New medical college: activists raise concern

Axing of over 2,000 trees will ruin one of the last green spaces in town, they say

22/11/2019, ROHAN PREMKUMAR ,UDHAGAMANDALAM

The site has been chosen for the hospital, on the ground that that it houses only exotic, non-native flora. M. Sathyamoorthy

Activists are split over plans to build a medical college and hospital on a 25-acre site in Udhagamandalam town.

Some activists have voiced their concerns that axing of more than 2,000 exotic eucalyptus, wattle and pine trees will not only ruin the aesthetic beauty associated with one of the last remaining green spaces within the town, but also affect a wide variety of wildlife, such as leopards, sloth bear, Indian gaur and barking deer, that have adapted to survive in the area and its surrounding forests.

The proposed site, located near the Ooty Gymkhana Club, has been earmarked as the future site for the setting up of the government medical college and hospital, on the ground that the site would be ideal, as it is only populated with exotic, non-native flora.

Impact on wildlife

However, rather than being a proverbial ‘dead zone’, devoid of biodiversity, activists and local residents argue that a huge array of wildlife use the 25-acre site as part of a contiguous habitat which connects surrounding forest patches. They voiced their concern that cutting down the trees and building a hospital could impact wildlife in the area and exacerbate human-animal conflicts in the region.

Shobana Chandrasekar, from the ‘Make Ooty Beautiful’ campaign, said forests surrounding the defunct Hindustan Photo Films (HPF) Manufacturing Company in Udhagamandalam were some of the last remaining ‘green spaces’ in Udhagamandalam town. “While there is no question that the trees are exotic to the landscape, the area itself is extremely beautiful and is one of the last remaining green expanses within the town itself,” said Ms. Chandrasekar, who said residents and activists were fully in support of converting the existing infrastructure of the HPF factory into a hospital.

R. Saraswathi, a local resident, who lives near the proposed site, said it was not just the hospital that the locals were worried about. “This area (surrounding HPF) is very peaceful, and many retirees stay here. If a hospital and medical college comes up, it will mean more shops, traffic and more people and litter too. There will also be obvious concerns about medical waste contaminating nearby reservoirs,” she said.

‘People stand to benefit’

However, others like Nilgiris-based conservationist N. Mohanraj are of the opinion that benefits of having a medical college and hospital in the Nilgiris far outweigh any environmental concern.

“While the first priority should be to convert the existing HPF factory infrastructure into a hospital, we cannot also dismiss the alternative site due to environmental concerns. The site itself only contains exotic trees, and there are established protocols to deal with hazardous medical waste. In the long-run, people in the Nilgiris will stand to benefit from having a medical college and hospital, as currently, many lives are lost due to people having to be rushed to Coimbatore for treatment in case of emergencies,” said Mr. Mohanraj.

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Child of couple from Australia found dead on landing in Chennai

22/11/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

A five-month-old child of an Indian couple based in Melbourne was found dead when they landed in the city in the early hours of Thursday.

Sakthi Murugan, 32, and Deepa, 27, are software professionals. Accompanied by their son, Hrithik, they were coming to visit their parents, who live at Vengaivasal near Tambaram.

After flying into Kuala Lumpur, they took an AirAsia flight to Chennai.

On landing at 1 a.m., the couple, after collecting their checked-in baggage, were waiting for immigration clearance when they found that the child had turned blue and his body was motionless.

The panic-stricken couple sought the assistance of airport staff and a doctor was called in. The doctor declared the infant dead. The parents told the police that the baby was hale and hearty on the flight and had been fed just before landing. The airport security staff and police shifted the body to Chrompet Government Hospital for post-mortem.

“After conducting post-mortem, we have handed over the body to the parents. We have registered a case of unnatural death under Section 174 of CrPC. The cause of death wll be known only after receiving theviscera analysis report,” a police officer said.

Airline officials were not available for comment.

31 convicted in Vyapam case

Quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Nov. 25

22/11/2019, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA,BHOPAL

A CBI court on Thursday convicted 31 people in a case related to the infamous Vyapam recruitment and admission scam in Madhya Pradesh.

They were found guilty on a host of counts, including cheating by personation, cheating and forgery related to the 2013 police constable exam conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), better known by its Hindi acronym Vyapam (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal), the prosecution said.

CBI special judge S.B. Sahu convicted the 31, including 12 imposters and seven middlemen, on different counts, CBI Special Prosecutor Satish Dinkar told PTI.

