News from the world of Education: July 11, 2025

Handloom Hackathon 2025

The Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles is hosting a Handloom Hackathon in collaboration with IIT-Delhi and National Design Centre. The aim is to 

Dates: August 2 and 3

Venue: Research and Innovation Park of IIT Delhi

Eligibility: College students, engineers, fashion designers, researchers, and weavers

Deadline: July 31

Details at www.youthideathon.in/handloom

Merck Young Scientist Award 2025

Merck invites applications to the fourth edition of its Merck Young Scientist Award 2025 in the category Biological Sciences and Chemical Sciences

Eligibility: Indian researcher or scientist with less than 10 years of research experience (post-Ph.D.) and affiliated with a research institute. Researchers working in Interdisciplinary Life Science fields can apply under the closest relevant category.

Details at https://tinyurl.com/vsz3t3z4

Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), Bhopal, is hosting a Mega Open Job Fair 2025 to connect final-year students, recent graduates, and interns from across Central India with prominent recruiters offering employment and internship opportunities. Participation is free.

Dates: July 16 and 17

Venue: RNTU Bhopal campus

To register, visit https://t.ly/l-yHi 

Admissions and scholarships

XLRI has opened applications for the Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) 2026 which will be held on January 4, 2026.

Deadline: December 5. 

For more information, visit https://xatonline.in

IIT Gandhinagar invites applications for a Certificate programme in Foundations of Data Science for Engineers.

Eligibility: Minimum 60% (6.0 CGPA) in UG in relevant field. Maths in class 12 is mandatory.

Deadline: August 15

Details at https://tinyurl.com/4v7bef2s

Somaiya Vidyavihar University’s Somaiya School of Civilisation Studies has opened admissions for its B.A. and M.A. Liberal Arts programmes. For course details, eligibility criteria, and more, visit https://sscs.somaiya.edu/en

The University of Sheffield, the U.K., invites applications for its M.A. Politics, Governance and Public Policy course starting this September.

Eligibility: Minimum 60% in a three- or four-year Bachelor’s degree from a recognised university in a relevant subject. Overall IELTS score of 6.5 with minimum 6.0 in each component.

Details at https://tinyurl.com/yt8r2ybh

IMS Noida invites applications for its three-year B.A. Journalism and Mass Communication programme

Eligibility: Minimum 45% in Class 12 (any stream) 

Deadline:September 15

Details at www.courses.imsnoida.in

KLH Global Business School invites applications for BBA and MBA Dual Specialisation programmes and B.Sc Animation and Gaming and B.Com with ACCA programmes. For details of eligibility criteria and other information, visit https://gbs.klh.edu.in/

The Design Village (TDV) invites applications for its Bachelor of Design and Master of Design programmes for 2025-2026. An online entrance exam will be conducted on August 6.

Eligibility: For B.Des., 50% aggregate in Class 12 from any stream. For M.Des. Degree in a creative field with minimum 50% aggregate from a recognised institution. 

Deadline: July 31

Details at https://apply.thedesignvillage.org/

The University of Birmingham Dubai invites applications for its M.Sc. Financial Data Science starting this September. Scholarships are available.

Eligibility: 2:1 Honours Degree in Maths and/ or Statistics or a programme with advanced Mathematical and/ or statistical components; Overall IELTS score of 6.5 with not less than 6.0 in any band.

For details, visit https://tinyurl.com/3vjwab2w

Symbiosis International Deemed University and Deakin University, Australia, invite applications to their Global BBA Programme.

Eligibility: Minimum 50% in Class 12 (any stream) from a recognised board.

Deadline: August 2

Details at https://dm.scmspune.ac.in/

Galgotias University has partnered with Samsung C&T to provide 100% tuition scholarships for eligible Diploma (Lateral Entry) students in Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Electrical Engineering for 2025–2026. For more details, visit www.galgotiasuniversity.edu.in

Geojit Financial Services is offering scholarships for EWS students who are pursuing career-oriented professional courses.

Eligibility: Minimum 80% in Class 10 and 12 with an annual household income of below ₹300,000.

Deadline: August 31

For details, write to Deepak John at deepak_john@geojit.com. 

The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, the U.K., is offer scholarships to new international students joining the MRes Physics programme beginning either in September 2025 or January 2026.

Eligibility: Self-funded, international (non-EU) fee-paying applicants enrolling for the full-time on-campus programme. 

