Daily Briefing: NEET-UG scrapped after leak trail exposes paid WhatsApp networks, ‘guess paper’ racket

With that, let’s move on to the top stories from today’s edition:

• NEET-UG exam scrapped
• Rupee falls to record low
• Tamim Iqbal interview

🚨 Big Story

The National Testing Agency (NTA) Tuesday cancelled the NEET-UG examinations for admission to undergraduate medical courses – nine days after it was held on May 3, following an alleged paper leak. This is the first time such a decision has been taken by the agency since the exam was introduced in 2016 – a move which will affect over 22 lakh candidates. The NTA said that the exam will be held again on dates to be notified separately. Meanwhile, the Centre handed over the paper-leak probe to the CBI, which has now registered an FIR in connection with the alleged irregularities while forming multiple teams to conduct searches at different locations.

Anatomy of the leak: According to officials of the Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG), firstly, there existed a WhatsApp group named ‘Private Mafia’, where the said paper was circulated among members who had paid various amounts to join the group. Despite strict “instructions” from the group administrators not to share the paper, it was circulated far and wide, soon turning into an automated fine print on a WhatsApp message: “Forwarded many times.” Officials said that preliminary investigation had indicated that the paper may have leaked from Nashik, Maharashtra.

Gathering dust: This isn’t the first time such malpractices and breaches in the conduct of the NEET examination have been reported. In 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which was under fire over an alleged NEET-UG paper leak, had constituted a high-level committee of experts led by former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan to recommend reforms in the examination process, and improve security protocol. However, nearly two years after a CBI probe found that candidates allegedly paid to get solved NEET-UG papers before the exam, the committee’s key recommendations remain on paper.

⚡ Only in Express

Badem village, as was revealed in April 2022, has been the target of a criminal conspiracy. Vast tracts of land had allegedly been grabbed by real-estate agents in connivance with government officials in the villages across North Goa. However, what shook the gathering was this: the dead had been signing sale deeds in the village for years, and over half of its properties had already changed hands. As complaints poured in from several villages, the Goa government formed a seven-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by the Superintendent of Police (Crime). As reviewed by my colleague Pavneet Singh Chadha, the land grab was part of a plot allegedly hatched by a group of real-estate brokers who used a trove of 500-year-old Portuguese-era land records to allegedly forge property titles.

📰 From the Front Page

Jitu Munda, a resident of Dianali village in Odisha’s Keonjhar district, is now tired telling the story that every fresh group of visitors wants to know — how he carried the skeleton of his sister to a local bank branch — and became a national headline. Every time that he does so, Jitu turns to his sister’s grave, located barely a few metres away, and folds his hand in apology. Jitu, on April 27, walked around 3.5 km barefoot to the Malliposi branch of Odisha Grameen Bank, carrying sister Kalara Munda’s skeleton. He wanted to prove to the bank officials that she was indeed dead, and they should let him withdraw the Rs 19,300 in her account. Much has changed since then. Read the full story here.

Record low: On the day the Indian rupee hit an all-time low of 95.75 per dollar before closing at 95.63, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran, warning that ongoing structural shifts in the global economic order were not going to reverse, said that stopping the rupee from falling further was one of the “central macroeconomic imperatives” of the current fiscal. He said India’s exposure to the West Asia crisis was “structural” and presented a “live Balance of Payments stress test, with direct consequences for inflation, the current account, and the exchange rate.”

First Cabinet meet: Triggering fresh apprehension among those whose names were deleted from electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the BJP governments in West Bengal and Bihar have said that they will not be able to avail government schemes in their states. However, those whose cases are under consideration before tribunals in West Bengal will continue to receive the same till their matter is decided, the state government said. At its first Cabinet meeting on Monday, the BJP government announced the continuation of all social schemes of the previous governments in the state, while making available the Central programmes that were blocked by the Trinamool Congress regime.

📌 Must Read

In our Opinion section today, C Raja Mohan lays down the five principles guiding India’s sound diplomacy, while referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brief stop in Abu Dhabi en route to Europe this week. He writes: “Managing the consequences of geopolitical turbulence, the restructuring of global trade, and the rise of disruptive technologies requires rapid internal reform. That will not be easy. Bureaucratic resistance to change and the political comfort with the status quo remain formidable obstacles. But world history reminds us that only those countries that continually reinvent themselves at home are the ones that leverage the world for the peace and prosperity of their citizens.”

Trump-Xi meet: In one of the most consequential encounters in years, United States President Donald Trump will arrive in Beijing today to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Their meeting is less about reconciliation than it is about managing an increasingly adversarial relationship in which economic interdependence survives despite collapsing strategic trust. Washington and Beijing are no longer negotiating the terms of partnership, but the boundaries of coexistence within an increasingly fragmented international order. We explain.

Actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has formally appointed astrologer Rickey Radhan Pandit Vetrivel the Chief Minister’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD). This move brings a figure long associated with political astrology, numerology and high-profile predictions in Tamil Nadu’s power circles, into the party’s inner structure. His influence within the actor’s emerging political ecosystem was visible during the election season. Here’s what his elevation means this time.

⏳ And Finally…

“I personally don’t think BCB and BCCI have any real issues anymore. A series here would be a great way to take the next step forward.”

Tamim Iqbal, from being branded an “Indian agent” in the aftermath of Mustafizur Rahman being ousted from the Indian Premier League, now finds himself as the interim president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board at a time when the country is trying to restore its ties with the most powerful nation in the cricket world. Iqbal shares with Sriram Veera how he plans to get the country’s cricket back on track, both on and off the field.

🎧 Lastly, don’t forget to tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we discuss the mounting pressure on India’s oil marketing companies amid West Asia conflict; the murder of Suvendu Adhikari’s aide in Bengal; as well as partial collapse of Bihar’s Vikramshila bridge.

That’s all for today. Have a wonderful day!

Until next time,
Ariba

Business As Usual by E P Unny