PG medical intake 2nd round from today

PG medical intake 2nd round from today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  02.07.2020

The second round of admissions for over 500 seats in postgraduate medical courses will begin on Thursday and the students can fill in their choices till July 4.

The second round is taking place after the central government surrendered 180 seats in the all-India quota, which remained vacant during the first round of admissions. Thus an additional 180 seats became available in this round.

Some 130 admissions were also cancelled after the first round of admission.

These seats will also be available. These seats are over the 400-odd seats that remained vacant in the first round of admission, sources said.

Students will have three days to make their choices clear. The allocation process will take place on July 6. The students will have time then to pay the fees by July 10. Students whose admissions have been confirmed will have to report to help centres between July 7 and July 11.

Money stolen without OTPs

Money stolen without OTPs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  02.07.2020

A 36-year-old man from Vasna, Tapan Parikh, on Tuesday filed a complaint with the cyber crime police station on behalf of his aunt, in order to recover money stolen from her bank account by cyber cheats.

Parikh, on behalf of Miksha Patel, who is from Memnagar and presently lives in Dallas, stated that cyber criminals had managed to siphon off Rs 85,000 from Patel’s account in six transactions using a mobile application between April 3 and May 2019 without one-time passwords (OTPs). As he learned about this on May 21, he made an application to banking authorities to the block the account.

Speaking to TOI, Parikh said, “I made an application to the Reserve Bank of India to block the account on May 21, 2019. The bank did not do much and the cheats managed to siphon off another Rs 1,05,400 from the same account on May 23, 2019. The bank had to reimburse the Rs 1,05,400 as it was taken after I made the application. However, for the Rs 85,000, I had to submit an application to the cyber crime police station. On Tuesday, they called me and registered an FIR,” added Parikh, a manager with a private company.

DCP Rajdeepsinh Jhala of cyber crime police station, said, “This is unique case as the cheats managed to get the money without the OTPs. We will certainly crack the case.” Jhala said that according to the rules, the bank is liable to pay money after an FIR has been filed.

Govt yet to decide on medical, dental exams

Govt yet to decide on medical, dental exams

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:02.07.2020

Gujarat government on Wednesday announced cancellation of all final semester exams across all varsities and colleges in the state.

The decision, however, does not include exams for medical, paramedical and dental courses, a state government official clarified.

A final decision on this will be taken according to directions by the central government whose advice the state has sought in this matter, the official added.

Gujarat University, which has deferred all exams except those for medical, paramedical and dental courses, issued a media statement on Wednesday clarifying that there has been no change in the schedule of these exams.

“GU officials are of the view that medical and dental courses are regulated by Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dental Council of India (DCI) and hence the direction of the state education minister issued on Tuesday does not apply to them,” said a source.

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, the state education minister had announced the decision to cancel all final semester college exams in the state on Wednesday.

The minister’s decision is for the varsities accredited or affiliated to the University Grants Commission (UGC) said sources in GU. Medical and dental colleges can avail UGC grants only for research activities, they added.

The paramedical exams have begun at GU from this week and the second paper is on July 2. The exams for medical and dental courses will be held later this month.

Some students have been in favour of the decision of GU holding exams in July, especially with the entrance exams for super-speciality courses expected to be held in September.

Members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) want the varsity to defer the exams in line with GU’s decision for arts, commerce, science, and education colleges.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Super Specialty courses (NEET SS) 2020, to be conducted by the National Board of Examinations, is expected to be held on September 15.

School kids to take tests from home

School kids to take tests from home

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: 02.0702020

At a time when state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama announced the cancellation of all college exams in the state, the government said it has decided to conduct exams for primary school students.

The state education department on Tuesday directed all governmentrun, grant-in aid and private schools in the state to conduct exams for primary school students in the last week of July.

The periodic evaluation test is meant to check the progress of the child and will be conducted from the comfort of their homes under the supervision of the parents, a media statement said.

The test will be on the main language and maths. Each test will be of 25 marks and the schools have to make arrangements to ensure that question papers reach the students’ homes by July 28 at the latest. The parents have to submit the answer sheets to the schools by July 31. The question papers will carry five questions of five marks each.

Earlier this month, to ensure that the new academic session is not affected by the pandemic, the government had initiated a ‘Home Learning’ programme.

Students are provided ‘weekly learning material’ through various social media platforms.

Schools have been shut since March due to the coronavirus pandemic and school students have been promoted en masse for the 2019-20 academic year.

In support of Centre’s ban, TikTok users now seek Indian alternative

In support of Centre’s ban, TikTok users now seek Indian alternative

Sushil.Rao@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:02.07.2020

While they are in complete support of Centre’s move to ban TikTok, users of the app are now wishing for an Indian alternative at the earliest. They say that other platforms such as Instagram or Youtube serve a different purpose and cannot be a replacement to a creative app like TikTok.

