Morning Digest: UGC-NET 2024 examination cancelled; death toll in Kallakurichi illicit liquor tragedy rises to nine, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on June 20, 2024

The Education Ministry announced the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination after inputs from the Ministry of Home Affairs suggested that the integrity of the examinations had been compromised. The University Grants Commission–National Eligibility Test is conducted by the National Testing Agency. The development comes at a time when the NTA is embroiled in a controversy over irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical and allied courses.

At least nine persons including a woman died after allegedly consuming spurious liquor at Karunapuram in Kallakurichi district. While six of them died in Kallakurichi, three others succumbed in neighbouring Salem district. It is feared the toll could go up. Only last year, at least 22 persons had died in twin hooch tragedies in nearby Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts.

The Centre is eyeing an increase in the frequency of some critical official Surveys, including the periodic survey to measure employment, and releasing their results faster to facilitate timely and informed policy decisions, a top Statistics Ministry official said on June 19.

The government raised the minimum support price for paddy by 5.35% to ₹2,300 per quintal for the 2024-25 kharif marketing season. The hike in paddy support price comes despite the government sitting on surplus rice stocks, but it is significant ahead of elections in states like Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Delhi.

Canadian parliamentarians stood for a moment of silence to mark one year since the killing of Khalistani separatist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a sign that bilateral ties between India and Canada are likely to spiral further downwards, despite a meeting between the two countries’ Prime Ministers, Narendra Modi and Justin Trudeau, in Italy on June 14. Khalistani groups were also allowed to take out processions in different Canadian cities, where they shouted anti-India slogans over the killing and called for a trial against Indian officials and Mr. Modi.

A camera shutter that captured the multiple phases of Kashmir’s turbulent history shut forever with the demise of senior photojournalist of The Hindu, Nissar Ahmad, in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar. Mr. Ahmad, 59, started his journalistic career in the late 1980s. He has the distinction of working with reputed Urdu dailies published from Kashmir, which include the Aftaab and the Alsafa. His work brought to light the violent phase of Kashmir’s history in the early 1990s when he started working with the widely-respected Jammu-based newspaper, the Kashmir Times. 

The Madhya Pradesh Government temporarily suspended the licence of Som Distilleries, a liquor factory in Raisen district. Authorities rescued 59 children from the factory last week amid allegations they were made to toil in the factory. An inspection was conducted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights on a complaint by the non-profit Bachpan Bachao Andolan on June 15. The inspectors said, 39 boys and 20 girls were rescued from the liquor manufacturing unit.