Multiple North Indian states closed schools on September 2, 2025, due to heavy rainfall and flooding. Punjab extended closures until September 3 following widespread flooding and landslides. Gurugram's DDMA suspended physical classes after 100mm rainfall in four hours, encouraging online learning and work-from-home arrangements. Uttar Pradesh districts including Kasganj, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bareilly, Moradabad, Pilibhit, and Aligarh declared holidays. Chandigarh, Jammu division, and Uttarakhand's Chamoli district also shut schools. Himachal Pradesh closed schools in Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur, and Kullu districts due to landslide risks. Despite IMD's orange alert for Delhi NCR and continuous rainfall since September 1, the capital maintained regular school operations while authorities monitor conditions for potential closure announcements. (PC: X)

PP Divakaran (PPD), a physicist turned pre-eminent historian of Indian mathematics, passed away recently in Kochi. A polymath and clarifier of complex ideas, he authored The Mathematics of India: Concepts, Methods, Connection, spotlighting ancient Indian mathematicians on the global stage. PPD argued that Aryabhata expressed a rational, even “godless secularist” mindset—eschewing traditional invocations—and may have hinted at Earth’s rotation through verses in the Āryabhatiya. He also provided evidence that the Kerala Nila school developed trigonometric series for sine, cosine, and their inverses long before Western mathematicians. (PC: X)

India delivered a stellar performance at the 18th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA 2025), hosted in Mumbai from August 11–21. Competing against nearly 300 students from 63 countries, the Indian team clinched four gold medals and one silver, marking one of its best showings. Among the standout winners were Banibrata Majee and Akshat Srivastava from Narayana Educational Institutions. The team was mentored by IISER Mohali faculty, Professor Jasjeet Singh Bagla and Dr. Harvinder Kaur Jassal. Organized by HBCSE-TIFR, the event fostered global collaboration, with India’s success highlighting its growing strength in astronomy and astrophysics education.

Hannah Cairo, a 17-year-old homeschooled prodigy from the Bahamas, has stunned the global mathematics community by refuting the 40-year-old Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture. The conjecture, rooted in harmonic analysis, had resisted proof for decades. Cairo constructed a counterexample that disproved it entirely, earning praise from top mathematicians. Self-taught through online resources and math circles, she mastered advanced topics by age 14 and joined graduate-level courses at UC Berkeley. Her breakthrough came during a Fourier restriction theory class. Despite lacking a high school diploma or undergraduate degree, Cairo has been accepted directly into a PhD program at the University of Maryland. Experts hail her achievement as one of the most remarkable mathematical feats by a teenager. (PC: Quanta Magazine & India Today)

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, responding to ongoing protests by SSC candidates over technical glitches and cancellations during the Selection Post Phase‑13 examination, has assured that affected students will be permitted to retake the exam at no additional cost. He emphasized that the SSC will not be cancelled, and promised full refunds of the ₹100 challenge fee for invalidated attempts . The SSC Chairman also acknowledged "teething issues" with the exam vendor and affirmed that corrective measures are being implemented to ensure smoother administration going forward. (PC: NDTV)  

Vidyasagar University in West Bengal has sparked controversy after a history exam question referred to Indian freedom fighters as "terrorists." The question asked students to "name three district magistrates of Midnapore killed by terrorists," drawing widespread outrage from students, political leaders, and historians. The row centers around revered revolutionaries like Khudiram Bose being mischaracterized. Vice-Chancellor Dipak Kumar Kar apologized, attributing the error to a translation issue, where the term "militant nationalist" lost its quotation marks during the Bengali translation process. The university has removed two professors from exam duties and initiated an internal probe, vowing stronger vetting mechanisms to avoid future lapses and uphold the integrity of historical narratives. (PC: College Dunia & EduAdvice)

Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final graduation ceremony of Global Banking School (GBS) UK for 2025 on July 9, where nearly 2,000 students graduated across disciplines including Business, Healthcare, Construction, and Digital Technologies. This follows a ceremony the previous week in Birmingham, where 1,500 students from Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds received their degrees. GBS UK CEO James Kennedy praised the graduates, saying, “We work to widen participation, address skills shortages, and enable social mobility—today, we see this first-hand.” He emphasized the importance of GBS UK’s mature-age graduates, who bring valuable lived experience to the UK workforce. James Murray MP, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, addressed the students during the ceremony. “It’s inspiring to see graduates ready to shape their communities and careers,” he said. The event coincided with the release of the 2025 National Student Survey (NSS), where GBS UK reported a 90% satisfaction rate in the ‘Teaching on my Course’ category—3% higher than the sector average. GBS UK also exceeded national averages in Organisation, Management, and Academic Support categories.    

The Trump administration has revived a 2020 proposal to impose fixed-term limits on F‑1 and J‑1 student visas, replacing the current "duration of status" system that allows full‑time students to stay as long as they maintain enrollment. The Department of Homeland Security has forwarded the plan to the Office of Management and Budget for final review. The move aligns with Trump’s broader agenda to curb both illegal immigration and campus anti‑Semitism. Under the new rule, all foreign students and exchange visitors would receive visas with explicit expiry dates, necessitating periodic renewals rather than staying automatically while enrolled. (PC: The New Yorker & Amber)

Kamala Sohonie (1911–1998) became the first Indian woman to earn a PhD in a scientific discipline in 1939, following her defiance of gender bias at IISc. Initially denied admission by C.V. Raman solely for being female, she persisted until granted conditional entry in 1933. Excelling in research on milk proteins, she earned an MSc with distinction and persuaded Raman to open IISc to women a year later. Awarded a scholarship, she pursued groundbreaking biochemical work at Cambridge, discovering cytochrome C. Returning to India, she advanced public health through nutritional research on Neera, later leading Bombay’s Institute of Science. (PC: Times Now)  

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has approved a significant change in the examination system, allowing Class 10 students to take board exams twice a year starting from 2026. Under this new structure, the first exam session will be held in February and will be mandatory, while the second session in May will be optional. Students can choose to appear in one or both exams, with the best score considered for the final result. This move is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, aiming to reduce exam-related stress and give students greater flexibility. Both exam sessions will cover the full syllabus, and internal assessments or practical exams will only be conducted once a year. CBSE is expected to release detailed guidelines soon regarding schedules, rules, and evaluation procedures.