“People found it funny when I made music videos in that app. I love music and I am passionate about making the videos. I am living my life the way I wanted to by putting out everything I wanted to in public domain. However, at the same I am a responsible person,” said Kalyani Gorre, an environmentalist, who is also pursuing her Ph D. In a very short time she got more than 10,000 followers and put out 1,500 videos. “Sometimes I would put out a social message asking people to plant trees, or simply make sound tracks and act it out,” said Kalyani, a resident of Lingampally.

While Kalyani is pursuing her own goals, Eshwar of Kavadiguda was had high hopes and believed that the app would take him to higher places. The 27-year-old has been marketing his videos and hoped to gain an entry into films. He imitates Tamil actor Dhanush, son-inlaw of Rajnikanth, as he has an uncanny resemblance to him. “I myself was shocked when one of my videos got 11.9 millions views,” Eashwar Dhanush, as he calls himself, told TOI. “I put out only 340 videos in the last two-and-ahalf years but people liked what I did,” he said.

The Centre’s decision to ban TikTok does affect creative people but Yugandhar Munagala, who is popular on the app agrees that the interest of the nation should come first. “I must admit that I got my identity by doing videos where I showed off my beard,” Yugandhar, who has already forayed into tinsel town, said. The 28-year-old, who is a post-graduate in microbiology, works for a Germany-based seeds company. With two lakh followers, Yugandhar, a resident of Suchitra said that the need of the hour is to come up with an Indian app that matches TikTok or has better features.

A CREATIVE OUTLET FOR MANY

Vikarabad man makes it ‘app’en after TikTok ban

Vikarabad man makes it ‘app’en after TikTok ban

Sushil.Rao@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad: 02.07.2020

Banking on the void created by the ban on Chinese social networking platform TikTok, a 29-year-old man from Vikarabad has developed a similar video sharing app.

‘ChatPat’, which was put up on Google Playstore on June 28, already has 15,000 downloads and been given 4.2 stars out of five. The app specifically mentions that it is made in India.

The developer of the app, Naskanti Srinivas, said that the ban on TikTok incidentally coincided with the release of ‘ChatPat’. “I was working on the app for the last 15 days because I felt an Indian app should be available to people instead of a Chinese one. Incidentally, with the ban on TikTok, my app started getting huge traffic,” Srinivas of Nawabpet village in Vikarabad told TOI.

Srinivas studied B.Com (computers) and has so far created six apps, including an online shopping platform. While the rest of his creations did not get adequate attention, ‘ChatPat’ was an instant success. He has said that he learnt everything about app development from YouTube. “I now have to increase the server capacity so that many people will be able to download and work on it,” Srinivas said.

Chevella MP Ranjith Reddy has congratulated Srinivas. “What Srinivas has come up with is commendable and I have assured him to give any support that he needs,” said Reddy.

One of the first users of the app is one Shiva of Vikarabad. He has identified himself on his ‘ChatPat’ account with the name @Madapathi814744276. “Naskanti Srinivas you did a great job. All the best for your furture,” he said while appreciating the developer of the app.

Some of the users have also posted their old TikTok videos on the new platform.


I was working on the app for the last 15 days because I felt an Indian app should be available to people instead of a Chinese one. Incidentally, the ban on TikTok came at the time when I put up ‘ChatPat’ on Google Playstore and my app started getting huge traffic

Naskanti Srinivas| APP DEVELOPER

Plea in HC against huge Covid bills

Plea in HC against huge Covid bills

SagarKumar.Mutha@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:02.07.2020

Dealing with a petition that wanted the court to direct the state government to restrain private hospitals from overcharging the patients in the name of Covid-19 treatment, the Telangana high court on Wednesday gave the petitioner two weeks’ time to furnish evidence and also make the hospitals as respondents in the case.

A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy said this while hearing a PIL filed by DG Narasimha Rao, general secretary of Patnam, an NGO working in health and environment areas. The petitioner, in his petition, annexed newspaper reports published in prominent dailies from Hyderabad, detailing how the corporate hospitals were collecting nearly Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh per day from Covid-19 patients depending on severity of the case even after the government imposed a cap in the range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 9,000 per day.

“The private and corporate hospitals are swindling patients and profiteering in the name of treating ovid-19 patients in Hyderabad and other parts of the state,” said V Mallik, counsel for the petitioner. He sought a direction to the state to take over at least 50% of beds in private, corporate and teaching hospitals and evolve a transparent web-based mechanism in allotting the beds to patients who are in need and provide treatment at the rates fixed by the government.

The judges noticed that none of the private hospitals was made as a respondent and directed the petitioner to implead them because allegations were made against them about collection of exorbitant treatment charges.

The petitioner pointed out that none of these hospitals was implementing the rates fixed by the government and charging exorbitantly. He charged that these hospitals were cashing in on the anxiety of the kin of the patients while rushing them to hospitals.

The bench posted the case to July 10.