The Hindu Editorial Analysis : 18th August 2026

The Hindu Editorial Analysis

We understand the significance of reading The Hindu newspaper for enhancing reading skills, improving comprehension of passages, staying informed about current events, enhancing essay writing, and more, especially for banking aspirants who need to focus on editorials for vocabulary building. This article will explore today’s editorial points, along with practice questions and key vocabulary.

Bangladesh sets conditions for PM’s visit to India

• The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that officials from India and Bangladesh have been talking for “several weeks” about the possibility of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman visiting India.
• The Ministry also said that relations between the two countries have been affected by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club on August 5.
• Bangladesh has asked India to “extradite” Sheikh Hasina and the suspected killers of radical student leader Sharif Osman Hadi. Bangladesh’s official spokesperson, A.K.M. Shahidul Karim, said that a “propitious environment” or a suitable atmosphere is needed for Mr. Rahman’s visit.
• India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, had said last Friday that New Delhi had invited Mr. Rahman twice. One invitation was for the upcoming BRICS Summit to be held in India, and the other was for a bilateral visit.
• The invitation for the bilateral visit was given on February 17, when Mr. Rahman took oath as Prime Minister after winning the general election.
• Karim said that Bangladesh believes that a suitable atmosphere must be created for Mr. Rahman’s visit. For this, Bangladesh has asked the Indian authorities to act quickly on its request to extradite Sheikh Hasina and other criminals who have fled the country. It has also asked India to hand over to Bangladesh the people accused of killing Shaheed Sharif Osman Hadi, as required under the bilateral extradition treaty.
• Karim also said that Bangladesh is waiting for India’s response to these requests.
• Diplomatic sources had earlier said that talks between India and Bangladesh were moving in the right direction after India distanced itself from Sheikh Hasina’s press conference, in which she had criticised Mr. Rahman’s government.
• After this, India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, met Mr. Rahman on August 10.
• After these meetings and discussions, sources in Dhaka said that “positive movements” had started in relations between the two countries. They also said that the possibility of a major visit by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to India was slowly becoming stronger.
• The Bangladeshi spokesperson confirmed that talks between the two countries had been going on. He said that officials from Bangladesh and India had been in contact with each other for several weeks about the possibility of a bilateral visit to India by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
• However, Mr. Karim said that this process was affected by Sheikh Hasina’s open press interaction in New Delhi on August 5.
• Earlier, on August 7, Mr. Jaiswal had distanced India from Sheikh Hasina’s press conference. He said that India does not “endorse” the comments made against the “duly constituted government” of Bangladesh.
• In his statement on Sunday, Mr. Karim again spoke about Dhaka’s “Bangladesh first” foreign policy. He said that the government would continue to maintain friendly relations with other countries, including neighbouring countries.
• He said that these relations would be based on sovereign equality, national dignity, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and mutual benefit.
• Sheikh Hasina took refuge in India on August 5, 2024, after a popular uprising brought down her government.
• Hadi, a radical student leader who had taken part in the protests and later planned to contest elections, was shot by unknown attackers in Dhaka in December 2025.
• He later died in Singapore on December 18, 2025, while receiving treatment. His death led to widespread violence in Bangladesh.
• Dhaka has continued to say that the suspected shooters involved in the attack escaped to India. However, New Delhi has not given any clear or definite response to this claim.

NTA orders re-test for 3 UGC-NET papers due to errors in questions

• The National Testing Agency (NTA) said on Sunday that it will hold the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) again for English, Sociology and Commerce. The agency took this decision after finding several problems in the question papers and said that these papers did not meet the required standards of a fair and error-free examination.
• The decision was taken after many candidates complained about mistakes and other problems in the question papers.
• The English and Commerce re-examinations will be held on September 9, while the Sociology re-examination will be held on September 10, the NTA said.
• The NTA had conducted the UGC-NET examination in the last week of June for 87 subjects. The examination is conducted for recruitment of Assistant Professors, awarding Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs), and admission to Ph.D. programmes.
• After the examination, candidates and student groups pointed out that many questions in the English and Commerce papers had been repeated from previous years. They also reported spelling mistakes, poor translation, and wrongly written or unclear names of scholars in the Sociology paper.
• NTA Director-General Abhishek Singh said that the agency decided to conduct the examination again for the three subjects after receiving a large number of complaints about mistakes in the question papers.
• A committee was formed to look into these complaints. After examining the problems, the committee concluded that the examinations for the three subjects needed to be conducted again.
• The committee found several kinds of mistakes in the three papers, including factual mistakes, typing mistakes and translation errors. These included wrongly spelled names of well-known scholars, incorrectly written book titles, mistakes in the wording of questions, grammar mistakes, errors in the use of gender and number, punctuation mistakes, and newly made terms being used instead of the already accepted terms for established concepts.
• The committee also found that a large number of questions had already been asked in examinations held in earlier years, meaning that these questions were repeated in the present examination.
• In its notice, the NTA said that the question papers with these kinds of problems did not meet the standards needed for a fair and error-free examination.
• The NTA also said that more information about the exam city, examination centre and admit cards would be announced separately on its official website.
• Candidates appearing for the re-examination in English, Sociology and Commerce will not have to pay any extra examination fee for the re-conducted examination.

