PoliticsIndia
India's testing agency in focus after more exams canceled
Mahima Kapoor with AP, AFP and Reuters
Published 08/17/2026
Months after canceling the medical entrance exam, India's testing agency has canceled three other exams prompting outrage among opposition leaders. In Bihar, several people were killed in a temple stampede. DW has more
What you need to know
National Testing Agency cancels three exams for grant entrance tests over 'errors'
Opposition leaders call for education agency to be held accountable
Seven killed, several injured in temple stampede in Bihar
Eight pilgrims killed in hotel fire in West Bengal
Here's a roundup of the biggest headlines from India on Monday, August 17:
PM Modi 'anguished' by deaths in Tarapith
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the hotel fire in the temple town of Tarapith in eastern India.
"Anguished to hear about the loss of lives due to a fire tragedy in Birbhum, West Bengal," the prime minister's office quoted Modi as saying.
Birbhum is a district in the state of West Bengal and home to Tarapith, where tens of thousands of devotees gather at this time of year to mark the end of the holy month of Shravan.
"May the injured recover soon. The local administration is assisting those affected in the mishap," Modi said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also expressed their "pain" and "shock" in social media posts.
As per Adhikari, at least eight people have died despite the police administration acting "swiftly" to rescue many. Five of the eight deceased were from the northeastern state of Meghalaya.
WATCH: The tiger mystery that changed conservation in India
The disappearance of tigers from Sariska Tiger Reserve in 2005 reshaped conservation in India.
Ecologist Ghazala Shahabuddin argued that poaching was only part of the story, pointing to habitat loss and environmental change. Her research led her to work closely with local communities, and later to co-found CEDAR, helping people document biodiversity and contribute local knowledge to wildlife conservation and forest protection.
WATCH: Can a heat wave trigger a paycheck? India is trying it
Millions of workers in India face a growing threat from extreme heat, but unlike floods or storms, heat often leaves no visible damage, only lost income. So what happens when rising temperatures make it impossible to work?
This report follows Shabnam, a tailor in Uttar Pradesh, and explores an unusual solution: insurance that pays workers automatically when temperatures cross a certain threshold.
Designed for informal workers, who often lack financial safety nets, the scheme is already helping thousands in India cope with heat-related income losses. But can a weather-triggered payout truly capture the realities of heat stress? From questions about fairness and affordability to the challenges of scaling heat wave insurance in a warming world, what can we learn from this bold experiment?
Hotel fire kills 7 in West Bengal temple town
A hotel fire in West Bengal's temple town of Tarapith left at least seven people dead and several others critically injured, Indian media reported.
The fire erupted at about 5 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Sunday) on the ground floor of a four-story hotel as most guests were asleep.
The Times of India reported that all seven victims died of asphyxiation from the smoke. The injured were being treated at a local hospital.
The temple town of Tarapith is currently more crowded than ususal as Monday marked the last day of the holy month of Shravan. The period typically draws large numbers of pilgrims to the town.
India's opposition calls for NTA to be 'held accountable'
In the hours after the NTA announced retests for the University Grants Commission - National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), India's opposition leaders began once again pointing out alleged educational failures under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Modi ji, look at what your NTA has just done," Rahul Gandhi, Modi's biggest political rival and leader of the opposition in the lower house of the parliament, said on X.
"This is no longer an education system. It is an extraction machine. It takes your money, your years, your mental health, and your confidence and returns nothing. Not even a job," Gandhi said.
"Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation was the first step, not the last. NTA's leadership must be held accountable too," he added.
Several other allied leaders echoed Gandhi on social media.
Some called for the resignation of NTA Chairperson Pradeep Kumar Joshi, while others called for the agency to be dissolved completely.
Prime Minister Modi installed party veteran Pralhad Joshi as India's new Education Minister on July 25, after Pradhan resigned under pressure of protests. The rare resignation was viewed as a dent in the government's invincibility aura, over 12 years into Modi's dominance in Indian politics.
Modi has since sought to reassure students by announcing new student-friendly schemes and introducing legislation to increase punishment over paper leaks.
India temple stampede in Bihar kills 7
A stampede at a temple in India's eastern Bihar state has left at least seven people dead and over a dozen injured, according to media reports.
The incident took place at the Ashok Dham temple in the Lakhisarai district as a swell of devotees thronged the site to offer water to Lord Shiva on what Hindus consider an auspicious Monday of the ongoing holy month of Shravan.
Shivam Kumar, a senior police officer, told news agency ANI that an electric pole fell at the site, sparking panic that led to the stampede.
He added that the incident was being investigated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief over the deaths.
"My thoughts are with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. May the injured recover at the earliest. The local administration is assisting those affected," the prime minister's office quoted him as saying.
India's testing agency cancels three exams over 'errors'
India's National Testing Agency (NTA) has canceled three entrance exams to test the eligibility of candidates for grants, PhDs and the position of assistant professors, after receiving complaints of significant errors in the question papers.
The exams for English, Commerce and Sociology will now be re-conducted in September, the NTA said in a statement.
The agency said it found that "the three papers had many factual, typographical, translation errors including misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, errors in the stem wording of questions, grammatical errors, gender and number agreement errors, punctuation mistakes, and non-standard coined terms for established concepts, as well as repetition of a significant number of questions previously administered."
While the agency has waived the fee amount for the retests, students will likely face delayed plans, another round of studying and repeated uncertainty.
This comes months after the NTA canceled the all-India pre-medical NEET examination after its question paper was leaked. The re-examination reportedly drove tens of students to suicide and sparked youth-led protests across India, resulting in the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in July.
Welcome to our coverage
Hello! Welcome to DW's India blog.
This is Mahima Kapoor reporting from the national capital where alleged failures in India's education system are still at the center of politics. That's weeks after protests forced the former education minister's resignation over leaked question papers from a crucial pre-medical entrance test.
The National Testing Agency, which drew much of the public ire in July's protests, has now canceled three other entrance exams over several errors in the question papers. India's opposition leaders are now calling for the agency to be "held accountable."
In other news, a temple stampede in the state of Bihar killed at least seven people and has left dozens injured. Another seven pilgrims were killed in the neighboring state of West Bengal when a hotel caught fire in a popular temple town.
Stay tuned for all of this and more!
