Quantum city blueprint to be unveiled at Bengaluru Tech Summit: Minister Boseraju
Bengaluru (PTI): The blueprint for the proposed Quantum City to be established at Hesaraghatta near here will be officially unveiled on November 19 at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, Karnataka Minister for Science and Technology N S Boseraju said on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the Smart Bio Awards ceremony held at Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) as part of the Tech Summit, where he also interacted with several distinguished delegates attending the global event.
Boseraju said the State's Karnataka Quantum Mission (KQM), with an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore, aims to position Karnataka as the "Quantum Capital of Asia," according to a statement issued by the minister's office.
"Karnataka is establishing India's first Quantum City in Bengaluru. The government will present its detailed roadmap at the Bengaluru Tech Summit tomorrow (Wednesday). In addition, the State has requested the Centre to approve a Quantum Materials Innovation Network under India's National Quantum Mission," he added.
Minister Boseraju also highlighted the government's commitment to promoting scientific temper and innovations across the state saying that science centres and planetariums are being established in every district.
Under the Astronomy Access Programme, he said, telescopes have been distributed to schools, giving rural students hands-on exposure to space science.
"The Rs 300-crore 'Bengaluru Science City', being developed with support from the Government of India, is progressing rapidly and will offer immersive, experiment-based learning environments," he said.
The minister also lauded Science Gallery Bengaluru, supported by the Government of Karnataka, for its role in blending science with art and design and attracting more than six lakh visitors since its inception.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