Deadline: July 31

Details at https://tinyurl.com/3e4c2ez2

Events

Galgotias University’s iOS Development Centre has seen students actively develop apps that aid people in their daily lives. Karan Kumar and Arpita Gupta have developed Sakhi, a personal health app that helps women track their menstrual cycles, tackles societal stigma around menstruation and provides personalised care to individual users. Shams Tabrej Alam has developed Kipp: Smart Sticky Notes Reimagined, a note-taking app that includes gesture controls, auto-expiring notes, dark mode, voice memos, and clutter-free reminders. Aditya Kumar Gupta, Aida Sharon Bruce, Prateek Kumar Rai, and Roshan Karn have developed Artistica, which offers a platform for artists to connect, inspire, and grow.

K.J. Somaiya Institute of Technology, Mumbai, hosted an International Conference on Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Development (ICETS 2025), with the support of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE). The chief guest was Dilip Shivagan, Senior Principal Scientist and Head of Temperature and Humidity Metrology at CSIR – National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.

IIT Delhi hosted the BioEnviroCon 2025 National Conference with Markandey Rai, Chairman of GPF-India and Senior Advisor of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, as the chief guest.

Somaiya Vidyavihar University’s Centre for Excellence in Computational Science and Simulations, in collaboration with the Srinivasa Ramanujan Institute for Basic Sciences, hosted a national symposium on Computational Science and the 75th Birthday Festschrift of Prof. Shridhar R. Gadre. Researchers from IISER Mohali, IIT Madras, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Digital University Kerala, and institutions from Germany and Italy participated.

Toprankers has launched Lighthouse, a personalised mentorship platform for exam preparation to support students by combining human guidance and AI-driven insights.

Noida International University organised an Educator’s Meet and Felicitation Ceremony to honour contributors in education, leadership, and institutional growth. Over 150 academicians, students, and institutional leaders participated. It also hosted a Pratibha Samman to recognise the academic excellence of over 400 meritorious students. A 20% scholarship for girls in Aligarh was announced.

IIM Raipur concluded its Emerging Managers Bootcamp designed to nurture managerial capabilities, and ethical sensibilities among students. Lt. General Ashok Kumar Jindal, Executive Director and CEO, AIIMS Raipur, was the chief guest.

The Duolingo English Test has rolled out new question types for all test takers including interactive speaking, interactive listening, listen-and-respond task, and writing a short summary of the conversation. A free practice test is available at https://tinyurl.com/3m4h67js

The University of Wollongong India hosted an interaction for students and staff with N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys. Students from Deakin University and Jamnabai Narsee School also attended the session.

HCLTech conducted HCLTech Talks, its Campus Connect initiative, at Velammal Engineering College, Chennai. Kamalakannan Prabhakaran, Delivery Unit Head at HCLTech, spoke on the impact of cloud technologies across industries.

Students of SRM’s Institute of Hotel Management made a record 1993 baked methu vadas and sambhar dishes to commemorate the institute’s founding year: 1993. 

IIM Kashipur hosted a two-day online lecture series on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) for for over 400 students. Sampadananda Mishra, Director, Centre for Human Sciences, Rishihood University, spoke at the event.

Hindustan International School organised an Anti-Drug Awareness Campaign to educate students about the harmful effects of drug abuse. Deepak Kaushik, Superintendent of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Chennai Zonal Unit, spoke.

IIM Rohtak hosted a lecture on Operation Sindoor by Lt. Gen. Rajesh Pushkar, AVSM, VSM. Over 320 students and faculty members attended.

Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company Limited launched the second edition of its ZiiP 2.0 (Zunior Interactive Insurance Programme) initiative, which aims to teach teenagers in the 14-17 age group about personal finance and life insurance.

Shiv Nadar University Chennai held its first convocation with 404 graduates receiving their degrees. Renuka Ramnath, Founder and CEO of Multiples Asset Management Ltd., Mumbai, was the chief guest.

Masters’ Union released its Summer Internship Programme Report for 2025 stating that UG students received over 350 internship offers from recruiters such as PwC, KPMG, EY, Yes Bank, and Nestle.

ITM Vocational University, Vadodara, completed placements across Engineering, Management, and IT streams. Recruiters included TATA Consultancy Services and Cosmos Impex India Pvt Ltd, and Burkert Fluid Control Systems.

