Ananya Mahnot

This year, Ashoka University introduced the Ashoka Mathematics Challenge (AMC), a new admissions pathway for applicants intending to pursue majors in Computer Science, Mathematics, or Physics, and similar STEM degrees, creating the university’s first discipline-specific admissions route that requires applicants to identify with a specific academic discipline before entering the university. The assessment will be available in a round of special admissions on 23rd August, 2026, and will also be...

On 14th July, 2026, Ashoka University, financially supported by Dr. Amit Varma, established the Dr. Ajit Varma Centre for Planetary Health, a new transdisciplinary centre under the Trivedi School of BioSciences. The centre aims to study environmental change and human health through collaborations with three different disciplines: computer science, for health modelling through AI, Economics, for climate change evaluation, and Psychology, for studying community adaptation. Established with...

Around three months after the departure of the founding director of the Ashoka Centre for Well-Being (ACWB), Dr. Arvinder Singh, and the subsequent restructuring of campus mental health services, Ashoka University has appointed Nivedita Singh as the new Director of ACWB. Singh announced her appointment in a public post, describing the decision as the outcome of an “intense and deeply reflective process”. A mental health professional, Singh has worked as a psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor...

On 15th January, 2026, Professor Justin McCarthy, Director of Performing Arts at Ashoka University, shared new policies for booking the Black Box theatre. The new policy allows each production one day of rehearsal, with a maximum of six days per semester that the theatre can be booked. These changes follow the wear and tear that the theatre experienced in the past semester due to an increased volume of productions, and to make the space more equally accessible to all. The revised policies...

Psychotherapist Dr. Arvinder Singh, the director and founder of the Ashoka Centre for Well-being (ACWB), has stepped down after nearly a decade of heading counselling services for students, faculty, and staff at Ashoka University. In an email to the students on March 9th, 2026 Dr. Singh wrote of her departure from the ACWB, expressing gratitude for the center and for the students who contributed to “build a culture of well-being”. In an interview with The Edict, Ajitesh Vishwanath (UG’27),...

Following the administration’s decision to reject online classes , an email sent by the Campus Life Ministry (CLM) on October 23rd mentioned that, based on past trends, the administration anticipates that “the air quality will naturally improve in the coming days.” However, ten days later, on Saturday, 1st November, 2025, Ashoka’s Air Quality Index (AQI) surged to 291 at 11:00 am. This is the highest recorded level in the University this year, since January 15th, 2025, which observed an AQI...