The cyclonic storm Mandous that is over the Southwest Bay of Bengal has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centered about 350 km east-southeast of Karaikal and about 440 km southeast of Chennai, as of Thursday, December 8, according to The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). As the storm is very likely to maintain its intensity of being a severe cyclonic storm till Friday morning (December 9), state authorities have taken precautionary measures by closing schools and colleges and postponing exams. 

The school education department has postponed the Tamil Nadu Rural Students Talent Search Examination (TRUST) to December 17. It was scheduled to take place on December 10. Class X students in rural parts of the state in all the schools whose parents have an income of less than Rs 1 lakh are eligible to write the TRUST examination. Students who clear the examination will be given a scholarship of Rs 1,000 per year for four years.

Meanwhile, Anna University has also postponed its final semester examination scheduled on Friday. The statement issued by the university said considering the safety of the students, the university's end semester examinations scheduled on Friday were postponed. "The new date will be intimated to all later, " said the statement, as per the TNIE report.

The Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE) has postponed the semester exam scheduled for Diploma students. "The exam scheduled on December 9 will now be held on December 16 and the rest of the time table remains the same, " said a statement issued by DoTe. Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has also postponed theory and practical examinations scheduled on Friday. The revised dates will be announced later, according to the press release.