Committee reduces NEET marks to fill management seats

The selection committee of the Directorate of Medical Education has announced that candidates who secured marks even below 365 in NEET can attend medical counselling.

Published: 02nd August 2018 06:02 AM | 

By Express News Service

CHENNAI : The selection committee of the Directorate of Medical Education has announced that candidates who secured marks even below 365 in NEET can attend medical counselling. The panel has extended the first phase of medical counselling to fill MBBS seats under management quota in self-financing colleges as many seats were not filled even at the end of counselling.Speaking to Express, G Selvarajan, committee secretary, said, “128 MBBS seats under management quota in self-financing colleges were not filled even after the end of the first phase of counselling. So, we have extended the first phase.

Earlier, for the first phase, only candidates who secured above 365 marks in NEET were eligible to attend counselling. But, since we have vacant seats now, we have reduced the marks. Candidates who have secured even below 365 can attend,” he said.

According to a notification on Selection Committee website, counselling will be conducted on August 3 and 4. Candidates who secured NEET marks from 364 to 305 can attend counselling on August 3 and candidates who secured marks from 304 to 268 can attend on August 4. No individual call letters will be sent. Candidates can download the call letters from www.tnhealth.org and www.tnmedicalselection.org websites. The notification said more number of candidates are being called for counselling. Meanwhile, all seats in Christian Medical College were filled during the first phase of counselling.

Local holiday on Aug. 3

STAFF REPORTER

SALEM, AUGUST 02, 2018 00:00 IST

The district administration has announced a local holiday on August 3 to observe the death anniversary of freedom fighter Dheeran Chinnamalai and Adi Perukku festival.

District Collector Rohini R. Bhajibhakare in a press release said that government offices and educational institutions will not function on August 3.

The release said that August 18 will be a working day for compensating the local holiday.

Since the holiday is not announced as per Negotiable Instrument Act 1881 (Central Act XXVI of 1881), district treasury will function with limited employees on that day.

Doctors begin strike

STAFF REPORTER

MADURAI, AUGUST 02, 2018 00:00 IST

Members of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association (TNGDA) began the first phase of their protest seeking pay on par with Central government doctors here on Wednesday.

Other associations such as the Senior Civil Surgeon Association and the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association joined the doctors.

A total of 18,000 doctors across the State — 1,000 from Madurai — said they had a single-point agenda.

M. Ramesh, secretary of TNGDA, said all doctors sported a badge to raise awareness about the strike among the public. “We will raise the intensity of the protest with each phase. For the first three days, the badge will display our displeasure. Eventually, we will stop classes and association meetings. On September 21, we have planned a token strike,” he said.

The strike was in protest against the steep disparity in pay. “We begin with the same pay, but their (Central) promotions are quicker and their pay jumps higher.”

DVAC uncovers revaluation scam at Anna University

S. Vijay Kumar

CHENNAI, AUGUST 02, 2018 00:00 IST

Thousands of students allegedly paid bribes to boost scores

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on Wednesday exposed a major scam in the award of marks during revaluation of answer scripts in Anna University.

Ten academicians, including the former Controller of Examinations Prof. G.V. Uma, were named accused in the scandal involving a large number of students who allegedly paid bribes to boost their scores during revaluation of answer scripts.

The agency conducted a surprise check on the premises of the suspects and seized incriminating documents, including copies of answer scripts and property documents.

This is the second time a scandal of this nature has occurred in the reputable university. In June 2012, two faculty members had given in writing that they were pressured by some top university officials to award higher marks to certain students during revaluation. However, the accused in that case, who were initially suspended from service, had subsequently gone scot-free due to lack of conclusive evidence. In the latest instance, the First Information Report said in April/May 2017, Dr. Uma, presently Professor, Department of Information Science and Technology, Anna University, conspired with Dr. P. Vijayakumar, Assistant Professor/Dean (in-charge), University College of Engineering, Tindivanam, and Dr. R. Sivakumar, Assistant Professor, University College of Engineering, Tindivanam, and demanded Rs. 10,000 from each student to boost marks during the revaluation process.

The suspects allegedly forged answer scripts by altering the marks to benefit the students who paid bribes. The accused persons “destroyed a maximum number of the answer scripts of the students for whom they awarded enhanced marks/pass marks in the revaluation done during August 2017 at Tindivanam and thereby caused disappearance of evidence relating to the criminal offence committed by them.”

‘OnePlus success because of single prodcut focus’

Avik Das & Sujit John tnn TNN

Bengaluru:02.08.2018

OnePlus founder & CEO Pete Lau said his brand’s outstanding performance in India went way beyond his initial expectations, and attributed it primarily to two elements – the company’s total focus on a single flagship product, and its culture of listening closely to the voices of its user community to understand their expectations.


On Tuesday, global research firm Counterpoint said OnePlus had surpassed Samsung to lead the premium smartphone segment (over Rs 30,000) for the first time ever in the second quarter of 2018. It estimated OnePlus’ share at 40%, and Samsung’s at 34%. Apple was third, but way behind at 14%.

Counterpoint noted that with every flagship OnePlus launch, its user base had been growing in India and this was now translating to record sales for every new flagship. The last quarter had seen the launch of the OnePlus 6, which saw kilometre long queues in front of some of its stores in India.

In an exclusive interaction with TOI in Bengaluru, Lau said, “This is definitely a milestone. It’s also a natural result of our persistence in doing what we believe is right, our focus on making the best possible products.”

India, he said, would now be his biggest market, slightly above even home market China. India accounts for about a third of the company’s revenue – the global revenue was $1.4 billion in 2017.

