Top news of the day: Simultaneous elections Bill referred to joint parliamentary committee; NTA to focus only on entrance exam for higher education, says Dharmendra Pradhan, and more

Top news updates from The Hindu on December 17, 2024

The 129th Constitution Amendment bill, seeking to implement simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, has been referred to a joint parliamentary committee after Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced it in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday after a brief discussion.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday (December 17, 2024) hit out at the government, saying voting at the introduction stage of two bills on simultaneous elections in the Lok Sabha showed the BJP did not have the two-third majority required to pass a constitutional amendment. Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday (December 17, 2024).

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will not conduct any recruitment exams starting 2025 and will focus on only higher education entrance exams, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday (December 17, 2024). The move is part of examination reforms based on recommendation of a high level panel set up earlier this year following alleged leak of medical entrance NEET exam and series of cancellations of other exams due to suspected leaks and other glitches.

The head of the Russian Army’s chemical weapons division was killed on Tuesday (December 17, 2024) in a brazen attack in Moscow claimed by Kyiv — the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine drags on. Igor Kirillov was killed along with his assistant when an explosive device attached to a scooter went off outside an apartment building in southeastern Moscow, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.

A recently disposed-of petition in the Supreme Court challenging the correctness of the provisional answer key in the postgraduate level Common Law Admission Test (CLAT PG) exams held on December 1 has sparked a debate. CLAT is a national level entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes offered by 24 National Law Universities in the country. Exam is organised by the Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLUs), comprising representative universities.

Australia’s assistant coach Daniel Vettori asserted that enforcing the follow-on was always on the agenda. While talking to the media at the Gabba in Brisbane on Tuesday (December 17, 2024), Vettori said: “The only way to force this game (third Test) was to enforce a follow-on. There was a desperation to get that final wicket and we thought we had a really good chance when (Ravindra) Jadeja was dismissed, but it was a real fighting partnership from (Jasprit) Bumrah and Akash (Deep).”

Indian cricket’s seemingly eternal fan Sudhir Gautam blew his conch and waved the national flag. Out in the middle, the tail wagged furiously and it was more than enough for Rohit Sharma’s men to keep their heads afloat in the third Test. After K.L. Rahul (84) and Ravindra Jadeja (77) lent spine, it was the turn of Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep to help India avoid the follow-on during a grim Tuesday of rains and runs. At the fourth day’s close here at the Gabba, India scored 252 for nine in its unfinished first innings while trailing Australia’s 445. And a 193-run deficit still remains.