Panel flags lack of policy to close mines in Meghalaya

• A panel set up by the Meghalaya High Court has criticised the State government for being slow in making a policy to close all rat-hole mine openings and put fences around those that can be dangerous for people and livestock.
• In its 39th Interim Report, which was submitted to the court last week, the one-member Justice (retired) B.P. Katakey Committee pointed out that there is no proper overall plan to deal with the problem, the State has still not adopted a policy for closing mines, and there are serious gaps in the checking of coal-based industries, especially coke oven plants that use coal.
• The panel said that the Meghalaya government had followed some of its recommendations, but had mostly failed to act on the recommendation to have a proper mine closure policy.
• The State had been told several years ago to seal abandoned mines and also those mines that were still operating illegally. These mines have become dangerous traps for people, especially children, and for livestock.
• The panel also pointed out that there have been cases in which murderers used these mine pits to throw away the bodies of their victims.
• The Katakey panel said that the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited had prepared Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for two pilot projects to restore damaged mining areas.
• One project is at Sutnga in East Jaintia Hills and has an estimated cost of ₹63 lakh. The other is at Arenggtim in South Garo Hills district and has an estimated cost of ₹92.78 lakh.
• Both proposals are still waiting for approval before the Oversight Committee set up by the National Green Tribunal. It is a joint Centre-State body with 12 members.
• The Katakey panel said that the DPRs mainly deal with restoring the land, but do not include enough safety measures, including fencing, until the restoration work is finished.
• The panel said that immediate steps must be taken to stop more people and animals from losing their lives, as thousands of open coal mines are spread across Meghalaya.
• According to the Jaintia Coal Mines Owners and Dealers’ Association, there are around 60,000 mines spread across 360 villages in East Jaintia Hills district alone.
• Most of these mines have been abandoned, but they have been left uncovered, making them a serious danger.
• The Katakey panel said that most districts had still not sent their clear proposals for closing the mines to the Mining and Geology Department.
• Officials from South West Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts promised to submit their proposals within 10 days, while South Garo Hills asked for 15 days to submit its proposal.
• The National Green Tribunal banned the dangerous rat-hole method of coal mining in Meghalaya in April 2014.
• Even after the ban, more than 45 miners have died over the years in narrow tunnels located 150–300 metres underground, showing that illegal mining has continued in the State.
• These mines are called rat-hole mines because their tunnels branch out horizontally from a deep pit and are so narrow that they are only big enough for an adult to crawl through.
• Rat-hole mines are also operating along the Assam–Arunachal Pradesh and Assam–Nagaland borders.

Important Questions

1. What did Bangladesh ask India to do regarding Sheikh Hasina and the suspected killers of Sharif Osman Hadi?
2. What did Randhir Jaiswal say about India’s invitations to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman?
3. What reasons did the NTA give for conducting the UGC-NET examination again for English, Sociology and Commerce?
4. What types of mistakes did the committee find in the three UGC-NET question papers?
5. What reasons did the Katakey panel give for criticising the Meghalaya government?
6. What mining method did the National Green Tribunal ban in Meghalaya in April 2014?

Important Vocabulary

1. Extradite — To officially send a person back to another country for legal action.
2. Propitious — Suitable or favourable for something to happen.
3. Sovereign — Having full power and authority over a country.
4. Duly — In the proper or expected manner.
5. Re-examination — An examination conducted again.
6. Factual — Related to facts or information that can be proved true.
7. Punctuation — Marks used in writing to separate sentences and clarify meaning.
8. Established — Already accepted, known or recognised.
9. Rat-hole — A very narrow mine tunnel that is only large enough for a person to crawl through.
10. Abandoned — Left without being used or looked after.
11. Oversight — The act of supervising or monitoring something.
12. Restoration — The process of returning something to its earlier or proper condition.

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