Lau said his biggest base of users, about 30%, is in the age bracket of 18 to 24. “We realise that India as a country is more close to western culture than we thought. And there is a high level of awareness,” he said. Lau had started working in China’s Oppo Electronics as a hardware engineer. He rose to be vice president in the mobile company. In 2013, he started OnePlus. The brand was launched in India the following year.

Lau understands English, but finds it difficult to speak the language. “I spent a lot of time focusing on the language in university, spent time memorising words, but I was never able to improve my speaking. If I’m sent to the US for a year without a team to support me, I’ll learn,” he said with a laugh. The interview was done with the help of a translator.

Lau is obsessed with design, probably a big factor in OnePlus’ attractiveness. “I can talk about design all night, it’s in my heart, as a product manager. I will spend months working on 0.01mm differences in the back curve or in the bottom slope of the device. We are focused on creating a design that does not become uninteresting within weeks or months,” he says.

Lau said OnePlus does not add elements or functions for the sake of adding them.

“It’s our core product philosophy – create a user experience that’s the best, have a device that does all of what is expected of it in a manner that is as fast and smooth as possible, and doesn’t bind the user to deal with things beyond that, like unnecessary notifications, adware, bloatware,” he said.

Snake catching to fetch Irulas more income

Oppili.P@timesgroup.com

Chennai:02.08.2018

Irula tribals involved in snake catching as well as venom extraction will soon get additional income under the ‘Access and Benefit Sharing’ rules under the Biological Diversity Act of 2002. A preliminary meeting in this regard was organised by the State Biodiversity Board at Panagal buildings in Saidapet on Wednesday.

National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) secretary T Rabi Kumar said under the Biological Diversity Act of 2002 guidelines on Access and Benefit Sharing Regulations 2014 it is stipulated that: ‘Any person referred in the Act, who intends to have access to biological resources and or associated traditional knowledge for research or bio-survey and bio-utilisation for research shall apply to the NBA for obtaining access to such biological resource and or associated knowledge occurring in India.’ Already the NBA had helped several communities to get a real value for their traditional knowledge and also for gathering resources from the forests. Rabi Kumar said Irula tribals are having both the traditional knowledge to catch the snakes and extract venom from it. The resource they collect is used for making anti-venom serum, which is meant for the society. So on both counts the Irula tribals are eligible for getting additional income. This is the first ever meeting for implementing access and benefit sharing system for them, he said.

At ₹10K per answer sheet, marks mafia made a killing

In 2017,Controller of Exams Colluded With Profs To Award Higher Marks To Students Who Had Paid Bribe

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com 02.08.2018

The cash-for-marks scam unearthed by DVAC may well hold answers to the abysmal standards of engineering graduates who pass out of Anna University every year, as much as it raises questions on the credibility of the biggest technical university in Asia with 530 affiliated colleges.

The involvement of controller of examinations GV Uma has shocked many. Former Anna University vice-chancellor M Anandakrishnan told TOI that the scam was unheard of anywhere in the country. Vigilance officers who unearthed large-scale malpractice in the re-evaluation of papers of April-May 2017 exams, too are surprised how well-oiled the rigging machinery ran.

Sources said a closed group of professors controlled the re-evaluation mafia. Once a student fails in the examination and applies for re-evaluation, agents swing into action and convey to the students that the “problem can be fixed,” as a source put it. Around 12 lakh students write semester exams every year; in the April/May 2017, 3.02 lakh applied for re-evaluation, of whom 90,000 got higher marks.

“If half of the students had paid ₹10,000 for higher marks, this means ₹40 crore for just one semester exam. The controller of exams post is for three years, during which at least six exams are conducted,” said a source. This was also during the period when the university was without a VC. Before M K Surappa was appointed in April 2018, the university was headless for two years. Surappa’s predecessor M Rajaram is facing a DVAC case for taking bribes for appointment of professors.

Here’s how the re-evaluation process should ideally take place in the university. A student who wants to apply for re-evaluation has to pay ₹700, of which ₹300 is for the photocopy of the answer script. After a subject expert confirms that there can be a change of mark in the script, the controller of examination comes into the picture. The controller decides the re-evaluation centre and appoints officers who are in charge of ensuring accuracy and quality of valuation.

Last year, however, protocols were violated and the controller of examinations colluded with re-evaluating professors to forge answer sheets and illegally award higher marks to students who had paid bribe. The scam now unearthed pertains to a central re-evaluation process at Tindivanam, which was selected as the valuation centre for the zone. There are 23 zones, each with a zonal coordinator. Apart from Uma, the other main accused are P Vijaykumar, assistant professor and dean at the University College of Engineering, Tindivanam and R Sivakumar, assistant professor maths at the same college. The other accused are examiners R Sundarajan, M Mahesh Babu, N Anbuselvan, C N Pratheeba, I Pragatheeswar, M Rameshkannan and S Ramesh.

Incidentally, it was after the evaluation of the April/May 2017 examinations in November last year, that Anna University debarred more than 1,100 faculty members from valuation. This was after variations of up to 40 marks were found in more than 50,000 of the 2.5 lakh answer scripts. For variations up to 20, 30 and 40 marks, the professors were barred for one, two and three years respectively.

DVAC officials are considering the possibility of some of these professors being penalised for not toeing the line of the scamsters. “In that case, we may get some new tips from the debarred professors,” said an official. Denying all allegations, Uma told TOI that she had streamlined all procedures during her term and was transparent in her activities. DVAC sources said they would conduct a detailed investigation and file more FIRs if needed.