All universities and colleges have been directed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to set up selfie points featuring pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the background.

The higher education regulator has nudged the campus authorities to encourage students and visitors to click selfies at these points and share them on media platforms, Telegraph reported.

The idea is to create a buzz around what the UGC has described as “India’s achievements in various fields”, thus “fostering a sense of collective pride”.

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“There is a unique opportunity to harness the energy and enthusiasm of the youth, moulding their minds with inspiration drawn from India’s progress in diverse fields,” says a letter from UGC secretary Manish Joshi, sent to the vice-chancellors of all Indian universities and the principals of all the colleges on Friday, cited by Telegraph.

“Let us celebrate and disseminate the incredible strides made by our country by establishing a ‘Selfie Point’ within your institution. The aim of ‘Selfie Point’ is to create awareness among the youth about India’s achievements in various fields, particularly the new initiatives under the National Education Policy 2020.”

The letter adds: “You are requested to encourage students and visitors to capture and share these special moments on social media platforms, fostering a sense of collective pride.”

The UGC has suggested a range of designs for the selfie points. Each design is dedicated to a particular theme, such as the internationalisation of education, unity in diversity, Smart India Hackathon, Indian knowledge system, multilingualism, and India’s rise in higher education, research and innovation.

Each selfie point should be established at a strategic place on the campus and have a 3D layout.

A man from Maharashtra’s Thane allegedly killed his mother, 55, following a quarrel with her over her failure to provide him tasty food.

The event happened on Sunday night in Murbad taluka’s Velu village, according to an official of Thane rural police control room.

The mother used to argue frequently with her son over household matters.

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On Sunday, the man again had a quarrel with his mother and complained that she did not cook and serve him tasty food, the police said quoting the FIR.

The man, in a fit of anger, allegedly attacked his mother with a sickle on her neck following which she collapsed and died, the official said.

Some persons from the neighbourhood alerted police, who rushed to the spot and sent the body to a government hospital for post-mortem.

After the incident, the accused allegedly had an overdose of sleeping pills. He was hospitalised by relatives and has not yet been arrested, the official said.

A case was registered on Monday against the accused under Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder), he said.

In Agra, a 70-year-old man was seen putting up the wooden sign “Main Zinda Hun (I am alive).” According to Dinanath Yadav, the Agra resident, he was declared dead by the employees at the office of Agra’s Chief Development Officer (CDO).

Carrying the wooden placard around his neck, Yadav appeared before the Agra District Magistrate office on Sunday, claiming he was “maliciously” declared dead by the state government employees in March this year, India Today reported.

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Surprised at his claim, the District Magistrate pursued the documents produced by Yadav and issued instructions to the CDO’s staff to ascertain how he was pronounced dead.Speaking to India Today, Dinanath Yadav said that he is in perfect health, goes to his farms every day, and has even been drawing an old-age pension for the past two years.

However, his pension stopped in March this year and he was not given a satisfactory answer when he contacted the village Secretary, he said.According to Yadav, he went to the CDO office where he learned that a staffer had shown him as dead in the government records, which not only caused his pension to stop but could also lead to several legal issues for him in the future.

He said that he had tried to contact the District Magistrate several times in the past eight months. He decided to walk into the DM’s office with a placard hanging from his neck that read “Main Zinda Hoon”.

Yadav said that the District Magistrate immediately called up the village Panchayat Secretary in Etmadpur and instructed him to file a full report, resolving his problem.

When asked if he was aware of the issue, Block Development Officer (BDO) Anirudh Singh said that he did come across this case but since he was on leave, he was unable to comment on it.

Social activist Vijay Upadhyay pointed out that this is not a solitary case, and there were hundreds of such men in Uttar Pradesh, who have been pronounced dead on government records and are struggling to prove that they are alive.