First Repatriation flight of Vande Bharat Mission from Bahrain lands in Mangalore
Mangaluru/Bahrain: (Press Release) Under the Government of India’s mission Vande Bharat, Air India Express aircraft departed from the Bahrain International airport on 12.07.20 carrying 177 passengers and landed safely at Bajpe International Airport in Mangalore.
Mr. Mohammad Mansoor, the leading businessman and the President of The Indian Overseas Congress Bahrain thanked Mr. KP Choudhry, the 2nd secretary (Cons &CW) of the Indian Embassy for acting on the written appeal given for allocating the flight on this route to carry stranded expatriates. Passengers expressed their gratitude and applauded the IOC team for their tremendous efforts in relieving their pain and agony.
The mission culminated successfully after a two-week-long process involving a number of people. The team was led by its President Mohamed Mansoor along with its members Gayazulla, Khursheed Alam, Ibrahim Adhum, Masood Vitla, Riyaz Sullia, Jayafer, Ambalai, Sameer, Basheer Karla, and volunteers.
The IOC Team played a tremendous role in getting this expedition accomplished. President Mansoor applauded Gayaz for his tireless effort in collaborating with the Indian Embassy in preparing the passenger list and giving out the information about the formalities and procedures needed to be followed at the Mangalore Airport to avoid any unpleasant incidents. He also expressed his gratitude to Austin Santosh for coordinating with Nodal officers and providing important information to the passengers such as the list of quarantine hotels in Mangalore and Udupi with their names and contact numbers of Nodal authorities. He also expressed his appreciation to Dr. Aarti Krishna, the Overseas Congress Middle East In-charge for coordinating with Shri Norbu Negi, Charge d’ Affaires of Indian Embassy, and her relentless groundwork and immense support to IOC Bahrain and Narayan Menon, the Sales Manager of Air India for his succor.
The IOC along with KHK Heroes Foundations provided snack kits sponsored by Food World to all the passengers with the help of volunteers present at the Bahrain Airport.
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SC stays UGC regulation pertaining to definition of caste discrimination
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a recent University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation after various pleas were filed contending that the Commission adopted a non-inclusionary definition of caste-based discrimination and excluded certain categories from institutional protection.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre and the UGC on the pleas challenging the regulation.
The new regulations mandating all higher education institutions to form "equity committees" to look into discrimination complaints and promote equity were notified on January 13.
The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, mandated that these committees must include members of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST), persons with disabilities, and women.
The new regulations replaces the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, which was largely advisory in nature.
The pleas assailed the regulation on the grounds that caste-based discrimination is defined strictly as discrimination against members of the SCs, STs and OBCs.
It said that by limiting the scope of "caste-based discrimination" only to SC, ST and OBC categories, the UGC has effectively denied institutional protection and grievance redressal to individuals belonging to the "general" or non-reserved categories who may also face harassment or bias based on their caste identity.
Protests were held at various places against the regulations, with student groups and organisations demanding its immediate rollback.
