The Catch Up: 11 June

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It’s the 11th of June and here are today's headlines.

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) on a plea seeking cancelling of NEET-UG 2024 exams over allegations of leak of question papers. The bench said the “sanctity has been affected” and that they need answers. However, the court refused to stay the counselling process for admission of those who have cleared the exam. Two days after the NEET-UG 2024 results were declared, The Indian Express reported that out of the 67 top scorers, 44 got a basic Physics question wrong but were awarded “grace marks” because of an error in an older version of the NCERT Class 12 textbook. More than 13,000 NEET-UG 2004 candidates challenged it, citing information in the textbook indicating a different answer, even though the provisional answer key released by the NTA selected the correct answer from the choices given.

Two days after the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers, S Jaishankar assumed charge as the Minister of External Affairs once again. Expressing confidence in Modi 3.0’s foreign policy, Jaishankar highlighted key priorities such as addressing challenges posed by China’s tactics along the frontier and safeguarding India’s interests amidst developments in West Asia and the conflict in Ukraine.

The national capital today witnessed massive power cuts, following a fire at UP’s power grid, Delhi minister Atishi said. She wrote on X, quote, “This is due to a fire at a sub-station of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) in Mandola, UP,” Unquote. However, she said that the process of restoration had begun and power had returned in some areas. While highlighting that Delhi has a very limited production of power, the AAP minister said that she would speak to the Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and the Chairman of PGCIL to ensure that such a major failure is not repeated.

In his first public remarks on the outcome of the elections in which the BJP fell short of a majority in Lok Sabha, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that a true sevak (one who serves the people) does not have “ahankar” (arrogance) and works without causing any hurt to others. Referring to the bitter poll campaign, he said “decorum was not maintained”.

Malawi’s vice president and nine others were killed in a plane crash, the country’s president said today. The wreckage of the military plane carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima was located in a mountainous area in the north of the country in a search that lasted more than a day. There were no survivors of the crash, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said in a live address on state television. Hundreds of soldiers, police officers and forest rangers searched a missing military plane carrying Malawi's vice president, a former first lady and eight others.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.