India news: Millions of students retake NEET amid protests

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This is a roundup of the top stories in India on Saturday and Sunday, June 20 and June 21:

India recalls Kohli for ODI tour

Indian cricketer Virat Kohli will return to the Indian team for a one-day international (ODI) series in England, next month, the country's cricket board said on Sunday.

Kohli's return is subject to a fitness clearance.

This comes after former Indian team captain was ruled out of this month's ODI series against Afghanistan due to an injury he suffered during the Indian Premier League (IPL) in May.

Meanwhile Yashasvi Jaiswal, who replaced Kohli for the Afghanistan tour, was not included to play in England despite scoring a century on Saturday.

India is set to play three ODI matches in England on July 14, 16 and 19 at Edgbaston, Sophia ‌Gardens ​and Lord's respectively.

India's Modi observes International Yoga Day from Kolkata

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday emphasized on yoga's role in improving the mobility and Quality of life, especially for those who were ageing.

He addressed thousands of participants at the 12th International Yoga Day Event in central Kolkata's Red Road, organized by the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party there.

This year's theme is 'Yoga for Healthy Ageing.'

"June 21, which marks the longest day on Earth, has now become the largest community celebration day because of yoga," Modi said.

"Yoga brings people together. I congratulate the people of the world on this occasion."

In videos posted on social media, the prime minister was seen correcting the yoga poses of some participants while making rounds.

Other Indian politicians from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party led similar celebrations across India.

Cockroach Janta Party protests in delhi overnight, calls on million to join in on Sunday

The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party and hundreds of supporters demonstrated at New Delhi's historic Jantar Mantar grounds for the second straight day, demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and several supporters remained at the protest site overnight, despite local police asking them to vacate the grounds.

On Sunday morning, Dipke expressed his support to NEET-UG students and asked them to focus on the examination.

"I wish you all the best for today's exam... We don't want you to come to the protest before the exam. Give your exams well, you have studied extremely hard," he said in a reel posted on social media.

"After the exam, come to Jantar Mantar, I'm right here and I am looking forward to meeting you," he said.

In another video, Dipke requested India's farmers to join the protests. "The way the children of this nation stood by you during the farmers' protest, it's time for you to stand by the children of this nation," he said.

In 2020-21, millions of farmers in northern India led months-long protests to successfully push the government to repeal three farm sector laws, which farmers believed would endanger their income. They make up a significant part of India's population and hold major political sway.

"This fight cannot move forward without your support and if farmers join in, Dharmendra Pradhan will have to resign," he said.

In yet another video, Dipke urged people from Delhi and all neighboring states to join the protest. "There could be no better way to spend your Sunday than to be at Jantar Mantar seeking justice for the students who have committed suicide," he said.

NEET-UG students set to retake high-stakes test across India

About 2.2 million premed students are set to retake the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, across more than 5,400 centers in 551 cities under heavy security measures.

Students will take the 195-minute exam under strict dress code and testing rules.

The NEET-UG is an all-India pre-medical exam which is the first step towards building a career in the medical profession — a highly sought after trade in India. This is the second time these students will take the exam in less than two months, after their first attempt was canceled due to question paper leaks.

The government has taken several new measures over the last weeks to ensure the integrity of the retest, including temporarily banning the messenger app Telegram, and having the Indian Air Force deliver the sealed question papers across India.

The pen-and paper test is highly susceptible to leaks due to the scale of the test and high number of handlers in the process. But students an critics have blamed the National Testing Agency (NTA) — which is responsible for highly competitive national-level entrance exams — for corruption and participating in cheating networks. In the case of NEET-UG 2026, many students reported that question papers were being sold on Telegram ahead of the May exam.

This is not just a test for the students but also for India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who has been facing calls for resignation since the leak.

Speaking at an International Yoga Day event in Delhi University, Pradhan said he had full faith in the NTA, local governments and the education fraternity.

"Today, around 22 lakh students are going to sit for NEET after a short while. They should sit fearlessly and free of anxiety. They will certainly do well. My many good wishes to the students," he said, as per a Press Trust of India report.

At least 12 NEET students have taken their own lives in just 37 days, according to a report by The Indian Express. Many left notes saying the pressure of the exam was too much to bear. Some feared re-taking the exam.

Good morning! and welcome back to DW's India news blog.

This is Mahima Kapoor from the New Delhi bureau, armed and ready to bring you the latest happenings from across the country. And a lot is happening.

Millions of pre-medical aspirants are set to retake the NEET-UG examination at multiple centers across India. This retest was scheduled for June 21 after the original test, on May 3, was canned due to allegations of leaked question papers. The students, who have already given the exam last month, are now going through the high-pressure exercise again. Since mid-May, at least 12 students have reportedly committed suicide over the high-pressure entrance test.

As the students gather at exam centers, a youth-led political pressure group 'Cockroach Janta Party' is leading a protest in the nation's capital. This is day two of the demonstration and protestors say they will not stop until India's education minister takes responsibility for the student deaths and resigns.

Meanwhile, India's prime minister is in West Bengal to observe International Yoga Day with a massive event in Kolkata. His Bharatiya Janata Party, which recently won the elections in the state for the first time in history, had been dressing the city up for this all week.

Stay tuned for all of this and more!

We'll have more from India tomorrow, and, besides, a victory on the cricket field seems like a fitting place to pause!

India complete ODI series sweep against Afghanistan

India completed a 3-0 sweep of a One-Day International series against Afghanistan with a nine-wicket win in Chennai on Saturday.

Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 110 not out, while Prasidh Krishna took five wickets for 23 runs as Afghanistan were bowled out for 218 in 44.2 overs.

India had already secured the series with wins in Lucknow and Dharamshala. It was the teams' first bilateral ODI series.

