RGPV students to write online exam from Jul 7

RGPV students to write online exam from Jul 7

Ramendra.Singh@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:  21.06.2020

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, engineering students across Madhya Pradesh will write online exams from their homes for the first time. A six-member committee headed by RGPV vice chancellor Sunil Kumar has decided to hold online exams for final semester from July 7 and the results would be declared before July 30. The university has sent the recommendations to the state government for its approval and it will be also put in the next executive council meeting on June 23.

The biggest challenge for RGPV is how to keep tabs on students using unfair means during online exams.

RGPV is the engineering university that holds exams for all technical courses in the state.

TOI in its June 19 edition had carried a story ‘RGPV plans to hold online exams for the final year students’. Instead of a three-hour exam, it will be two -hour test.

As per the recommendations of the committee, the online exams will only be for students of bachelor of engineering (BE) and bachelor of pharmacy (BPharma).

RGPV is all prepared to hold the online theory exams from July 7 to July 15, while practical exams will be organised from July 16 to July 22. Students will be given the weightage of 50% of the semester grade point average (SGPS), based on their seventh semester.

It has also been recommended that at least two mock tests should be organised before the final exams to help students get familiarise with the online test process. The platform to be used for the exam should be compatible with desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphones. Only one question should appear on the screen at a time during the exam.

Sources said that specific time could be decided for the students to attempt each question. For keeping tabs on the students attempting unfair means during the exam, it has been decided to record each student. However, the committee has not made any specific recommendation on how to record each student.

Issuing the guidelines, RGPV stated that each paper will be of two hours and questions will be of multiple choice. Students will not be given a revaluation facility for the online exam. Those students who are not able to appear in the July exam, will be given another opportunity to appear for the same in the future.

Lockdown doubts..Bhopal

Vande Bharat flight to bring 138 students to Indore today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Indore:21.06.2020

A special Air India flight, carrying over 100 Indian students stranded at Kyrgyzstan, will land at Indore airport on Sunday evening.

Under the Centre's ‘Vande Bharat’ mission, the flight from Kyrgyzstan with 148 stranded Indiand will first land at Delhi and then head for Indore with 138 students — six from Chhattisgarh and the rest from MP. They will be put in institutional quarantine after being screened at the airport. Airport director Aryama Sanyal said, “A special flight under ‘Vande Bharat’ is reaching Indore at 8pm on Sunday. All the laid protocols and safety measures will be followed at the airport and necessary arrangements have been done.”

Glenmark’s tablet against Covid gets DGCI approval

Glenmark’s tablet against Covid gets DGCI approval

New Delhi:  21.06.2020

Drug firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Saturday said it has launched antiviral drug Favipiravir, under the brand name FabiFlu, for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 at a price of about Rs 103 per tablet.

The drug will be available as a 200 mg tablet at a maximum retail price (MRP) of Rs 3,500 for a strip of 34 tablets, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said. FabiFlu is the first oral favipiravir-approved medication in India for the treatment of Covid-19, it said in a statement.

It is a prescription-based medication, with recommended dose being 1,800 mg twice daily on day one, followed by 800 mg twice daily up to day 14, it added. The tablets are being produced by the company at its Baddi facility in Himachal Pradesh. The drug will be available both through hospitals and the retail channel, Glenmark said. The Mumbai-based firm had on Friday received the manufacturing and marketing approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

“This approval comes at a time when cases in India are spiralling like never before, putting a tremendous pressure on our healthcare system,” Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Chairman and MD Glenn Saldanha said in the statement. The company hopes that the availability of an effective treatment such as FabiFlu will considerably help assuage this pressure, and offer patients in India a much needed and timely therapy option, he added.

“Glenmark will work closely with the government and medical community to make FabiFlu quickly accessible to patients across the country,” he added. The company has successfully developed the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the formulation for FabiFlu through its in-house research and development team, Glenmark said.

“We chose to initiate work on Favipiravir, as it has proven in-vitro activity against SARS CoV2 virus, which is the virus responsible for Covid-19. Secondly, it has a wide therapeutic safety margin for Covid-19 at the dose that we administer,” Glenmark Pharmaceuticals President India Formulations, Middle East and Africa Sujesh Vasudevan said at an online press conference.

Moreover, it is an oral product and that is a huge benefit especially when the hospital infrastructure is under strain, he added. Manufacturing and marketing approval has been granted as part of an accelerated approval process, considering the emergency situation of the Covid-19 outbreak in India, Glenmark said.

