Current affairs

News for UPSC, SSC and defence exams, with the reason it matters.

• Art and Culture3 Oct 2026UPSCSSC★ Important

  Five Centres of Excellence approved for Classical Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit

  • On 3 October 2026, the Education Ministry approved five Centres of Excellence for Classical Language studies.
  • They cover Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit.
  • Hosts: Tezpur University, Visva-Bharati, Deccan College Pune, Central University of Odisha and Central University of Gujarat.
  Why it matters

  [Policy] These five languages got classical status on 3 October 2024. That took India's total to 11 classical languages. The new centres give each of them a dedicated research home. Earlier centres for Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia run under the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. (PIB, 2024)

  Asked before: UPSC Prelims 2015 asked which language was given classical language status most recently.

  PIB ↗Practice →✨ Ask doubt