India, Aug. 2 -- Delhi University's North Campus was filled with nervous energy on Friday as first-year students stepped onto campus for the first time. Students, dressed in carefully chosen outfits with backpacks slung over their shoulders, navigated the lanes in the late monsoon heat-some scanning their phones for directions, while others were guided by seniors or followed groups of fellow freshers. Orientation sessions were held across colleges throughout the day to welcome and introduce the new students to campus life.

Dressed in baggy jeans and a light-yellow top, Shweta Tripathi, 18, a first year student at Miranda House who moved to Delhi from Kanpur, said, "I bought this outfit for the first day of college. I wanted to feel like ...