NEET UG 2020: Last date for registration extended till Jan 6 

National Testing Agency (NTA) has extended the last date for registration for NEET UG 2020. The deadline to online register for NEET undergraduate 2020 was December 31 which has been extended to January 6, 2020. education Updated: Jan 02, 2020 15:57 IST

Nandini
 
Hindustan Times, New Delhi  

NEET UG 2020 registration (NTA NEET)

National Testing Agency (NTA) has extended the last date for registration for NEET UG 2020. The deadline to online register for NEET undergraduate 2020 was December 31 which has been extended to January 6, 2020 till 11:50 pm. NEET stands for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

The last date for online submission of fees has been extended from January 1 to 7, 2020.

The date of correction in particulars in Online Application Form remains the same ie., January 15, 2020 to January 31, 2020 (upto 11.50 pm).

Candidates can register for NEET UG online at ntaneet.nic.in.

Important Dates:

•Date of examination: May 3, 2020

•Successful Transaction of Fee through Credit Card/Debit Card/NetBanking/UPI: December 2, 2019 to January 1, 2020

•Correction in Particulars of Application Form on NTA Website: January 15-31, 2020

•Admit card: March 27, 2020

•Declaration of Result on NTA Website: June 4, 2020

Click here to apply online for NEET UG 2020

How to apply:

1.Visit the official website

2.On the home page, click on New Registration tab

3.A new page will appear on the display screen

4.Read the instructions carefully and proceed

5.Fill in all the requisite information and submit

6.Once your registration id is created, go back to the candidate login section

7.Key in your credentials and log in

8.Application form will appear on the display screen

9.Fill in all the required information and upload all supporting documents

10.Make payment

11.Download the application form and take its print out for future reference.

CBSE mandates 75% attendance for 10th, 12th board exams 

The CBSE in its latest notice has directed all schools to calculate attendance of students who have to appear for class 10 and class 12 board exams this year as on January 1, 2020. education Updated: Jan 02, 2020 17:36 IST


Indo Asian News Service


Students should have a minimum 75 per cent attendance to be able to appear for the 10th and 12th examinations to be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

The CBSE in its latest notice has directed all schools to calculate attendance of students who have to appear for class 10 and class 12 board exams this year as on January 1, 2020.

Students whose attendance will be calculated less than 75 per cent will not be allowed to appear for the exams, as per the rule mandated by the CBSE.

The CBSE board exams will commence from February 15 and admit cards will be released only for students who are eligible by all means including that of mandatory attendance. The list of candidates with short attendance will reach regional offices and the final decision will be taken on or before January 7.

If a candidate has a genuine reason behind the shortage of attendance, they will have to submit the supporting documents with the authorities by January 7. As per the circular, no case will be considered post the deadline and all the standard operating procedures for calculation of attendance will have to be followed.

Several new methods will kick in the CBSE board exams from 2020 including two-level maths to a lesser number of questions.

The question paper will also have 33 per cent options and more questions on higher-order thinking skills in comparison to questions based on rote memorisation. Instead of being of 100 marks, the theory exams will be for 80 marks. Internal assessment will amount to 20 marks in total in subjects where there is no practical assessment.

HC allows prisoner to undergo surgery

03/01/2020 , Staff Reporter, Madurai

Hearing the plea of a woman seeking adequate treatment for her husband who sustained a fracture in his left leg, the Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday granted permission to the man to undergo a surgery at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in .

In her petition, R. Muthumari from Madurai said that her husband M. Rajeshkumar alias ‘Appalam’ Raja, a history-sheeter lodged in Madurai Central Prison required urgent medical attention. Though he was receiving treatment at the GRH, she wanted her husband to be transferred to a private hospital for better treatment.

Taking into account the medical emergency, Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira observed that the man required treatment as he was a patient. The court directed the Dean of GRH to see to that the surgery on the man to treat his fracture shall be conducted on Saturday.

The court said that following the surgery, the man can be moved to the post operative care in the General ward of the GRH for further treatment. The wife and children of the man alone shall be permitted to visit him during the treatment, the court said. The case was adjourned to January 13 for further hearing.

