Air India goes all veg for pilots by ‘mistake’, withdraws order

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:13.07.2018

Air India pilots were served another shocker recently when the airline asked flight caterers to supply only vegetarian meals for them on aircraft. The order, however, did not last long and was withdrawn immediately.

This short-lived confusion was sparked by a mail issued by the airline’s catering section on July10 that the ‘special’ meals on AI flights for pilots were to be all-veg with immediate effect. Pilot meals are meant for the flight’s co-pilot and commander.

Exactly a year back, AI had started giving all-veg meals to economy class passengers on its domestic flights as a cost-cutting measure which leads to a saving of about ₹8 crore annually. Non-veg food continues to be served on business class of domestic and all classes of AI’s international flights.

“The email asking for veg meals for pilots was sent by mistake by the catering section. It has been withdrawn,” said a senior AI official. The airline spokesman said: “It was an inadvertent typing error. Both meals (veg and non-veg) will continue to be available to pilots.”

An AI commander, however, said the now-withdrawn “veg-meals-for-pilots” order would not have meant that pilots wouldn’t have access to non-veg meals. “All airlines globally take separate meals for pilots and crew members whose flight caterer may be different from the one supplying meals for passengers. The idea is that God forbid if passenger meals lead to some issue like food poisoning, the crew is unharmed and is able to land the plane safely. How the separation of meal for crew is done is something that cannot be shared due to safety reasons,” the official said.

A number of crew meals are taken on a flight, which are both veg and non-veg. The meals designated for pilots in this separate crew meal would have been allveg as per the order. The logic: veg meal can be had by non-veg also but not viceversa.

With this order now withdrawn, the AI pilots can continue to get the meal of their choice on flights.



SHORT-LIVED CONFUSION:

The airline spokesman said it was an inadvertent typing error

Near miss for two IndiGo planes over Bengaluru

Bengaluru:

More than 330 passengers had a narrow escape after a mid-air collision was averted between two A320 aircraft of IndiGo airlines, near Kempegowda International Airport, on Tuesday.

Following the incident, the authorities ordered a probe. Airport sources said the planes were just 200 metres apart, vertically, and any collision could have been disastrous.

“An incident involving two A320 aircraft operated by Indi-Go airlines occurred in South Indian airspace — some distance away from Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru. The aircrafts were routing Coimbatore-Hyderabad and Bengaluru-Cochin respectively, at an altitude in excess of 27,000ft. Pilots on board the two aircraft were alerted to the presence of the other by onboard systems and, subsequently reported the occurrence to the DGCA, in accordance with standard operating procedures,” said a spokesman from Bangalore International Airport Limited. TNN

‘DON’T GIVE OPTION OF LEAVE WAIVER’

Why not give ‘compulsory’ weekly off for TN cops: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.07.2018

The state government on Thursday informed the Madras high court that an optional off in a week has been already made available to members of the police force.

Additional advocate general P H Arvind Pandian made the submission in response to the suggestion made by the court to consider providing weekly off in the police force, so that the members of the force can spend time with their families and rejuvenate themselves.

“If such holiday is optional, and ₹200 is paid as allowance for waiver of the option, police personnel would definitely not avail the off. It would be wise if such waiving option is restricted to not more than once a month. Unless such restriction is made, the police personnel will tend to attend the work without availing their weekly off and fail to spend time with their family. It is the duty of the government to ensure that every police personnel gets weekly off,” Justice N Kirubakaran said.

To this, Pandian said that he would get appropriate instructions from the authorities concerned by July 19.

The submissions were made on a plea seeking to abolish orderly system in police force.

Earlier, the judge observed that the government should also consider prohibiting use of flags of political parties, leaders pictures and boards displaying the posts held in such parties in vehicles.

Interim stay on exam for sonologists

Madurai:13.07.2018

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has issued an interim stay on the conduct of practical examinations and issuance of certificates by the directorate of medical education (DME) to MBBS graduates who had undergone six months training in ultrasonography to qualify as a sonologist. The examinations were to be held on July 19.

Justice M S Ramesh passed the interim stay based on a petition from Madurai based radiologist Dr T Rajakumari who sought to quash the notification by the department on June 12 this year to issue certificates to those who underwent six months training between the period when the course itself was invalid.

According to the petition, a Delhi high court order dated February 17, 2016, had struck down provisions in the pre-natal diagnostic techniques (regulation and prevention of misuse) rules, 1996, which makes the sixmonth training course invalid. TNN

Conversations ON Education

‘Large number of engineering colleges are frozen in time’

TIMES OF INDIA 13.07.2018

When Tamil Nadu was caught up in the NEET fiasco and needed an overhaul of its decade-old school syllabus, former vice-chancellor of Anna University M Anandakrishnan was roped in to head the curriculum framework committee for state board schools. He was instrumental in revamping the course material to help students adopt a concept-oriented approach and enable them to crack competitive tests. In an interview with Vinayashree Jagadeesh , the former chairman of IIT Kanpur, talks about why quantity is one of the main factors for deteriorating quality of engineers and the need for more skill development

What changes have impacted the growth of engineering education over the years?

