Do Teachers and Parents Really Understand What Students Go Through in School?
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Do Teachers and Parents Really Understand What Students Go Through in School?

A new survey has revealed a consistent gap between what students across high fee private schools experience and what teachers and parents believe is happening inside classrooms and beyond. This suggests that decisions about teaching, discipline, technology use and wellbeing are being influenced by adult assumptions rather than student reality, which risks deepening stress, weakening trust and leaving schools poorly prepared for the social and technological world students already inhabit.

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Emotional Distress Linked to Compulsive Pornography Use, Indian Study Finds
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Emotional Distress Linked to Compulsive Pornography Use, Indian Study Finds

Over recent decades, pornography has become more available, affordable, and easier to access in private, especially through smartphones and the internet. However, a new study in India finds that people with higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress are more likely to report compulsive or problematic pornography use.

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Bail for Rapist, Violence for Survivor, Laughter from a Politician
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Bail for Rapist, Violence for Survivor, Laughter from a Politician

A former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator convicted of gang rape has received bail, while the survivor protesting the decision was dragged away by police and ridiculed by a state minister. Together, these events show how those in power protect each other by using police to crush protest and mock the pain of ordinary people, turning justice into a show of control and humiliation.

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How a Dalit Worker Was Lynched in ‘God’s Own Country’
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

How a Dalit Worker Was Lynched in ‘God’s Own Country’

A Dalit migrant worker named Ram Narayan was lynched in Palakkad, Kerala, by a group of men who accused him of theft and claimed he was an “illegal immigrant” from Bangladesh. The killing shows that even in Kerala, often seen as resistant to radical Hindu nationalist politics, some people now feel entitled to act on hate and deliver “punishment” without due process. It also shows that for a section of the public, the state no longer holds exclusive authority over justice.

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Sudden Deaths in Young Indians Linked Mostly to Heart Disease
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Sudden Deaths in Young Indians Linked Mostly to Heart Disease

A new research has found that a significant number of young adults in India are dying suddenly, most often due to undetected heart disease, even though many appear healthy and have no known medical conditions. What is concerning is that these deaths frequently occur at home or during routine activities, and in a large share of cases, even detailed autopsies fail to identify a clear cause, leaving families without answers and risks unaddressed.

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India Adds Millionaires Amid Shrinking Wealth and Deepening Inequality, Report Says
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

India Adds Millionaires Amid Shrinking Wealth and Deepening Inequality, Report Says

India now has 917,000 US dollar millionaires, with 39,000 added in just one year, according to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025. This rise in high-net-worth individuals has occurred alongside a fall in average adult wealth, marking a sharp divide between visible gains at the top and economic stagnation across the broader population.

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Oxford Graduate Works for Marginalised Students’ Access to Higher Education in India
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Oxford Graduate Works for Marginalised Students’ Access to Higher Education in India

India’s higher education sector has expanded steadily over the years, yet the benefits of this growth remain concentrated among those with social and economic privilege. For students from marginalised communities, entry into universities continues to be blocked by barriers that rarely make it into policy debates. In this interview, Manzer, a scholar working to bridge gaps in access, explains what keeps these students out of higher education, based on what he has observed while working closely with marginalised communities.

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Could Malayalam Actor’s Acquittal in Sexual Assault Case Be State-Enabled Impunity?
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Could Malayalam Actor’s Acquittal in Sexual Assault Case Be State-Enabled Impunity?

Malayalam actor Dileep has been acquitted in the 2017 case involving the abduction and sexual assault of a female actor. The verdict by a court in Kerala was based on the state’s failure to prove its own claims, not on any finding that cleared him of wrongdoing, and it stands as yet another example of how investigation and prosecution remain weak links in the justice system, especially in cases where the accused is powerful and influential.

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Body Dissatisfaction in Teens Linked to Mental Illness in Adulthood: Study
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Body Dissatisfaction in Teens Linked to Mental Illness in Adulthood: Study

Many people feel unhappy with how they look, and you may feel the same way. A new study shows that body dissatisfaction has become one of the most common psychological struggles among adolescents, and that these feelings during teenage years are strongly linked to eating disorder symptoms and depression in early adulthood.