Private hospitals threaten to stop cashless facility from Feb. 1 

‘₹1,200 crore pending in dues under CGHS, ECHS’ 

03/01/2020 , Special Correspondent, Bengaluru

With dues to the tune of ₹1,200 crore pending for treatment of patients under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), private hospitals across the country have threatened to stop cashless facility under the scheme from February 1.

If implemented, it will impact around 36 lakh Central government employees, including their dependants, and pensioners under CGHS and over 52 lakh ex-servicemen and dependants covered by ECHS in over 1,000 empanelled hospitals and nursing homes in 71 cities. Of these, over 1.23 lakh beneficiaries are from Bengaluru.

Two weeks time

“We have given the Centre a deadline of two weeks and are hoping for a response. Our dues have accumulated since 2014 and if not cleared at the earliest, we will be constrained to suspend cashless services,” Alexander Thomas, president of Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), told The Hindu.

A letter flagging pendency of bills was sent to the Union Ministry of Finance in July 2019. But not much has moved since then, prompting the hospitals to take a call on stopping cashless services.

A majority of the empanelled hospitals are in Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

Hospital representatives claimed that the pendency had worsened since the launch of Ayushman Bharat or Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana healthcare scheme.

Giridhar Gyani, APHI Chief Executive Officer, said the healthcare industry was on the brink of financial unsustainability due to pendency of dues.

Kavalan app: personal safety at a click, but what about data? 

While the police tout the app as a must-have for women, privacy concerns persist over its demands for information
 
03/01/2020 , R.Sivaraman, M. Soundariya Preetha, 
CHENNAI/COIMBATORE 



In the wake of the rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad, the Kavalan SOS app of the Tamil Nadu Police has seen a huge jump in downloads. An intensive campaign conducted by the police across the State has also contributed to the spike.

The app is being promoted by the police especially amongst women and children. Anyone who feels vulnerable or threatened can press an alert button for police personnel to reach them at the earliest, they claim.

As on date, the number of downloads has touched 9.5 lakh. Post the Hyderabad incident and a promotional burst, an average of 10,000 people are reportedly downloading the app every day.

And, after filtering the test alerts, the State police control attends to 150-200 complaints from the alerts triggered by the Kavalan SOS app.

Data security

Some people have expressed apprehensions over the need to give the app access to personal details on the phone, and have even complained of difficulties in downloading the app/ accessing services. Mobile numbers of close relatives or friends and email IDs are collected while registering.

A.S. Fathima Muzaffer, a social worker, said, “Allowing access to phone calls and device location is not an issue for me. But recording audio, accessing storage, media files and accessing contacts — that seems to be intruding into the privacy of an individual.” Without allowing such access, it will not be possible to use the app at all, she added.

A technologist, who is closely associated with the back-end of the app, said this does pose a risk to privacy of the user and claimed that the data of the app is maintained by a private party.

“The registered person provides an alternative mobile number, location access, and address details. Hence, there is no need to ask for access to media files. If the download reaches 15 lakh to 20 lakh, it will become huge data and can be mined for various purposes. The app should be designed in such a way that the data is secure and there is no need to provide access to media or contact files,” he said.

Since the collection of information is for a specific purpose by a law enforcement agency, it would be exempt from privacy laws. “The department should have adequate measures in place to keep the information secure. Police department should have a data protection policy,” said Na.Vijayashankar, an expert in cyber law.

Chennai City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan said contact details of relatives or close friends as emergency numbers are optional and these are taken so that police personnel can alert them.

Fears allayed

“Moreover, all details collected will be stored in the secure server of the police department, which is handled by Technical Services. These details are collected only for the purpose of providing safety to citizens. The information is collected only for the purpose of reaching out or securing the person in distress.”

A senior police officer of Technical Services of Tamil Nadu Police clarified that no third party can access the information and there was no chance of misuse. “After collecting the details, we do not read any data on anybody’s mobile phone. Moreover, we are not collecting any background information,” he said.

He added that any technical glitches while downloading would be attended to duly and the application would be updated after receiving feedback from users.

Another officer said that in order to simplify the registration process, the app had been modified to support the latest Android version. The gathering of alternative numbers, email and work location had been done away with after users flagged privacy issues, he added.