Sunstone has secured over 1,400 confirmed job offers for its MBA and PGDM Class of 2024 on more than 30 campuses across India. Recruiters included Reliance Retail, PhonePe, Axis Bank, and Aditya Birla, among others.

K.J. Somaiya Private Industrial Training Institute, in collaboration with the Institute of Packaging Machinery Manufacturers of India, inaugurated a Certificate Course in Packaging Machinery Operation and Maintenance as well as Electronic Mechanic Laboratory and Launching Packaging Machinery. The first batch will begin in January 2026.

K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management has joined the Digital Education Council (DEC), a global community of practice to drive sustainable innovation and AI adoption for higher education and workforce development.

Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences inaugurated its Navgrah Vatika (Garden of Nine Planets), as a step towards integrating traditional Indian knowledge with ecological sustainability. Prof. Balaram Pani, Dean of Colleges, University of Delhi, inaugurated the garden.

Saint Louis University hosted the FuturED Symposium 2025 at its Madrid Campus on the theme: The Global Classroom: Building Bridges in Experiential Education. 

Hindustan University concluded its TEDx on the theme Innovate and Evolve. Speakers included Ravi Margasahayam, Aerospace Engineer at NASA; Dr. Chockalingam, Senior Cardiologist; Ramesh Vinayakam, music composer; Ashmita B. Moturi, Founder of Nine O2 Detox; Afshan Fathima, International MMA Champion, among others.

Researchers from IIT Mandi led by the director Prof. Laxmidhar Behera, Director have shown how listening to Indian classical ragas can influence brain activity by enhancing levels of attention, emotional regulation and mental stability. A paper co-authored by Dr. Ashish Gupta, Chandan Kumar Srivastava, Prof. Braj Bhushan, and Prof. Laxmidhar Behera, was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

O.P. Jindal Global University will establish Motwani Jadeja Institute for American Studies, supported by an endowment from Asha Jadeja Motwani, in honour of the late Professor Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford University computer scientist.

Scope Global Skills University (SGSU), Bhopal, launched its AI First Campus and an AI Action Plan with a suite of AI-driven academic programmes and a personalised AI-based career guidance platform.

Oxford International released the second edition of its Oxford International Student Global Mobility Index (SGMI). Key highlight was that 30% of students chose overseas education for access to advanced practical studies, while 28% were influenced by the promise of a better future and global career opportunities.

MEGA International School, Bengaluru, launched a KidsMBA programme to introduce young learners to the fundamentals of business, including marketing, finance, ethical leadership, and sustainability.

A study by researchers from Nagaland University found that long-term water management initiatives require sustained involvement of the local farming community to succeed. The findings were published in Societal Impacts.

IIM Nagpur welcomed 323 students into the 11th batch of its MBA programme (2025-27) and five students into the fifth batch of its Ph.D. Regular programme (2025-29). Anurag Sharma, Managing Director of Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhawan, was the chief guest.

Heartfulness International School, Omega Branch, Kolapakkam, Chennai celebrated its 20th year. Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Minister for School Education, and T.M. Anbarasan, Minister for Rural Industries, Government of Tamil Nadu, were the chief guests.

Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science hosted a lecture by Sena Latif, Ambassador of Romania to India, on Romania’s Contribution to the World and the Indo-Romanian Friendship. A 21st Century Studio was also inaugurated.

Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Pimpri, Pune, hosted the Roots-VIII Conference, dedicated to Aesthetic and Procedural Dermatology, LASERS and Trichology. Around 1,200 delegates, featuring more than 50 faculty members, participated.

Syngene International Ltd., in partnership with the Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad, and Biocon Foundation, launched the third cohort of its scholarship, mentoring and industry orientation programme for women in STEM. Forty women students will receive structured mentorship, financial assistance, and hands-on research exposure.

Awards 

Shivam Desai, a Mechatronics Engineering Master’s student from the University of Auckland, and Taran John, a third-year PhD student at Victoria University in Wellington, were selected for internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. 

Students from Sangam School of Excellence, Bhilwara, Rajasthan, won the Australian Government’s Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge 2025 India.They developed and pitched business solutions to global challenges in Green Tech and Sustainable Solutions, Human-Centered AI, and Digital Transformation for Social Good.

Sukanya Sonowal, a fourth-year student of B.Tech in Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Guwahati, was selected as the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador.

