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Friday, July 25, 2025
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The FinePrint

Panipat men are becoming Hanuman for 41 days. No salt, no women, only tapasya

Every Dussehra, the Hanuman Swaroop phenomenon sweeps across Panipat, turning ordinary men into symbols of devotion and defiance. It’s a rite of passage.

Nitish Kumar sends officials back to classroom. 1,000-yr-old Kaithi slows Bihar land survey

Bihar’s civil engineers and surveyors are taking govt-mandated Kaithi crash courses to meet the 2025 land survey deadline. ‘Without learning it, the work can’t be done.’

Schools where you enrol just to bunk…and go to coaching class instead. Inside India’s ‘dummy schools’

Despite violating regulations of education boards, dummy schooling has become popular among entrance exam aspirants. Coaching industry stakeholders say schools don't meet students' needs.

Why Modi-Shah have failed to develop mass leaders in states the way Vajpayee-Advani did

BJP had leaders like Modi, Chouhan, Raje, Raman Singh, BSY, and Dhumal who kept the party’s flame burning. Those promoted by Modi-Shah in the last 10 years fail to inspire confidence.

Govt jobs are changing. PSU bank staff live in pressure cooker, 9-5 replaced by 24×7

Government bank employees sell mutual funds, insurance and just never log out. They have steeper targets and ‘performer of the month’ award to chase too.

Beijing is concerned about anti-China sentiment in India. New Delhi is focused on border

Chinese officials emphasised a desire to rejuvenate bilateral ties. Their advice? Don't make the border dispute the focal point; pursue economic relations with an open mindset.

Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party mustn’t be AAP of Bihar. Let’s hope no anarchy, corruption

Prashant Kishor must have learned a lot from the political parties that were his clients in the past. Can he succeed amid the uncertainties of Bihar's electoral landscape?

Legal fight has made Dalit student battle-hardened. ‘Ready for anything at IIT Dhanbad’

Muzaffarnagar's Atul Kumar had to go through Jharkhand and Madras high courts and the Supreme Court for his admission to IIT Dhanbad, after missing the deadline to pay Rs 17,500 fee by mere seconds.

How a sense of humiliation gave rise to the modern Jat identity & impacted Haryana’s politics

In early 20th century, Jats adopted elements of Arya Samaj movement. Since then, from kshatriya to kisan to demand for OBC status, their identity evolved in response to modern anxieties.

Not all of Haryana’s retired wrestlers join politics. Ticket checkers, police, property dealers

Pinki Malik is gearing up for her last match. Her eyes are set on gold in the National Championships. But it's not her ultimate goal—it's just a means to a coveted promotion in the railways.

On Camera

India uses BRICS to push reforms—not to challenge the US

India has been pleading for long to bring reforms in institutions like the United Nations, IMF, and World Bank, which it believes are West-dominated and don’t reflect current global realities.

India-US set to ink mini trade deal soon, reach understanding on agricultural & dairy products

Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.

DRDO successfully tests latest version of UAV-launched precision missile, ULPGM-V3

Capable of being fired in plain and high-altitude areas, it has day-and-night capability and two-way data link to support post-launch target, aim-point update.

Strategic partner one day, tactical nightmare the next: India’s learning Trumplomacy the hard way

Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.