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6.5 Million Children Dropped Out of School in 5 Years
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

6.5 Million Children Dropped Out of School in 5 Years

Over the last five years, more than 6.5 million (65 lakh) children in India have dropped out of school, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur revealed in Parliament. Among them, nearly 3 million (30 lakh) are adolescent girls. The numbers point to a large-scale rupture in India’s promise of universal education, and also to structural gaps in the way schooling is planned, supported and delivered, especially for children from marginalised families.

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Why 96% of Indians Have No Access to Palliative Care
NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, December 2025 Vishal Arora

Why 96% of Indians Have No Access to Palliative Care

Up to 10 million people in India need palliative care, yet fewer than 4% receive it, according to a new study. As a result, people with chronic and life-limiting illnesses such as cancer, heart disease or advanced neurological conditions are often left without the support they need to live their final days with comfort and dignity. They endure unmanaged pain and deep emotional distress.

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Heart Attack Prediction Tools Miss the Warning in Half of Cases
NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora

Heart Attack Prediction Tools Miss the Warning in Half of Cases

A new study by medical researchers in the United States has revealed a serious limitation in how doctors currently try to predict and prevent heart attacks. It shows that the tools most commonly used by physicians, namely the ASCVD risk score and the newer PREVENT calculator, are failing to identify a large number of individuals who are actually at risk.

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Fear and the Beings We Learn to Despise: A Professor’s Open Letter to Students

Fear and the Beings We Learn to Despise: A Professor’s Open Letter to Students

This piece is not an academic or a journalistic write-up; it is my heartfelt narrative for all the students who have internalised fear. I write this not because I want to preach, but because I feel responsible for giving you a kind and better world. It is challenging for me to recount a small (or rather, huge) incident from my life, and that too publicly, but I want all students to read and engage with my lived experience, even if they disagree.

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Delhi University Faces Backlash After Democracy Seminar Is Cancelled
NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora

Delhi University Faces Backlash After Democracy Seminar Is Cancelled

According to report published in CNN, Delhi University cancelled a long-running seminar on democracy on the same day it issued a directive urging staff and students to attend a summit on cow welfare. The overlap sparked anger among professors and students who said it showed pressure from the government to push Hindu nationalist interests inside public universities.

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How AI Is Changing Work Habits, Aspirations Among Young Indian Employees
NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora

How AI Is Changing Work Habits, Aspirations Among Young Indian Employees

The Indian workplace is undergoing a major psychological and structural reset, and artificial intelligence is at the heart of it. A new study shows that employees now use AI not only to work more efficiently, but also as a daily companion, career guide and thinking partner. This is especially true for younger professionals who are redefining what success, identity and purpose mean in their careers.

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Population Does Not Cause Poverty, Bad Economics Does
NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, November 2025 Vishal Arora

Population Does Not Cause Poverty, Bad Economics Does

The idea that India’s large population is the reason for its poverty is still taught in economics classes, but it falls apart under basic scrutiny, says Sauvik Chakraverti, a libertarian thinker and economist, in “Free Your Mind: A Beginner’s Guide to Political Economy.” If wealth is created by humans working, producing and exchanging with each other, how can more humans cause poverty?

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Youth Collective’s Site Set on Fire After Assault, Charges Over Books on Ideology
NB, News Briefings, October 2025 Vishal Arora NB, News Briefings, October 2025 Vishal Arora

Youth Collective’s Site Set on Fire After Assault, Charges Over Books on Ideology

Unidentified individuals set fire to a rural campus run by the youth collective HOWL (How Ought We Live), which works with tribal communities, destroying property worth lakhs. The suspected arson came after months of rising hostility, including physical assaults, allegedly by local right-wing groups, and the arrest of the group’s founder on charges of offending religious sentiments.

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