Mumbai, Aug. 12 -- The Maharashtra government will prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) to prevent examination paper leaks in universities. The SOP will be prepared based on guidelines issued by the central government, higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil said on Tuesday. The minister also directed the department to prepare clear rules to prevent paper leaks and issue a circular fixing responsibility on officials and employees if any lapse occurs. At an online meeting with vice-chancellors of all public universities in the state,Patilsaid the government will work toward a common academic calendar starting in the 2026-27 academic year and asked the universities to prepare and finalise the calendar within a week.He also directed them to prepare an academic plan for effectively implementing the four-year honours degree programme fromthe 2026-27 and 2027-28academic years. To better understand student problems, Patil asked the vice-chancellors to meet 50 students every week and submit reports detailing the issues raised and the steps taken to resolve them. The minister also directed the universities to create college clusters to increase the sharing of resources and conduct at least one cluster activity every month. He also tasked them with preparing a common cluster curriculum for the state....