53 MIN BEFORE TIME

5 hrs 13 min: Airline flies NY to London in record time

To the envy of plane-weary travellers everywhere, passengers aboard a Norwegian Airlines flight from New York to London on January 15 were treated to a pleasant surprise: They arrived 53 minutes ahead of schedule, making theirs the fastest transatlantic flight ever recorded on a subsonic commercial aircraft. The final flight time: five hours and 13 minutes.

The good time came thanks to better-than-expected weather conditions and a hefty tailwind, which helped the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner gain three minutes over the previous record, held by a 2015 British Airways route that spanned five hours and 16 minutes. Still, the Norwegian flight’s captain said an even-faster time may be in the cards. “We were actually in the air

for just over five hours, and if it had not been for forecasted turbulence at lower altitude, we could have flown even faster,” said Captain Harold van Dam at Norwegian in a statement.

The time is nothing compared to what was possible on the Concorde, the sky-high-priced supersonic plane that could cross the Atlantic in a sprightly 3.5 hours and ceased operation in 2003. Supersonic air travel, while faster, is fairly controversial: It can create such unpleasant groundlevel disturbances as shattered windows, cracked plaster and very confused farm animals. For this reason, supersonic travel has mostly been banned since 1973.

But there’s hope yet for those desperate to shave more time off their New York to London route: Nasa announced in 2017 that it would accept bids for construction of a demo model for a supersonic aircraft with a low-level sonic boom. Peter Coen, project manager for Nasa’s commercial supersonic research team, told Bloomberg that growth in air travel and distances flown “will drive the demand for broadly available faster air travel,” making it possible for companies to “offer competitive products in the future.”

Nasa is aiming for a sound level of 60 to 65 A-weighted decibels (dBa), which is roughly the volume of a highway-bound luxury car or background conversation in a lively restaurant. Then again, why settle for supersonic travel when you can have hypersonic travel? Elon Musk’s proposed SpaceX Air would ostensibly fly through space at 17,000 miles per hour, potentially landing a New Yorker in Shanghai in 39 minutes flat.

In September, Musk said the flight should cost no more than the current price of a full-fare economy seat in a traditional aircraft, which at the time was $2,908 from China Eastern Airlines. BLOOMBERG

UNI GAUGE E 2018 EXAM

Despite US govt shutdown, consulate will issue visas

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: In the wake of the shutdown of the US government, the US consulate in Chennai has clarified that its services, including issuance of visas, will continue to function during the “lapse in Congressional appropriations.”

“If you have a scheduled visa interview or American Citizen Services appointment, please arrive at the consulate at your designated time,” said an official post by the office. The consulates in other cities too are continuing their services unaffected by theshut down, said sources.

The shutdown is a result of the deadlock between the Democrats and Republicans, over immigration and security issues and a disagreement in funding US government operations.

However, the American Center has been closed since Saturday until further notice. This means that the American Library on the premises will also remain closed temporarily. Since its establishment in 1947, the American Center has been a platform for south Indians and Americans to connect on issues of common and global interest.

The library houses more than 15,000 books, including collections in the social sciences, business, management, and American literature, and provides a wide range of information on the US. The American Center is likely to remain closed tillthe main US political parties pass a bill to fund the government.

Lufthansa may be 1st to offer WiFi on flights to, from & over India

New Delhi: A day after India allowed in flight connectivity (IFC) in its skies, German major Lufthansa has announced it willoffer Wi-Fion itsflightsto, from and over India the moment “it is allowed to”. Lufthansa Group South Asia head Wolfgang Will told TOI that the airline offers Wi-Fi on all its long haul flights. “Till now we had to switch off the service on entering Indian airspace. Now as soon as we get all the regulatory clearances, we will provide this service on our flights to, from and over India,” Will said.

This will mean flyers taking off from, headed for and overflying India will get the paid-Internet Lufthansa offers on its long haul flights. TRAI has said airlines can provide this service the moment a plane starts taxiing and personal electronic devices are put on flight mode. “We offer Internet packages, Flynet, starting at Euro 9 and going toEuro 17depending on the duration it is bought for ranging from an hour to 24 hours,” Wills, Lufthansa’s south Asia senior director, said.

He added that the group has consciously decided not to allow mobile services on its flights. TNN

Despite minister’s promise, CBSE says no change in NEET syllabus

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai: Contrary to Union education minister Prakash Javadekar’s announcement that syllabi of all state boards might be considered while preparing question papers for NEET 2018, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has declared there will be no change in the syllabus.

A notification from CBSE, which conducts the nationallevel medical entrance test, said the syllabus for NEET (UG) 2018 would be the same as for NEET (UG) 2017. This suggests CBSE students would continue to have an edge over students of state board schools in places like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, say experts, as NEET syllabus was based on National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books used mostly in CBSE schools.