There are major changes taking place the world over as technological revolution and technical education are simultaneously feeding into each other. This has led to manifestations in which a section of technical education has imbibed basic sciences and humanities. Another manifestation has been the more trans-disciplinary approach to engineering where students of one stream are branching out and simultaneously studying different streams. Also, technical education is becoming more product-oriented with college students increasingly coming out with innovations and products. In India, institutes like the IITs and NITs are adapting to these changes in a major way. However, a large number of engineering colleges are frozen in time, dealing with the situation is the challenge.

Is there an issue of quantity versus quality when it comes to engineering? Are too many engineers graduating a problem?

Yes, quantity is one of the main reasons for deteriorating quality of students and institutions. We have committed a major blunder in the 1980s and 1990s by mindlessly opening engineering institutions, especially in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Every year, we have 15 lakh graduates being churned out of campuses when there are jobs for only 5 lakh. The student-teacher ratio is not maintained in many colleges. Many try to manage with teachers with a bachelor’s degree, when the AICTE mandates a minimum master’s qualification. Colleges have to cut down the intake if they do not find adequate number of quality teachers. If the quality of the faculty is poor, it automatically reflects on the students. States in the south have too many engineering institutions, while others like Bihar and the northeastern states have fewer colleges than is required. This imbalance has to be corrected.

AICTE has decided to close down colleges which aren’t able to sustain the minimum required student numbers. Can closure of these institutions help in improving quality?

There have been suggestions to shut colleges, but I disagree with it. Instead, these institutions should be transformed into skill development institutions. This transformation cannot happen easily and cannot be handled by AICTE alone. In my opinion, there is an urgent need for a national commission specifically for engineering education. A commission which can focus on helping these institutes serve better and not waste the existing manpower. Many of our engineering graduates are working for ₹10,000 and do not have any marketable skills. We don’t need all colleges to become IITs or NITs, we need them to develop skills of students. Industries can be roped in to become partners in this process. The commission can also look into polytechnic colleges that train using outdated curriculum.

The National Testing Agency will be conducting NEET and JEE (Main) twice a year. Do you think this will make any significant change to the admission scenario?

Giving the responsibility to NTA is a good decision, but the concern is if it is equipped to do the job. NTA should have enough support in terms of human, technical and monetary resources before conducting any exam. Twice a year is not a practical proposition. We need to be stable, systematic and confident of conducting an exam before doing it twice. We always jump the gun when it comes to such matters. CBSE, having conducted exams for multiple years, is running into so many issues when it comes to competitive exams so with any new system, we need to be methodical.

Whether it is JEE or NEET, the counselling process has been affected due to court orders after errors were spotted. Do changes need to be made to streamline such tests?

Unfortunately, any problem today results in court intervention and becomes a major part of the process. This doesn’t happen in other countries. Errors have to be sorted out at the organisational level rather than in court. Some sort of access to the organisers would help avoid people going to court. The issue is that people don’t have faith in these organisations, be it the UGC, AICTE, CBSE, or any other body, and perhaps for valid reasons. The people running there institutions are not permanent; members change every couple of years. Hopefully, with NTA taking charge of the exams this changing of heads may be resolved.

Email your feedback to southpole.toi@ timesgroup.com




PROBLEM OF TOO MANY: Every year nearly 15 lakh graduates pass out only about 5 lakh land proper jobs




M Anandakrishnan

HC notice on PIL on med admission

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:13.07.2018

A PIL in the Madras high court has sought a direction to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of the Union ministry of health and family welfare in New Delhi and the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) in Puducherry to take penal action against 10 medical colleges and deemed universities in Puducherry for admitting students in the first year MBBS course without counselling and after the September 30 cut-off date.

The PIL wanted the court to direct those institutions to surrender the 883 seats filled during 2016-17 and 2017-18 for 2018-19 academic years.

A division bench of Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Bhavani Subbaroyan, before which the PIL filed by G Panchapakesan came up for hearing, ordered notice to authorities.

The institutions, which had admitted students after the specified last date, shall also be liable to face penal action as prescribed by MCI, the petition said.

Two doctors named faculty at 2 colleges, suspended

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 13.07.2018

Two doctors who were named faculty at two medical colleges, were removed from the state medical registry as per recommendations of the Medical Council of India.

The state medical council received a communication from the Medical Council of India saying the name of Dr Gopinathan, who was attached to Kannur Medical College as a faculty member was also found in another medical college in violation of the Medical Council of India Act. Likewise, the name of Dr Anandan, who was a faculty member at the Trivandrum-based Southern Institute of Medical Sciences, was also found in another medical college. After an inquiry, the disciplinary committee found both doctors guilty and had recommended the state council to take action.

While Tirunelveli-based general surgeon Gopinathan has been banned from practice for three years, Chennai-based thoracic surgeon Anandan has been debarred for a year, said Tamil Nadu Medical Council president Dr K Senthil.