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In a major revision to military recruitment rules, the Union Cabinet has lengthened the service period of Agniveers from four to six years, offering the 75% cohort previously slated for civilian discharge an additional two-year engagement and a subsequent route to regular military enrollment. Announced by CDS General N.S. Raja Subramani just ahead of the first batch’s retirement dates, the overhaul also reverses recruitment stages by putting written tests ahead of physical trials.
Celebrated British actor Sir Patrick Stewart has passed away at the age of 86. Rising from a childhood marked by domestic hardship and going completely bald by age 19, Stewart built a formidable career with the Royal Shakespeare Company before capturing global stardom as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor X in the X-Men franchise. Knighted in 2010, the Yorkshire-born legend proved that classical discipline and character can redefine modern popular culture.
Septuagenarian CPI(M) whole-timer Bipul Dasgupta has emerged as the face of peaceful resistance in West Bengal after standing ground with folded hands against a mob attempting to tear down a Left book stall in Nagerbazar during Durga Puja. The incident, set against a broader ideological row over the festival’s nomenclature, drew widespread condemnation from civil society as well as senior saffron figures including State Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta and the RSS, prompting a large solidarity march from Kolkata’s College Street on October 29.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with Ethiopia’s highest award ‘The Great Honour Nishan of Ethiopia’ by his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed Ali.
Around 1.36 crore voters will be called for hearings as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, a senior Election Commission official said.
Even as the Congress sharpened its attack on the Centre over the proposed repeal and renaming of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), senior party leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday described the controversy surrounding the move as “unfortunate”, triggering unease within his own party.
The BJP’s parliamentary board on Sunday (December 14, 2025) notified the appointment of Bihar Minister and five-term MLA Nitin Nabin as the party’s national working president, ending months of suspense.
President Droupadi Murmu, who began her two-day visit to strife-hit Manipur on Thursday amid a shutdown called by a conglomerate of valley-based militants and appeals from several organisations to address the plight of those displaced by the ongoing conflict, said she was “aware of the pain” the people of the state have gone through following the “unfortunate violence”.
At the meeting of the high level committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to select the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and commissioners, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi submitted a dissent note on the lack of representation in the list from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC)s.
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