REGION DIGEST

Srirangam Jeeyar passes away in Trichy

12.07.2018
Sri Ranga Narayana Jeeyar, the 50th Jeeyar of Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam, passed away at a private hospital in Trichy on Wednesday evening. The 88-year-old, who was engaged in serving the Srirangam temple, was unwell for more than a week. He was admitted to a private hospital in Trichy where he died. Born Sri Varathachariyar at Nayinarpalayam village in Villuppuram district on December 3, 1929, he studied Rig Veda at Sankara Matam in Thiruvanaikaval and mastered Sanskrit at Chidambaram. Sri Ranga Narayana Jeeyar started his spiritual life as a priest at Sri Lakshminarayana Perumal temple in Coimbatore in 1959. He was a devotee of Ranganathaswamy since his early days and became its 50th Jeeyar at the age of 60 in 1998.

Pondy govt to consult MCI on HC ‘grace mark’ order: The Puducherry government will consult the Medical Council of India (MCI) to decide on the future course of action after the Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Tuesday passed an order directing the CBSE to award 196 ‘grace marks’ to the candidates, who appeared for NEET in Tamil due to errors in the question paper. Chief minister V Narayanasamy made an announcement in this regard when AIADMK legislature party leader A Anbalagan urged the government to initiate efforts to prepare a new merit list based on the revised marks of the students following the court’s order. The chief minister said the government would initiate alternate measures after consultations with the MCI and Centac.

Man, 27, arrested for rape and murder of girl: The Sivaganga district police have arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with the rape and murder of a speech-impaired girl. He was produced before a judicial magistrate and lodged in Madurai Central Prison on Wednesday. The accused was identified as Manickam from the same village. He is married and an alcoholic. Police said when he was going past the victim’s house in Acharampatti village on Tuesday, he saw the 19-year-old girl taking bath. He entered the house and raped her before killing her with a rod.

Bank employee held for stealing from customers’ accounts: A 32-year-old employee of Canara Bank in Thumbalam on the outskirts of Trichy was arrested for misappropriating around ₹11 lakh from customers’ accounts. He was identified as A Karunanidhi, 32, of Thumbalam village.

221-kg Dandayudhapani idol taken to Kumbakonam court

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai: 12.07.2018

The controversial 221-kg Utsavar idol at the Palani Dandayudhapani temple, in the making of which misappropriation of funds have been alleged, was brought down from the hill temple by a trolley winch on Wednesday to be produced in a court in Kumbakonam.

Special poojas were performed before the idol was brought down. Temple authorities and the idol wing of the CID accompanied it. Following reports that the original “navabashana’’ idol, in the temple was getting damaged due to the things used for anointing it, a new idol was commissioned and the 3.5-feet panchaloha idol, a mixture of five metals including gold and silver, was installed in the temple in 2004. But, as it started changing colour it was removed and kept in the vaults.

It was alleged that the metals used in making the idol had been misappropriated and the idol wing led by IG Pon Manickavel started investigating into it. Following this, the idol wing arrested Muthaiah Sthapathi, who made the idol, former executive officer of the temple K K Raja, HR and CE valuer Deivendran among some others.

The idol is to be handed over to the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Kumbakonam, where the case is being heard. It was taken out of the double locker vault in the temple after about 14 years. It was handed over to police after special poojas were performed.

It was brought down in a specially designed wooden box and was handed over to the court. It was weighed in the presence of a judge. The judge ordered that it be taken to the Kumbakonam Nageswaran temple locker for safekeeping.





The idol being brought out of the temple using a trolley winch

‘Higher edu is over-regulated and under-governed in India’

One of the critics of the Higher Education Commission Act, 2018, chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology University

G Viswanathan  12.07.2018  TOI

last week opposed the draft of the act saying the act gives more power to the Centre and paves the way for political interference in the administration of institutions. In an interview with TOI , he speaks about how regulations on private institutions are restricting their growth, the need to replace the affiliation system with accreditation, and the demand for more colleges with an updated curriculum

What needs to be done to improve performance of colleges and universities?