The series marks the start of the road to the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.

Captain Shubman Gill said "a lot of the boxes were ticked."

India will play two T20 internationals in Ireland later this month before moving to England for a white-ball series.

"We spoke about keeping the intensity in the middle overs and how as batters we can push for extra runs. Going to England, the conditions will be a little closer to what we will get in South Africa."

Weekend watch: Under the open sky — India's last nomads

This film tells the story of Ahmed and his family, camel herders in the deserts of western India. For generations, they’ve roamed the barren land with their animals, leading lives shaped by tradition and nature. But this way of life is coming under increasing pressure: industrialization, climate change and economic challenges are rapidly transforming the region and threatening the future of nomadic life.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Indian yoga expert says West overlooks discipline's deeper roots

Indian yoga expert Varun Veer says Western practice often overlooks yoga's deeper roots ahead of International Yoga Day on Sunday.

"In the Indian tradition, we work on the body, the breath, the mind..." he told AFP, saying yoga in the West is "reduced 95 percent to asanas (postures) and very little to prana (breath)".

Veer, who taught yoga in several parts of the world, says the practice dates back more than 10,000 years.

He notes hatha yoga was the first widely practiced form in the West, later joined by styles like Iyengar, Ashtanga and Sivananda.

"The sequences and postures may differ, but they are all based on hatha yoga," the 51-year-old yogi with a doctorate in the origins and philosophy of yoga told AFP.

Veer welcomes yoga's global rise since the 1970s, as Indian teachers spread the practice across the US, Europe and Asia.

WATCH: Kashmir's cricket bat industry faces willow shortage crisis

Willow trees are the backbone of Kashmir's famed cricket bat industry. But the shrinking supplies of willow wood are putting livelihoods and manufacturing units in the valley at risk.

Hundreds of CJP supporters demonstrate in New Delhi

Hundreds of people heeded the call by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) for a major protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, once again calling for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

10 arrested in Manipur over involvement in violence in the state

Authorities arrested 10 people in the northeastern state of Manipur for their involvement in violence, looting and robberies during the state's ethnic unrest, the India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Friday.

The "accused had played active roles in various incidents of violence during the period of ethnic unrest in Manipur, including attacks on security forces, looting of arms and ammunition, and bank robberies," the NIA said in a statement.

The operations "were focused on identifying and prosecuting individuals, across communities, involved in criminal and terrorist activities in the state," it added.

Manipur has been rocked by ethnic violence since 2023, with clashes between the predominantly Hindu majority Meitei community and the Christian Kuki minority.

The violence has killed more than 250 people till now.

India's Manipur conflict fuels demands for separate state

Indian teen killed in NYC horse carriage accident

Horse carriage rides in Central Park in New York City were put on hold temporarily on Friday after an 18-year-old from India was killed in an accident.

Romanch Mahajan died on Wednesday after suffering a head injury when he jumped from a horse-drawn carriage that ran out of control without a driver in the park.

The carriage driver had gotten off to take a photo of Mahajan's family when the horse suddenly ran causing Mahajan's mother to fall off. He jumped out in an attempt to help her, his father told The New York Times.

The family was in NYC to celebrate the young boy's recent high school graduation.

According to India media reports, Mahajan's family is from the northern state of Punjab.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani reiterated his call to end horse carriage rides in Central Park as the roads are now populated with joggers, cyclists, pedestrians and motorized scooters. Mamdani's said his administration would "deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all."

Palestinian Embassy calls on India for urgent medical aid for West Bank, Gaza

On Friday The Palestinian Embassy in New Delhi called on India to deliver urgent medical aid in the face of a deepening health care crisis in the Palestinian territories, according to media reports.

The embassy said in a statement that the medical system in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is nearing collapse amid ongoing conflict and financial pressures. Palestinians are left facing an "unprecedented humanitarian and public health catastrophe."

The statement said "only 19 out of 36 hospitals remain partially operational under extremely limited emergency conditions," citing the World Health Organization (WHO).

Amid overcrowded displacement camps, poor sanitation and shortages of clean water, the embassy warned of increased risks of disease outbreaks and malnutrition, particularly among children.

The statement added that the healthcare sector in the occupied West Bank was also facing funding shortages.

The embassy asked India to extend help under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Aarogya Maitri initiative which promises "essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crises."

"If not India and the Indian people; then who? If not now; then when?" the statement said.

There has been no response from the Indian government yet.

Cockroach Janta Party returns to Delhi with fresh protest against education minister

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is holding its second major protest in New Delhi on Saturday, as it pushes for the resignation of Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Supporters of the viral "cockroach" movement are calling for Pradhan's ouster after reported exam irregularities, reflecting deep frustration among young people with corruption and failures in the education system.

This comes after hundreds joined CJP protests in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and Amritsar. Earlier this month, the capital witnessed CJP's first big protest with hundreds in attendance.

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the CJP, asked each person to bring a plate and spoon along, posting on his X account that "the cockroaches too will make their voices heard by banging thalis (metal plates) at Jantar Mantar."

In 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for Indians to bang pots and pans in support for doctors, nurses and other workers involved in the fight against coronavirus.

Activist Sonam Wangchuk is expected to attend the protest.

India's Gen Z 'Cockroaches' protest national exams fraud

On Friday, Dipke wrote an open letter to Modi highlighting the cases of student suicides due to exam stress.

"Over the recent weeks, we have tragically lost 11 young students to suicide," Dipke wrote. "All that we students want is to see some accountability for the loss of lives."

"By acknowledging that Dharmendra Pradhan has destroyed India's education system and by taking decisive action to replace him… you will be demonstrating to the nation that you possess the strength and resolve to enforce true accountability in this country," the letter said.