India’s Gen Z social mobility crisis, Tokyo’s new foreign intelligence agency, Chinese chip company’s blockbuster IPO, regional nations’ evolving security co-operation, central banker’s sudden resignation, and the PM’s melon-headed mockery.

The immediate trigger for India’s Cockroach Revolt was the leaking of questions for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, the amazingly competitive medical entrance exam. Almost 2.3 million students were competing for 137,000 places.

But, says a political risk expert, the underlying issue was a growing tension between rapid economic growth and declining confidence among young people in social mobility. The International Labour Organisation, says Adriel Kasonta, writing in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, has warned of a disconnection between qualifications and opportunities.

“India’s Constitution outlawed caste discrimination decades ago and affirmative action policies have expanded access to higher education,” he says. “[But] research suggests that family background and caste still strongly influence economic outcomes, limiting the equalising effects of education alone.

“This explains why the protests resonate beyond students preparing for medical school. What began as anger over exam irregularities has turned into a broader expression of frustration over unemployment, governance and accountability among India’s younger middle class.”

The entrance exam was held on 3 May but it was soon scrapped following allegations that papers had been leaked. On 6 June, the Cockroach Janta Party, originally a satirical grouping led by activist Abhijeet Dipke, staged a protest in New Delhi, demanding the resignation of then-education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as detailed in a timeline published by Singapore’s The Straits Times.

On 20 June, the CJP began a sit-in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory, a recognised protest site. The protest crowds grew and on 20 July police charged, wielding batons and firing tear gas. On 25 July, Pradhan resigned.

A commentary in The Hindu newspaper describes the generational chasm in India as the WhatsApp generation being challenged by the Instagram generation. The analysis, by Varghese K George, the paper’s resident editor, New Delhi, says Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the tools to tame the WhatsApp universe but in the Instagram universe it is like a deer in the headlights. It is left with nothing but brute force.

“The WhatsApp generation were Hindutva natives while the Instagram generation is insurrectionary,” he says. “Parents who have sent a message to their kids on WhatsApp and noted that they don’t even see it will recognise a disconnect. Then they discover that their kids these days communicate on Instagram, Snapchat, etc…

“That is the disconnect between the WhatsApp generation and the Instagram generation. That is the disconnect that is mirrored in the disconnect between the BJP-controlled Indian state and the country’s youngest generation.”

Political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta says in an Indian Express commentary Modi’s government will never recover its untrammelled authority. But Mehta, a contributing editor, also sounds a warning.

“For this government, the loss of face, and the potential loss of power, is existential,” he says. “It may have retreated for the moment, but it will almost certainly return with renewed determination, doubling down on repression…”

Japanese minister’s ‘no taboos’ nuclear weapons debate

Japan is stepping up its drive to strengthen its national security and defence policies, moving to establish an independent foreign intelligence agency at the same time as a senior minister is pushing to loosen the country’s nuclear weapons restrictions.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party this week approved a plan to overhaul the country’s intelligence system, with criminal penalties for illicit foreign interference and broader intelligence-gathering powers, as well as a new foreign intelligence service, _The Japa_n Times reported.

It said this represented the second stage of reforms, launched in May, when the government announced a National Intelligence Council, chaired by the prime minister, and upgraded a cabinet intelligence office to........

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