At present, higher education, particularly private institutions, in India is over-regulated and under-governed. Higher education in India means affiliation, approval, no-objection certificates, permission and recognition. People running a college have no control over syllabus, exam or results. Only India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have this system of affiliation, because of which we can’t compete with advanced countries where only accreditation is done. Though licence raj ended for industries and businesses after the New Economic Policy in 1991, education continues to remain in the clutches of various regulatory bodies.

Can you elaborate on the roadblocks due to these regulatory bodies?

Autonomy is given to only 300 of the 40,000-odd colleges across the country and there is a huge gap between the job market and the course. Also, it is impossible to think about a corruption-free government regulatory body. Regulations are harsh in the medical field. It takes ₹100 crore to ₹130 crore to get the necessary papers to start a medical college besides spending on land, buildings and infrastructure.

Talking about medical education, what is your take on NEET and other competitive exams?

I have no objection to NEET. Nearly 25 districts including Vellore and Chennai have benefited after NEET. Every year, 13 lakh students take up NEET, but only 6.5 lakh qualify for 60,000 available seats. Some of the qualified students can’t join private institutes if the fee is too high. So, the government should focus on increasing the number of seats in existing colleges and opening new medical colleges. Not only in medicine, there is a need to increase seats in several other streams. Our gross enrolment ratio is only 24%. The government has to increase spending on education to at least 6% of the GDP from the present 4%.

What’s your take on research here? Can a body like National Knowledge Commission help?

Research requires a lot of money. Only a handful of funding agencies like department of biotechnology and department of science and technology sanction funds after a lot of convincing regarding a project. Students from private institutions are not given any government funding and so they face a fund crunch. Answering the second part of the question, any government body with the right intention should be able to help, but the ministry of human resources development should allocate funds.

How do we fare in higher education and research compared to other countries?

Every year, people spend ₹65,000 crore to send 5.5 lakh students abroad for higher studies and research. This is almost twice our annual higher education budget. India has a lot of potential to become a world leader in research. For this, we should have a vision. Internationally, we are not recognised for education. Of the 5 million international students, only 40,000 come to India. Smaller countries like Malaysia and Singapore do better in this aspect. We should learn from the US, the UK and Canada where none of the institutions is exempted from accreditation. Here, institutes like IITs are free from accreditation and go on to become an institution of national importance.

What can be improved on the school education front?

There is an earnest effort by the Tamil Nadu school education minister (K A Sengottaiyan) to improve the school curriculum after damages caused for more than 10 years. Even there, we lag when it comes to training of teachers. There are training schools in Tamil Nadu where candidates can get teacher training certificates without attending classes. This needs to change.



G Viswanathan

Being slim can up risk of death: Study

‘Excessive Dieting May Have Fatal Outcomes’

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.07.2018

Growing waistlines may increase risks of heart and kidney disease, strokes and cancers, but a study by Chennai researchers has found that the cause of death in most Indians is associated with being thin.

Being overweight or obese is not always bad, but it is important to follow a proper diet and exercise.

“Some overweight individuals lead a healthy life, with no metabolic changes in their glucose levels or lipid profile,” said Dr Anjana Ranjit Mohan of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, who led the study. “On the other hand, people on excessive diets may lack vital nutrients, leading to complications, including death.”

The study published in Plosone on Monday looked at causes and predictors of mortality among people in Chennai with and without diabetes. Of the 2,273 people followed for a decade, 671 died. Scientists asked for the cause of death in 552 people from family members and adjudicated it by trained physicians. “As expected, we found the mortality rate was at least three times higher among diabetics, particularly in the 51-70 age group. But analysis showed being underweight was associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality in the overall study cohort, whereas overweight and obesity were not,” she said.

While heart disease killed most people in the older group, diabetes was the key cause for mortality in the young. Over all, renal disease topped the causes’ list among diabetics.