The approval’s restricted use entails responsible medication usage where every patient must have signed informed consent before treatment initiation, it added. PTI

Swab sample of a BJP MLA is taken in Bhopal on Saturday

Lawyer attends e-hearing from bed, gets SC rap

Lawyer attends e-hearing from bed, gets SC rap

New Delhi:21.06.2020

A lawyer appeared in a virtual hearing in the Supreme Court while lying in his bed in a T-shirt, drawing the displeasure of the judge who observed that “minimum court etiquette” should be followed given the public nature of hearings.

The SC observed that lawyers appearing via video-conferencing should be “presentable” and avoid showing images that are not appropriate.

Justice S Ravindra Bhat accepted the apology tendered by the advocate, who said it was “inappropriate on his part to make a court appearance whilst lying in bed dressed in a T-shirt”.

In its June 15 order, the SC said: “We are all passing through trying times and hearings by virtual courts have become an order of the day. Yet minimum court etiquette in terms of what can be considered decent dress, background, etc must be followed, given the public nature of hearings.” PTI

Indians stranded in UAE return, 151 Yemeni fly back

Joy.Sengupta@timesgroup.com

Pune:21.06.2020

A total of 168 people from Sharjah landed in the city on Saturday in a chartered flight of Air Arabia.

Aami Parivar, a social welfare group based in the UAE, coordinated and arranged the flight. It landed in Pune around 5.30pm.

The flight was slated to land in the city last Saturday but could not because of technical issues. “We were very anxious, but the group (Aami Parivar) continuously coordinated with the Indian Consulate and the authorities here. It is good to be back home finally,” a passenger said after landing in the city.

Santosh Karande, the founder of Aami Parivar, said, “There were some technical issues, but we kept our hopes high and continuously followed up with the authorities. It is a relief that the flight has landed in Pune.”

Sharavan Pawar, a passenger in the flight, said “My mother-in-law passed away and I needed to come back. I stay in Mumbai, but I think I shall not be able to go home for another fortnight as the administration will take us to an institutional quarantine hub. Many people in Sharjah have lost their jobs. Several companies told employees that they would not be paid salaries for three-four months. I shall try to go back after a month or so.”

Chand Abdul said, “I got stuck in Sharjah and my visa expired. I am a resident of Mumbai. The flight didn’t take off last Saturday and it was a major problem. I had no money and lived at a friend’s place during the week. I am relieved to be back home.” An aircraft of Yemenbased Yemenia Airways landed in Pune in the afternoon to ferry 151Yemini nationals.

Research sluggish as many stay at home

Research sluggish as many stay at home

Institutes Keen On Reopening Laboratories To Resume Projects

SwatiShindeGole@timesgroup.com

Pune:21.06.2020

Prominent research institutions in the city, including the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and others, are facing many hurdles in research projects as a result of the lockdown.

Many doctoral students went home when the educational institutions shut down in March.

Fields like humanities had little effect, but actual laboratory research has been hampered, heads of institutions said. IISER, Pune has written to the state government and the Union ministry of Human Resource and Development to allow PhD students to report to institutes to resume projects.

Director Jayant Udgaonkar, said a common letter on behalf of all IISERs in the country has been given to the ministry to allow PhD students and fellows to get back to work.

Udgaonkar told TOI that educational institutions can’t open, but they were both, education and research institutes. “We understand that classroom sessions cannot take place, but research activities cannot stop. Our students involved in various projects are waiting to come back ,” he said.

The institute heads said to carry out any research project, the faculties bank on doctoral and fellows and a bulk of actual work is done by them.

Several departments at the SPPU are carrying out research projects. Registrar Prafulla Pawar, said that students are the backbone of any research project in a national institute. “We bank on these doctoral students. They are the real brains and if they are allowed to work in this situation, they will surely be able to contribute to the problem with solutions.”

The situation at the National Centre for Cell Science is no different and officials said research work was hampered. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) has contributed with innovative products including masks, hand sanitisers, disinfectant mist system, cheaper swabs among others in the past three months despite unavailability of their research student strength.

NCL director Ashwin Kumar Nangia said, “We have started with local students since last week. We will allow outstation students in stages depending on the situation next week and so on. We are trying to make decisions keeping all the factors in mind.”

Several departments at the SPPU are carrying out research projects

Extension sought for PhD pupils

Senate members and academic council members of the Savitribai Phule Pune University have requested the varsity’s administration to give a six-month extension to Ph D students to complete their research work.

Eleven members of the senate and academic council of SPPU in a letter to the vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar on Thursday said the lockdown was imposed in March and the future seems uncertain.

Senate member Shamakant Deshmukh who was part of the 11-member panel said many PhD students in various colleges and university departments have not been able to communicate with their guides for many days. “They have not been able to visit libraries or their research laboratories since the lockdown. Hence, they have been lagging in their research. Also, many PhD students have gone back to their homes. Hence, we have demanded the extension,” he said. TNN