Excelia Business School was ranked among the Top Five French business schools and was listed in the Top 60 worldwide in the latest edition of the Positive Impact Rating. It was placed the top 300 in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2025.

The Fortune Institute of International Business (FIIB) was awarded Level 4-Transforming School grade in the Positive Impact Rating 2025.

The University of Sheffield secured the top rank in the Russell Group in the latest National Student Survey. Its students’ union was rated the best out of all U.K. universities for the second year in a row.

Prof. Dheeraj Sharma, Director, IIM Rohtak, was conferred with the Distinguished Global Thought Leader Award 2025 at the 21st World Congress of the Academy of Global Business Advancement (AGBA).

Yeswanth Balachander, a 13-year-old student from Tamil Nadu, participated in the 43rd International Space Development Conference in Orlando, the U.S., where he presented his project, The Golden Cosmic. The event was organised by the National Space Society and supported by NASA.

ODM Public School, Bhubaneshwar, was awarded “Best School with Active Learning” during the World School Summit in London. 

Sona College of Technology, Salem, was awarded the first position in Faculty Performance Rating for the sixth time in the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). It also earned the NPTEL Local Chapter Star (LC STAR) status for the second time.

Viraj Modi, a student from the 2024–2026 batch at IIM Ahmedabad, was awarded the Professor Jaswant G. Krishnayya Merit Scholarship.

Cambridge University Press and Assessment, in collaboration with Get Set Learn launched the first  Young Pioneers Launchpad 2025. The team from Dr SSNP School won for developing a smart, sustainable fashion assistant app  to help users make eco-conscious style choices. 

Pranet Khetan, a Class 10 student from Shiv Nadar School, Gurugram, received the Fourth Grand Award in the Biomedical Engineering category and an Honourable Mention-Special Award by INCOSE, for his project Paraspeak, at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2025, held in Ohio, the U.S.

Collaborations

AMS College of Engineering, Avadi, signed an MoU with Workfreaks Business Services to empower students with industry-ready skills.

IIT Roorkee signed an MoU with the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology, Hyderabad, to promote joint research, faculty exchange, and development of cutting-edge technologies in electronics and sustainability with focus on e-waste recycling technologies.

O.P. Jindal Global University signed MoUs with Lucy Cavendish College and Murray Edwards College, at the University of Cambridge, the U.K., for Law and Fintech programmes.

VFS Education Services signed an agreement with TU Leoben, TU Wien, and TU Graz, Austria, to allow Indian engineering and technology graduates from recognised colleges pursue higher education in these institutes. 

Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR, in collaboration with the Global Risk Management Institute, launched an undergraduate Risk Management Programme. 

Medicaps University signed MoUs with IBM and Larsen and Toubro to launch two B.Tech specialisations in Advanced Artificial Intelligence and Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure with AI/ML, respectively.

IIM Kashipur signed an MoU with Nagpur-based evACAD to launch executive development and postgraduate certificate programmes in climate action, sustainable finance, green energy, and sustainable development across various sectors. 

BML Munjal University has partnered with the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), the U.S., to co-develop programmes in AI, Data Science, Innovation, Medtech, And Entrepreneurship.

School of Design Thinking signed MoUs with KSR College of Engineering and K.S.Rangasamy College ofTechnology, Tiruchengode, under its Academia NxT – Three-Year Privileged Partner Programme.

Mahindra University signed an MoU with Hiroshima University, Japan, to foster global academic excellence, research innovation, and cross-cultural exchange through an exchange programme and joint initiatives.

ECE Engineering School signed an academic partnership with Presidency University, Bengaluru, to enhance student mobility, foster academic cooperation, and expand international opportunities for students and faculty.

PhysicsWallah (PW) has partnered with Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), to offer regular online classes and real-time doubt resolution facilities to students. 

KC GlobEd signed an MoU with ICT Academy, Tamil Nadu, to empower faculty and students in Commerce and Management Education.

Max Healthcare signed an MoU with Aston University, the U.K., to establish advanced academic and research cooperation in healthcare, medical sciences, and allied disciplines.

Embassy Group signed an MoU with the Department of Education, Government of Karnataka, to support the holistic development of government schools across Bengaluru. 

Simandhar Education has partnered with Villa Marie Women’s Degree College, Hyderabad, to offer US CMA and ACCA qualifications as part of the college’s curriculum.