The results could have been skewed due to paucity of individuals with higher grades of obesity but being underweight, clinical epidemiologist C S Shanthi Rani said, confers a greater risk of mortality than expected in this population. “There is strong evidence in studies abroad that undernourished people are likely to be exposed to chronic undernutrition and its consequences such as infectious diseases and micronutrient deficiency or even intrauterine growth retardation.” she said.

Another possibility, diabetologist Dr V Mohan said, is that renal failure, most common cause of death among diabetics, can leave a person wasted. “It is the most frequently occurring comorbidity among people with renal failure. Treatment such as dialysis, heavy diet restriction and medications can cause severe weight loss,” he said.

NEET case: CPM MP files caveat in SC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  12.07.2018

Anticipating that the CBSE would move the Supreme Court against Madras high court order awarding 196 ‘grace marks’ to more than 24,000 students who wrote NEET-2018 in Tamil, CPM Rajya Sabha member T K Rangarajan filed a caveat in the apex court on Wednesday.

Flaying the CBSE for framing 49 inaccurate and wrongly translated questions, each carrying four marks totalling 196, the Madurai bench of the high court on Tuesday stayed the ongoing MBBS admissions based on the present merit list. It gave CBSE two weeks’ time to draw up a fresh list of qualified candidates. “The caveat is intended to ensure that no stay is granted on the high court order without hearing me,” Rangarajan told TOI.

“My suggestion is that the government has to create more medical seats in private and government colleges. If these students get admission in private colleges, they should pay fees on a par with that of the government medical colleges and CBSC should bear the remaining fee amount,” he said.

Visa applicant faints near US consulate, dies

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  12.07.2018

A 38-year-old man walking towards the US consulate for a visa interview on Wednesday, collapsed and later died.

Police said the deceased Senthilvelan of Teynampet, was related to district collector Anbu Selvan. Police said Senthilvelan received a receipt from the consulate to appear for a personal interview for a US visa. He was on his way to the office when the incident took place.

Witnesses told police that when Senthilvelan collapsed, people initially thought, he had slipped. It was later that passersby realised he had fainted and called the 108 ambulance service. He was taken to a private hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. The Teynampet police have registered a case of unnatural death and further investigations are on.

Air tickets all taken? Airport now has 30 overnight flights
Offers Options On Domestic Routes; Lower Prices A Bonus

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.07.2018


If you’ve had to travel from or to Chennai at short notice in the past and scoured one travel website after another for an air ticket, there’s a good chance that the only elevation that you would have achieved is with your frustration at the futility of it all.

But things are rapidly changing. The city airport, dissed for its capacity limitations, now handles at least 30 red-eye flights — between 11pm and 5am — on a daily basis. There are now no less than 10 to 12 departures and 20 arrivals the airport, up from two or three overnight flights just a year and a half ago.

Red-eye flights are not just a boon when tickets run out: They are also cheaper than peak-hour flights by 10% to 20%. The fares are rising, however, because there are more takers.

Frequent flyer Joseph D said he prefers red-eye flights when he travels home because most people book peak-hour flights in the morning and evening. “I’m not in a hurry and red-eye flights still offer lower fares,” he said.

An airline official said the increase in red-eye flights was a direct result of high demand. More overnight flights on domestic routes has allowed the trend to take hold, he said.

“Peak-hour slots are often all taken in Chennai, so travellers have started to take overnight flights,” the official said. “Airlines with flights that land in Chennai after 12am use their aircraft for outbound flights when the morning peak hour starts.”

The domestic terminal remains as busy through the night as it is during peak hours, an airport official said. “A year ago, there were very few arrivals after midnight,” he said. “There are now around 10 daily arrivals after 1am.”

Flights arrive past 11pm from Pune, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. There are four arrivals from Pune and three arrivals from Delhi. Departing aircraft head to Bengaluru, Jaipur, Pune, Patna, Goa and Patna.