for the other person to act.
This logic appears in places far removed from your kitchen, too. We’ve all done this at a supermarket. You walk towards the checkout, scan the queues and instinctively choose the shortest one. But here’s the funny part: everyone else is doing the same thing. The shortest queue attracts more people. As more people join it, it becomes slower. Eventually, switching queues may no longer seem worth the effort.
This is close to the intuition behind one of game theory’s most famous concepts: Nash equilibrium. Named after mathematician John Nash, a Nash equilibrium is a situation in which no player can improve their outcome simply by changing their strategy while everyone else keeps theirs unchanged. Everyone is trying to make the best decision for themselves. Yet because everyone is responding to everyone else’s choices, those individual decisions shape the outcome for the whole group.
The stakes get considerably higher when the “roommates” are two nuclear superpowers.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union possessed nuclear arsenals capable of devastating each other. Neither side could simply assume that the other would hold back. Each had to consider the same terrifying question: What happens if we attack first? The answer was deterrence.
At the heart of this was the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD. The basic logic was brutal. If one side launched a nuclear attack, the other could retaliate. That retaliation could be devastating enough to destroy both sides. The point wasn’t that the United States and the Soviet Union trusted each other. They didn’t need trust.
They needed the certainty that attacking first would come with an unbearable cost. In this sense, the Cold War was shaped by a strategic equilibrium. Neither side could safely improve its position simply by attacking, because the other side had the ability and incentive to retaliate. The result was a strange kind of stability: peace maintained not through friendship, but through the fear of mutual destruction. The war stayed “cold” because the consequences of making the first move were almost unimaginably high.
Game theory isn’t some abstract concept buried inside an economics textbook. It is playing out every day – in your kitchen, at the supermarket checkout and in the decisions made by governments armed with nuclear weapons. Your roommate may not be thinking about John Nash when she leaves the dishes in the sink. But she is still making a strategic decision.
The supermarket queue may seem like a trivial choice, but it follows the same basic logic: your best move depends on what everyone else is doing. And nuclear deterrence takes that logic to its most consequential extreme. But the underlying question is remarkably similar: What should I do when my outcome depends on what you do?
DU extends Round 2 CSAS acceptance, verification, and fee payment deadlines for UG admissions, giving candidates until July 29 to secure their seats.
The University of Delhi has pushed back key deadlines in its ongoing CSAS Round 2 undergraduate admissions, giving lakhs of CUET aspirants a little more breathing room to lock in their seats.
According to the revised schedule, candidates allotted seats in Round 2, announced on July 25, now have until tomorrow to complete the acceptance process.
Once a candidate accepts their allotted seat, the process doesn’t end there. As part of the process, colleges still need to verify documents and approve applications, and this window has now been extended too, running through July 28 at 4:59 PM. Only after doing this can candidates move to the final and most decisive step: paying the admission fee, for which the university has set July 29, 4:59 PM, as the new cut-off.
The university has been firm in flagging what’s at stake. Skipping any single step in the chain, from acceptance, verification, or fee payment, can risk getting the provisional seat allotment cancelled altogether, effectively knocking candidates out of the running for that seat.
For those still navigating the process, the steps remain the same as in previous rounds. Candidates need to log into the portal using their CUET UG 2026 application number and password, head to their dashboard to review the college and programme they’ve been allotted, and click ‘Accept’ before time runs out.
The extension is the latest in a string of scheduling adjustments that have marked this year’s admission season, reflecting a pattern familiar to anyone who has been through DU’s Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) before. Deadline extensions have become something of a recurring feature of the process in recent years, often granted in response to technical glitches, document verification delays, or simply the sheer scale of applicants the system has to process each round.
For thousands of students across Delhi and beyond, these few extra days will help them secure a seat at their preferred college.
The guidelines advised students to complete all steps well before the stated deadlines and to keep track of further notifications on the official DU admissions portal.
Apart from being the biggest tournament in the world of football, the FIFA World Cup is also a celebration of heritage and cultures from across the world. From the quiet respect of Japanese fans practising atarimae to the roaring Viking row of Norway, the sartorial statements of the DRC, and Cape Verde’s astonishing underdog run to the knockout rounds, discover how the beautiful game united diverse nations. The tournament featured countless memorable moments, only a few of which are captured in this article.
The FIFA World Cup comes back to us every four years and brings with it a passion and love for the game like no other. Every four years, the world gathers to witness the magic of football. It accepts everyone—the seasonal fans, the die-hard football lovers, the loyalists, the fans who support every other team, and even the ones who do not really understand the rules of the game find themselves drawn towards any screen broadcasting the matches. This is what sets the FIFA World Cup apart from many other major sporting tournaments. It’s not just a battle of who reigns supreme on the field or has mastery over controlling the ball; it undeniably brings the world together. After all, football knows no borders.
But beyond goals, the FIFA World Cup 2026 offered us so much to look at and ponder over. It truly has been one of a kind. From it being the only football World Cup with 48 countries competing to an American classic Super Bowl-style halftime show being introduced for the final match, the audience has been kept on their toes the entire tournament!