Javadekar’s announcement, earlier this week, evoked a mixed response. While parents of CBSE students protested against the decision to rejig the syllabus with hardly 100 days left for the exam, students from non-CBSE schools heaved a sigh of relief. Dr S Kasi of the Doctors Forum for People’s Health said, “The only possible change we are looking this year is a uniform question paper.” Last year, different question papers were printed for candidates who took NEET in different languages.

CBSE justified it saying other competitive exams like JEE (Advanced) were conducted in similar manner, but the Supreme Court directed it to set a common paper and translate it into regional languages.

Ashok Shankar of the TN CBSE Schools Management Association said these statements were unwarranted while the state education ministry was travelling in the right path by creating awareness on NEET and conducting capacitybuilding programmes to bridge the gap between CBSE and state syllabus. “It was practically impossible to include allstate syllabi. Besides, these kind of statements in the lastminute would distract the students.”

NEET was unnecessary and more efforts are needed to strengthen the state syllabus, said C S Rex Sargunam, retired director of Egmore Government Children’s Hospital. Doctors Association for Social Equality (DASE) reiterated that NEET was based largely on CBSE syllabus and the state government should try to get the President’s nod for two bills passed in the state assembly seeking permanent exemption for the state from NEET.

University grants only two attempts beyond course period to clear UG, PG 

Bharathidasan Students Of 2017 To Get Last Chance

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Henceforth, undergraduate and postgraduate students of Bharathidasan University, many of whom fail to clear the backlog of subjects even two years after the end of the course, will not get unlimited chances to pass out.

According to the UGC guidelines adopted by the university, they will get only two more chances to clear their pending papers.

A statement from the university said it adopted the University Grants Commission’s norm to determine a uniform period within which a student may be allowed to qualify for a degree. Under exceptional circumstances, he or she may get another year to clear the arrears but not the unlimited chances the students had been enjoying so far. This rule will be implemented in all affiliated colleges of the university, Sources pointed out that those who studied in Bharathidasan University or affiliated institutions would be regarded as private students if they had to clear the backlog after the course was over. Students whose courses ended in 2017 would get only one more chance to write the exams since they had an opportunity to appear in the November semester exam.

While the University Grants Commission (UGC) had formulated the guideline in 2015, it was not adopted by many universities and many weren’t even aware of it.

Anna University was the first to adopt the guideline as part of efforts to restrict students having a backlog for as many as seven years continuing to appear for examinations with the regular students.

“We were preparing too many question papers which were affecting our regular students. Candidates who failed to clear arrears even seven years after the course will now be allowed to write the exams separately and only two more times in February and August 2018,” the official said.

Further, every district will be allocated only one centre to write the exams in the state. “We have now found that only 12,000 out of the 40,000 candidates who applied with arrears to clear are eligible to reappear under the new norm,” said the source. When contacted, higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal said that Madras University and some other universities had also adopted the guidelines as a resolution but the problem was especially acute in Anna University. 

Three city universities likely to get their VCs by March

Balajee.Cr@timesgroup.com

Chennai: By March, three premier city-based universities, two of which have remained headless for more than a year, are likely to get new vice-chancellors.

After the term of M Rajaram as Anna University vicechancellor ended in May 2016, two search committees were formed to find his replacement before being disbanded. Now, the third committee — chaired by former Supreme Court judge V S Sirpurkar, along with former IAS officer N Sundaradevan as the government nominee, and IIT Madras professor R Gnanamoorthy as the university syndicate’s nominee — has called for applications. The last date for submitting applications is February 1.

Former Anna University vice-chancellor M Anandakrishnan said the situation of premier institutes remaining without a head for such a long time was “unfortunate”. “Institutions have never been without heads for this long. Fortunately, new rules are putting an end of corruption. The decision to increase the qualifications for VCis a good move,” he told TOI.

State higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal said as per the new guidelines, the recruitment process was tightened. “We got good VCs for Bharathidasan University and Periyar University in a short span of time. The new committeeisexpectedtofinalise names soon. By Marchend we should have a new VC for Anna University,” he said.

Simultaneously, search committees appointed for Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University (TNDALU) and Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas) will begin the recruitment process. While the post of vice-chancellor for Tanuvas fell vacant a month ago, thelaw university has been headless since December 2016. The search committees toboththeseuniversitieswill receive applications till February 12.

The TNDALU search committee includes Justice S Jagadeesan, former judge of the Madras high court as chairman and S Sivakumar, member, Law Commission of India, and T Audiseshan, former TNDALU VC. “Notifications for the applications have been issued. We can expect an outcome in a couple of months,” said a law university source.

By then, Tanuvas will also finalise names of three probable candidates. “After the application deadline, it may take up to two weeks to scrutinise the applications and a final list can be made by first week of March,” said VC incharge Dr T J Harikrishnan.