BU Syndicate compulsorily retires faculty

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

COIMBATORE, MARCH 16, 2019 00:00 IST

The Bharathiar University Syndicate, which met in Chennai on Friday, decided to compulsorily retire L. Ramesh, principal, Bharathiar University Arts and Science College, Valparai.

The University had included the agenda for the Syndicate meeting to decide on the quantum of punishment for Mr. Ramesh, who was found guilty for taking bribe.

The Syndicate also decided to waive off the Rs. 2 lakh that students of Government Arts College, Coimbatore, were supposed to pay as convocation fee and fine. This would enable students to receive their degree certificates. Sources in the Syndicate said that the decision-making body deferred taking a decision on opening learning support centres in colleges for distance education programmes.

Charitable trusts holding marathons to face GST
Sidhartha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:16.03.2019

In a setback to several charitable institutions, the Tamil Nadu Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) has held that conducting marathons by a charitable trust registered under the Income Tax Act does not exempt them from GST liability as only activities covered under definition of “charitable activities” under a 2017 notification are exempt.

In response to a reference by Dream Runners Foundation, the AAR found that the entity needed to be registered under the Central and state GST laws as it was making taxable supply of services such as organising marathon, while noting that its aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeded the prescribed Rs 20 lakh.

The authority said that the money collected from participants was a consideration towards the supply of service of organising and conducting the marathon and was liable to incur GST.

It noted the petitioner’s plea that net proceeds are donated to Freedom Trust, an NGO providing prosthetic limbs to less privileged people. It observed that the money collected from the participants could be donated or used for further charitable activities, but organising marathon was a separate supply of service for the participants.

Public Notice 16.03.2019

MHRD to work with Af govt on several IIT-enabled digital education initiatives

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:16.03.2019

The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) is all set to work with the Afghanistan government on digital education initiatives. This includes many prominent programs developed by Indian Institutes of Technology.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed at IIT Madras in connection with this on Friday. This MoU will facilitate use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) available on SWAYAM platform by students and faculties of educational institutions in Afghanistan.

Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), developed by Government of India, was launched in 2017.

According to an official release, Afghan students and teachers will be trained for using this platform so that they can learn latest technology courses and upskill them in their areas of interest.

Apart from this, existing courses developed by Afghan institutions will be uploaded on the said platform, and ministry of higher education, Afghanistan, will be assisted to develop their own MOOC platform.

For full report, www.toi.in

Age no bar for these Odisha ticket aspirants

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur:16.03.2019

If age is just a number, it is a very big number in the electoral fray in Ganjam district of Odisha. Several political leaders in their 70s and 80s are set to seek election and re-election in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls. Their experience, they insist, can give young candidates a run for their money.

There’s 10-time MLA of Kabisurya Nagara, V Sugnan Kumari Deo (82), five-time Berhampur MLA Ramesh Chandra Chaupatnaik (75), and six-time Digapahandi MLA Surya Narayan Patro
(71) of the ruling BJD.

Former assembly speaker Chintamani Dyansamantra, a three-time MLA (Chikiti), is lobbying for a Congress ticket from the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat at 78. K Shyambabu Subudhi, a “veteran candidate” at 84, is ready to try his luck again, as an independent.

“I am interested in contesting again from Berhampur assembly seat. I have conveyed my desire to party chief Naveen Patnaik,” said Chaupatnaik, who has been elected from here five times in the past. “I don’t think age is a factor when one is healthy.”

AI pilots ‘forget’ to lower landing gear while arriving at Hong Kong
Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:16.03.2019

Air India has grounded two pilots who reportedly forgot to extend their Boeing 787’s landing gear while approaching to land into Hong Kong, till a very late stage of the final approach. Pilots extend landing gear when aircraft is at 2,000 feet.

On this flight last month, the pilots are learned to have got a warning from the safety systems on board that the aircraft’s landing gear was not down when the Dreamliner was about 800 feet above ground level. Sources say that they then lowered the landing gear and carried out an unstabilized approach into Hong Kong. Fortunately, the Dreamliner landed safely.

A senior AI official said: “The flight safety department has grounded both the pilots. Both this department and the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) are probing this issue. Appropriate action will be taken based on final probe report.”

A senior Dreamliner commander said: “The crew of the flight carried out an unstabilized approach, wherein the aircraft was not in landing configuration by 1,000 feet as mandated by law for safety reasons. While it is human to error, what should have be done in such a situation is to carry out a missed approach (go around) and reconfigure the aircraft correctly for a subsequent approach to land. Unfortunately that was not the case over here. Continuing to land in an unstabilized approach configuration situation can be dangerous.”

This is the second ‘eventful’ landing by AI into Hong Kong with four months. On October 20, an AI Dreamliner had “descended rapidly” and deviated significantly from the normal glide path.

This had triggered the ‘a ground proximity warning’ system alert. The crew recovered the aircraft at about 200 feet above mean sea level (AMSL) before performing a go around.

‘PLANE’ ERROR

Man rushes wife to hospital with snake that bit her
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Cuddalore:16.03.2019

A farmworker caught a poisonous snake, which bit his wife, and rushed her to a hospital carrying the reptile in his hand in Cuddalore district. Police said Veerasamy, 42, and his wife Santhosh, 32, of Rasapalayam near Vridhachalam were among workers engaged to cut sugarcane in a field.

Santhosh was loading cane bundles in a tractor when a snake bit her on the left leg. She raised an alarm before falling unconscious. Her husband on noticing the snake, caught it with his bare hands.

With the help of others, he rushed his wife to a government hospital in Vridhachalam. Panic gripped the hospital as soon as he arrived with the snake with patients, attendants, doctors and other staff fleeing for safety.

Veerasamy told the doctors that he brought the snake believing it would help them treat the victim effectively if they know the species that bit her. The snake was found to be a highly poisonous Russel’s viper. The workers, unware that killing a snake is illegal, killed it instead of seeking the help of forest officials. The woman was later referred to a private hospital in Perambalur.