The quantum of punishment would be pronounced on November 25, Mr. Dinakar said.

91 witnesses

The prosecution produced 91 witnesses and enough evidence to nail the culprits for cheating by personation, cheating, dishonesty, forgery, forgery for cheating and forging document under IPC Sections 419, 420, 467, 468 and 471, Mr. Dinakar said.

Of the 12 imposters writing the examination on behalf of other candidates, six were arrested from Bhopal and the others from Datia, he said.

Irregularities in exams

The Vyapam scam refers to the irregularities in exams held by the MPPEB for admission to professional courses and State services over several years. The scam hit national headlines three years ago. The MPPEB is now known as Professional Examination Board.

As smartphones get bigger & better, tablets lose consumer adoption

Sindhu.Hariharan@timesgroup.com

22.11.2019

With all-pervasive smartphones and their growing screen sizes, the tablet device -a middle device for many households- appears to be losing sheen among consumers.

The overall India tablet market is managing to hold strong in recent years, but growth in shipments is being driven commercial/enterprise segment and not consumers, any more.

Five years ago, nearly 70% of all shipments were from the consumer category and rest enterprise. Today, it is the opposite.

Even as tablets may be gradually disappearing from households, the government’s Digital India campaign, education technology, hospitality, and travel & tourism have emerged as sectors with high demand for the devices.

Prabhu Ram, Head- Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), Cyber Media Research (CMR), notes that with the evolution of smartphones into new form factors and taller, foldable smartphones now commercially available, the future of tablet market is at a cossroads.

As per CMR’s analysis, the tablet market in India posted recovery in the July-September quarter on the back of festive season shipments recording a 7.8% growth YoY, after three consecutive quarters of decline at the rate of 5.2%, 11.1%, and 10.5% in June 2019, March 2019 and December 2018 quarters respectively. Lenovo led the market, followed by Samsung and Apple.

“The tablet market has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past four to five years. From 70-75% of individual consumers earlier, now 60-65% of users is commercial,” Rahul Agarwal, managing director and CEO of Lenovo India, said.

Consumers are saying we anyways have a phone and a laptop, why do we need an inbetween device, he adds.

Lenovo holds almost half of the market with roughly 49% share in September quarter, Agarwal notes, quoting analyst firm IDC. “We are focused on commercial segment, where our market share is almost 65%,” he said.

As smartphones get bigger, users have also demanded innovation in screen sizes from tablet makers. While seven and eight-inch tablet screens used to dominate the market a few years ago, the 10-inch tablets have become bestsellers today.

“Today, smartphone screens are in the range of 6-inch, which gives users scope to use them for tasks like reading and entertainment, which they were doing on tablets earlier. The middle device today doesn’t make sense for a consumer,” Jaipal Singh, Associate Research Manager, IDC India, said.

Samsung recently launched its Galaxy Tab 6 with advanced display technologies and ‘first-ever’ on-screen fingerprint scanner on a tablet. Galaxy Tab S6 also lets users operate their appliances through voice commands with Bixby integration.


INVOGUE

Name rule spells trouble for TN kids

34-Character Cap For Names On Exam Portal

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:22.11.2019

Children in Tamil Nadu with long names or two initials are in a fix as the state government has set a limit of 34 characters (in English) on the online portal, Educational Management Information System (EMIS), where they upload details for the Class X board exams.

Tamil versions of the names shouldn’t exceed 54 characters, says an advisory (which TOI has accessed) sent by the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations (TNDGE) to all chief educational officers (CEOs) on November 15. CEOs and school headmasters upload details of Class X students, who will appear for SSLC exams in April-May 2020, on the EMIS portal.

The circular has set November 29 as the deadline for making corrections in students’ names, date of birth, religion, category or medium of instruction. The most common errors are in the names of students.

Most government ID cards are issued based on Class X mark certificates. If you don’t get it right at this stage, you’ll have to live with a misspelt name.

In Tamil Nadu, most students don’t use surnames. There is no uniform practice while filling applications either. While some put initials after the full name, others tend to either use initials in the middle or before the name.

The TNDGE circular clearly states that it should be name first followed by the initials with one empty space in between. Also, while filling the Tamil version, initials too should be in Tamil.