Quick response

Once the person in distress triggers an alert, staff in the control room which is manned by a private firm receives a message and pass it on to police officers. The police locate the nearest patrol vehicle, police officer or police station to reach out to the victim.

The call centre staff also alert close relatives or family members if numbers are available.

During emergency, pressing the SOS button on the home page will automatically send the current location of the person in trouble along with a video to the Kavalan team.

Within a minute, the team will contact the person. Simultaneously, the location will also be sent to pre-registered emergency contacts as SMS alerts.

Shahnawaz Khan, Director of AMTEX, which handles the software and call centre support for the app, said, “We cannot go beyond a limit while invoking privacy. The details we ask for are absolutely for people’s own safety. All these details are stored in a very secure server. People are sharing everything on Facebook and Instagram these days. When it comes to safety, we need to be a little more cooperative.”

AIADMK suffers a setback in rural local body polls 

DMK ahead in panchayat unions, district panchayat wards
 
03/01/2020 , T.K. Rohit, CHENNAI

The ruling AIADMK suffered a setback in the rural local body polls held in 27 districts with the DMK racing ahead in panchayat unions and district panchayat wards as per results/trends available around 11.30 p.m. on Thursday.

Crowdsourced trends were available only for 350-odd of the 515 district panchayat member posts and 2,900-odd of the 5,090 panchayat union ward posts, while the State Election Commission declared the results for much fewer posts. The complete tally of results is expected to be available only by Friday evening.

The DMK had won in 727 of 1,632 seats the results of which were declared for the post of panchayat union ward members as of 11.30 p.m. The AIADMK was lagging by nearly 170 seats, as its candidates had won only in 556 seats.

The AIADMK’s defeat at the hands of its arch rival DMK, that too in the rural areas, considered the ruling party’s main vote bank from the time the party was founded nearly five decades ago, came as a shock to the establishment with Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami taking stock of and deliberating with senior leaders in the evening.

The victory, even if not so huge, is likely to be a huge boost for the DMK ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, as the party has remained out of power for the last two terms.

At the time of going to print, the DMK’s gains in panchayat unions came largely from Tiruchi with 109 seats, Thanjavur (72), Pudukottai (48) and Dindigul (47). The largest tally for the AIADMK was from Thoothukudi with 43 seats, Thanjavur (40) and Theni (38).

The DMK’s allies, the Congress and the CPI, won 39 and 24 seats respectively in panchayat unions. The AIADMK’s allies, the DMDK and the BJP, won in 33 and 24 seats, respectively.

There are a total of 5,090 seats for the post of panchayat union ward members across the 27 districts where polls were held.

The DMK also won 15 seats for the post of district panchayat ward members, while the AIADMK won 6. The BJP, the CPI and the CPI (M) won one seat each out of the total tally of 24 for which results were announced. There are a total of 515 seats in this category. Except a few districts, the two parties were neck and neck with the counting continuing well past midnight.

DMK president M.K. Stalin complained that the results were deliberately being delayed.

Man flies home from Singapore to cast vote in Tamil Nadu local body polls

You might remember the scene from the movie Sarkar, in which Vijay, who is an NRI, comes to India on the day of the elections, just to cast his vote.
 
Published: 31st December 2019 05:41 AM |

By Sowmya Mani

Express News Service

PUDUKKOTTAI: You might remember the scene from the movie Sarkar, in which Vijay, who is an NRI, comes to India on the day of the elections, just to cast his vote. In a small village of Vadakadu in Pudukkottai, a man working in Singapore came to his village to cast his vote.

Tamizh (26) is working in a construction company in Singapore. For the election, he specially flew down to India on 28th December and is flying out in two days. “It is our duty as a citizen to vote. I feel proud to be an Indian and will do anything to exercise my right to vote,” said Tamizh.

He spent almost Rs 50,000 to ensure that he votes. He says his bosses were very cooperative and sanctioned his leave. He hopes that everyone follows his lead. “If I can come from Singapore, people can travel a few kilometers to vote,” he adds. He also came down for the Lok Sabha elections in April 2019.