This World Cup has been home to many “firsts”. Starting with the hosts themselves. For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, three countries—the USA, Canada, and Mexico—had the opportunity to host the tournament in collaboration with each other. The list doesn’t end there. The number of countries competing in the tournament was also the highest that it has ever recorded. This year, a grand total of 48 teams were competing for the golden trophy. For some tiny nations, it was their first appearance at this international jamboree of football; for others, a return after a very long absence. Countries like Curaçao, Cape Verde and Bosnia and Herzegovina got their names recorded in the list of countries playing the World Cup for the first time.
With fans from all across the globe filling stadiums, what grabbed more attention than the bright and colourful national flags being waved around every corner was, undeniably, the rich cultural heritage and idiosyncrasies celebrating the beautiful game.
Every country harbours in itself a distinguished way to celebrate victory or show support. The USA is often associated with loud and expressive celebration. But Japanese fans who travelled around the world to support their national team playing in the tournament performed something that earned huge respect from others. They showed their support and love in a quiet, dignified way. It would be wrong to assume, however, that Japanese fans aren’t vocal enough or fierce in their support. Terrifying face paint, showing up dressed as fearsome samurai, and even cheering their team with gusto are testimony enough. But at the end of every match, regardless of the result, we have seen them stay behind to clean up after themselves, producing plastic bin bags seemingly from nowhere and leaving the stadium as they found it. This habit reflects their deeply rooted philosophy of atarimae (things that are naturally expected) and meiwaku (avoiding causing trouble to others). The Japanese, in this way, paid their respects to the venue, the host and fellow attendees. This is not their first time practising it; the Japanese have been doing this ever since their debut in the FIFA World Cup in 1998.
In the list of the countries that returned to the World Cup after long years of not qualifying, the Norway national team remained undefeated when it came to capturing the hearts of its audience. Be it the 6’5″ striker of the team quickly becoming the most beloved star of the netizens or their beautifully blended cultural heritage while celebrating, the team has undoubtedly got us wrapped around their fingers. Their Viking row celebration was arguably the hit of the tournament. Devised by fans in a pub back in Oslo based on the legends of Norse seafarers, the celebration showcased a wonderful tapestry of Norwegian heritage, folklore and passion for the game. Executed with equal gusto and passion by both fans and players, the call of the Norse horn, blown to announce it was about to begin, sent a ripple of excitement around the ground. Beyond this, fans won American hearts by embracing the local culture just as their own. Social media couldn’t get enough of star striker Erling Haaland buying cowboy boots and hats in Texas and his return to Oslo with a taxidermied raccoon under his arm.
Erling Haaland returned to Norway with a taxidermied raccoon.
If we are talking about capturing the centre stage at the 2026 FIFA World Cup for cultural and historical benchmarks, it would be extremely unfair to not talk of the Democratic Republic of Congo.The country last appeared in the tournament in 1974, when it was known as Zaire; after that, it had a long hiatus.Ruled by the then President Mobutu Sese Seko, who was famous for his leopard-skin caps, the team got the look upon their touchdown in Houston, styling it out in custom-tailored black suits featuring bold leopard-print panels and lapels and throwing down a sartorial marker. But such a peak fashion statement is not where it stops. They had fans scurrying into history books with the sight of superfan Michel Kuka Mboladinga’s standing statue still on a plinth for every minute of their matches.
Michel Kuka Mboladinga has been a regular at DR Congo’s matches for more than a decade.
Despite having quite an underwhelming tournament, Scotland had its fans winning over Americans with their antics of celebration culture. It was the first time the Tartan Army’s team had made the World Cup finals for 28 years, and they were determined not to let go without enjoying themselves. Boston witnessed the Scottish fans take over the city within days of arriving—drinking bars dry, putting traffic cones on statues’ heads, leading locals on a merry dance through the parks and public places of Boston, invariably accompanied by bagpipes. Beyond their little antics of putting cones on top of statues lies a lesser-known Scottish ‘tradition’. This tradition is known to have started in the 1980s in Glasgow as a late-night, drunken prank with the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art getting “crowned”. This soon turned out to be seen as an unofficial symbol of Scottish culture.
Scotland fans with the Tartan Army
For 96 years, the FIFA World Cup had never witnessed the ground getting converted into a temporary stage for singers during half-time. A half-time show specifically. The World Cup final has religiously followed the same routine at half-time ever since it was established: punditry, tactical analysis, and players regrouping in the tunnel. But this year, the New Jersey stadium shook fans across the world with an intense lineup starting with Madonna. The other headliners of the show were Shakira, BTS, and Justin Bieber, with Burna Boy, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the PS22 Chorus, and Coldplay.
Shakira performs at halftime during the FIFA World Cup Final on July 19 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino spoke on the show,
“As the world unites for the most significant football match in history on Sunday, 19 July 2026, at the New York New Jersey Stadium, this groundbreaking spectacle, curated by Chris Martin of Coldplay, will celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle.”