200 apply for name changes every month

This is where schools are facing a problem. The Tamil Nadu government in August made Aadhar mandatory for uploading details in EMIS. Aadhar cards of students with two initials carry their fathers’ names after their name. This makes their full name lengthy. When schools tried to link their Aadhar details with EMIS portal, it exceeds the character limit recently imposed.

So parents of these students are rushing to local notary offices to make changes in their names. “We named by daughter VS Saathana Eshwari. Now her name is just Yasika V,” said a parent from Madurai. On an average, 200 parents apply for name changes for various reasons every month, says official data.

Authorities at the state project directorate of Samagara Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), government agency responsible for EMIS, refused to even meet this reporter when asked for clarifications.

Only 3 of every 10 calls to ‘108’ a medical emergency

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:22.11.2019

Only three of every 10 calls received at the state-funded emergency management research Institute (EMRI) or ‘108’ report a medical emergency. While nearly half the calls the agency receives are termed “ineffective”, one-fifth of the remaining calls are non-emergency calls, performance reports published by the National Rural Health Mission in Tamil Nadu revealed.

The control room in Chennai, which works round-the-clock, got 17 lakh calls between April and June this year. Of these, around 5 lakh were for medical emergencies, including pregnancies, road accidents, poisoning, heart attack and strokes. Though the percentage of non-emergency and ineffective calls has come down from 83% in April-June 2013 to 68.46% in April-June 2019, staff say prank callers including drunk men continue to clog the helpline. “They complain about increasing onion prices, discuss current affairs, ask for cricket scores, sing songs or sometimes just keep silent. Over a period, we have learned to quickly disconnect such callers. But before we do so, we have to ensure the person calling isn’t in pain or scared to talk,” an employee said.

For instance, if students are calling in panic ahead of examinations or if someone sounds dangerously low, the line is transferred to ‘104’ for counselling. Even among emergencies, some calls are transferred to police and fire services.

As a result, staff point out that the percentage of unanswered calls has gone up from 1.72% in 2013 to 4% in 2019 and the percentage of calls attended to on the first ring has come down from 92% to 85%.

This is despite a reduction in the number of calls. Between April and June 2013, the agency got 23 lakh calls compared to 17 lakh in the same period in 2019. “But, in some months, we see very high numbers,” a senior official said.

The call centre, which works from the ‘108’ headquarters in the Directorate of Medical Services campus, has more than 120 lines and more than 60 operators on every shift. It receives more than 4,000 calls a day from across the state. “Almost every helpline across the globe has this problem,” said GVK EMRI state head Dr Selvakumar.

The ‘100’ helpline operated by the police department also faces similar problems. Those manning the police helpline initially asked callers to hang up if they had dialled by mistake. Now, callers are asked to dial 1 to proceed. “So if people have dialled by mistake they can cut the call. We are now trying to develop a programme to track those making prank calls so legal action can be initiated against them,” said a senior police officer.

NTA tightens NEET vetting, Aadhaar link may be must

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:22.11.2019

With more than 6,000 undergraduate medical admissions in Tamil Nadu under the scanner, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is making the application and verification process for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test — Under Graduate (NEET UG 2020) even more stringent. Henceforth, applicants will additionally have to fill in their class X and XII roll numbers and upload an identity card, apart from a live photograph to detect impersonation/ fraud. The NTA is also waiting for the approval of the ministry of information technology for Aadhaar verification. The registration for the 2020 NEET UG will commence from December 1, 2019.

Live photo to help verify and ‘flag’ discrepancies

According to a senior official of the ministry of human resource development (MHRD), NTA is going to introduce a number of changes in the registration process so that the agency can have data to verify, match and “flag” cases of potential discrepancies.

“Moreover, an applicant may also need to upload a live photo which the NTA is working on. The live photo will be the latest image so that in case of any discrepancy or in case the face in the identity card don’t match due to old photos, the invigilators at the centre can also verify using the live image. The class X and XII roll numbers will be used by NTA to also verify the candidates. At the test centres the candidates may also be asked to show the identity card uploaded at the time of registration. Therefore the candidates have to carry the identity card along with the admit card,” said the MHRD official.

According to an NTA official, the agency will reopen the registered forms for editing, “which means applicants will be able to provide the class XII roll numbers as majority of the education boards will issue admit cards once the NEET UG 2020 registration gets over.” In case of any discrepancies in names and photographs or mismatches, the applications will be flagged so that the designated centres could go for further verification on the day of the test.