However, all this glamour didn’t go without heavy criticism. Sports medicine experts and football officials have warned that prolonged breaks can disrupt players’ physical rhythm, and IFAB has previously stated that extending halftime could negatively impact player welfare and safety because of the longer period of inactivity, potentially increasing the risk of injuries when play resumes. More critics argue that this move has drawn comparisons to the Americanisation of football, while broadcasters like the BBC and ITV were initially reluctant to air the show, preferring their usual halftime analysis before agreeing to broadcast it. Now, will this become a newly added tradition to the FIFA World Cup final? The question remains.
Lastly, the piece would remain incomplete without a note on the tiny island nation and the most captivating underdogs—Cape Verde. They have not just played the matches with diligence and a top-notch game plan but have created a history that will be remembered for years to come. They defied multiple odds to become the smallest country to earn a spot in the World Cup knockout round. With a team cobbled together with journeymen who plied their trade in the lower leagues of Europe, this band of misfit brothers held the mighty Spain to a draw in the group stage. The Cape Verdean belief that hard work and dedication will one day be rewarded was perfectly captured in the story of the side’s 40-year-old goalkeeper, Josimar José Évora Dias, better known as Vozinha.We witnessed him make 18 saves across four matches that the team played, making it difficult for international superstars like Vinícius Júnior and Lionel Messi to get past the last line of defence. Upon the team’s return to Cape Verde as nothing less than heroes, Vozinha was honoured with a newly discovered sea slug named after him.
Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha soaking up applause at the 2026 World Cup.
And just like that, the tournament has come to an end with Spain lifting the golden trophy, but more than that, for 39 days the matches have lifted the mood of its fans by bringing tremendous joy, passion, and love for the game. The tournament doesn’t only showcase goals or incredible saves but rather works as a platform blending together cultures, traditions, and celebrations from all over the world.
DU has announced a revised postgraduate admission schedule, updating the timeline for the upgrade round and spot round 1 under CSAS-PG.
With the admission process for the academic session 2026-27 underway, a revised schedule announcing dates for the upgrade round and spot round 1 under the Common Seat Allocation System for Postgraduate Admissions (CSAS-PG) has been released by DU.
Candidates allotted seats through the Delhi University PG upgradation round are required to complete the admission process by paying the prescribed fee on or before July 24, 2026. Colleges and departments will verify and approve online applications until the same date. Students who receive upgraded allocations must complete all admission formalities within the stipulated deadline to retain their allotted seats.
The university has also introduced spot round 1 to fill seats that remain vacant after the completion of the regular allocation rounds, ensuring that available postgraduate seats across departments and colleges are utilised efficiently. The round provides an opportunity for eligible applicants who were not allotted seats in the earlier rounds to secure admission to their preferred postgraduate programmes. It also enables the university to fill seats left vacant due to withdrawals, non-payment of fees, or candidates opting for admission elsewhere after previous allocation rounds.
According to the revised schedule, the list of vacant seats for spot round 1 will be published on July 25, 2026. Candidates who wish to participate must opt in for the spot round between July 25 and July 26, 2026 by 4:59 pm. To opt in, applicants are required to log in to the CSAS-PG portal using their CUET (PG) application number and password during the specified window. Only candidates who opt in during this window will be considered for seat allocation.
The university will announce the Spot Round 1 allocations on July 29, 2026. Candidates allotted seats must accept their allocation by July 31, 2026 by 4:59 pm. Colleges and departments will verify and approve online applications from July 29 to August 1, 2026 by 4:59 pm, while the final deadline for online fee payment is August 2, 2026 till 4:59 pm.
Candidates are encouraged to follow the revised schedule thoroughly and keep track of important dates to avoid any inconveniences and ensure a smooth admission process.
Speaking at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College’s Diamond Jubilee curtain raiser, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta laid out plans for hostels, a subsidised canteen and expanded bus connectivity for Delhi University, alongside a college proposal for a dedicated girls’ hostel.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta spoke at the curtain raiser for Shaheed Bhagat Singh College’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Thursday, where she outlined infrastructure commitments for Delhi University, asserting that a nation’s progress rests on how well it invests in its youth and the quality of its education system.
According to Gupta, the state government has prioritised upgrading academic infrastructure and student housing to position Delhi as a hub for higher education. A hostel for Delhi University students on the upcoming Indira Gandhi University campus is reportedly among the measures being considered, though the proposal is yet to be finalised.
Gupta further confirmed that the university will get an Atal Canteen from August 16, offering meals at Rs 5, alongside 50 additional U-Special bus routes for the university’s students.
The Chief Minister urged students to play an active part in nation-building and encouraged colleges to partner with surrounding communities to support local children in pursuing their ambitions. She described the creativity and drive of India’s younger generation as key to realising the goals of a ‘Viksit Bharat’ and a ‘Viksit Delhi’.
Separately, the college’s administration used the occasion to press for a girls’ hostel of its own, proposing that Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College be shifted to an alternative site to free up its current premises for the new facility. College representatives said many of its female students commute from outside Delhi, and that the lack of on-campus housing continues to affect their safety and continuity of studies.
The event also featured a virtual walkthrough of the college’s history, along with Gupta’s unveiling of a year-long Diamond Jubilee events calendar and a QR code granting access to the institution’s digital archives. Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh and college Principal Arun Kumar Attree were reportedly among those in attendance.
