State Government's Decision To Defer Final Yr Exams Directly Affects Standards Of Higher Education In The Country; UGC Tells Bombay HC

State Government's Decision To Defer Final Yr Exams Directly Affects Standards Of Higher Education In The Country; UGC Tells Bombay HC: The University Grants Commission in an affidavit before the Bombay High Court submitted that the State of Maharashtra's decision to defer final year examinations or to 'graduate' students without...

COMEDK UGET 2020 entrance exam to be held on August 19, check details

COMEDK UGET 2020 entrance exam to be held on August 19, check details

COMEDK UGET 2020: The entrance exam will be held in two shifts. The first shift will be held from 9 am to 12 noon in the morning and the second shift is from 2 to 5 pm. The total duration of the exam is three hours.EDUCATION Updated: Jul 25, 2020 12:43 IST

hindustantimes.com | Edited by Akhilesh Nagari

Hindustan Times, New Delhi

COMEDK UGET 2020. 

COMEDK UGET 2020: The Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) has released the new dates for COMEDK UGET 2020 examination. As per the new schedule, the undergraduate entrance examination will be conducted on August 19, 2020.

The entrance exam will be held in two shifts. The first shift will be held from 9 am to 12 noon in the morning and the second shift is from 2 to 5 pm. The total duration of the exam is three hours.

“In view of the health concerns due to Coronavirus, our helpline will remain closed. All queries will be answered by email only. Please address your queries to studenthelpdesk@comedk.org,” reads the statement flashing on the COMDEK’s official website.

Earlier, the consortium had rescheduled the exams from July 25 to August 1, 2020.

Dinamalar 26.07.2020

Deferring of exams will hit higher edu standards, says UGC

Deferring of exams will hit higher edu standards, says UGC

Rosy.Sequeira@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: 25.07.2020

University Grants Commission (UGC) told Bombay high court a Maharashtra government decision to defer final year/terminal semester exams for graduate students without holding exams will affect standards of higher education in the country.

UGC replied to a PIL that challenged the state’s June 19 decision to confer degrees to over 10 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate students of traditional and professional courses by giving average marks based on past performance or to hold exams later.

UGC’s July 23 affidavit, by its education officer Dr Nikhil Kumar, said universities/ institutions were obligated to conduct terminal semester/ final year exams by September-end. It said the Maharashtra government decision was contrary to its July 6 revised guidelines. It was “a matter directly affecting standards of higher education in the country” and “will be an encroachment on legislative field of coordinating and determining standards of higher education which is exclusively reserved for Parliament”.

UGC said the state, by taking the decision under Disaster Management Act, could not override statutory provisions of another special act (UGC Act), making it nugatory. It said in view of the evolving situation of the pandemic, UGC revised guidelines provided adequate time till September-end to conduct exams by following protocols and guidelines and flexible modes of online, offline and a blend of both exams. It provided for conduct of special exams as and when feasible so that students are not inconvenienced or at a disadvantage. “UGC issued such guidelines to protect the academic future of students across the country, which will be irreparably damaged if final year/terminal semester exams are not held, keeping in mind their health and safety.”

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta will hear the PIL and pleas for and against exams on July 31.

Apple widens India operations, starts manufacturing of iPhone 11

PLANS TO EXPORT TOO

Apple widens India operations, starts manufacturing of iPhone 11

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  25.07.2020

Apple is growing its engagement in India and has started to manufacture its top-of-the-line iPhone11 smartphone, at a time when the government is aggressively pushing ‘’Make in India’ and offering incentives to attract new investments.

As the US-China tension worsens, the world’s largest electronics seller has widened its India-made product profile and is preparing for exporting devices from the country. Apple is preparing for large-scale manufacturing here, amid slowing operations in China, say analysts. Taiwan’s Foxconn has lined up $1-billion fresh investment in India and other partners are also boosting investments. Currently, Wistron and Foxconn — Apple’s two largest contract manufacturing partners — are making in India, and now a third one, Pegatron, is also setting foot in the country. The manufacturing of iPhone 11is an indication that quality levels of India-made goods are on a par with those manufactured in China, though cost may still be somewhat more.

However,with the government looking at ‘Make in India’ through schemes such as the ₹50,000-crore Production-Linked Incentive (that attracts manufacturers as well as suppliers of parts), this engagement may deepen further. iPhone 11 is the fifth model of smartphone that Apple is now manufacturing in the country. “2020 - iPhone 11, 2019 - iPhone 7 & XR, 2018 - iPhone 6S, 2017 - iPhone SE. This chronology is a statement in itself as to how @narendramodi govt has developed the mobile phone manufacturing ecosystem in India. It’s only a humble beginning,” telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a tweet. According to industry sources, Foxconn has been assembling iPhone 11 at the Sriperumbudur facility for a few months and devices were available in the market from the last month. Foxconn also makes XR for Apple. Wistron makes iPhone 7.

Apple and Foxccon did not comment on the matter.

According to Counterpoint research, Apple leads in the ultra-premium smartphone segment — devices priced above ₹45,000 each. However, Apple sources said the company is currently not looking at making other products such as MacBook, iPad and Apple Watch in India. “The assembly lines being put are primarily for phones, and other product lines will take more time.”

Virudhunagar district crosses 5,000 Covid cases

Virudhunagar district crosses 5,000 Covid cases

Padmini.Sivarajah@timesgroup.com

Virudhunagar:  25.07.2020

Virudhunagar district crossed the 5,000 mark in Covid-19 cases on Friday with an addition of 424 fresh ones, recording over 1,600 in the last four days. The spurt in cases has caused concern in the industrialised district as thousands of people work in close quarters in the fireworks and matchwork factories. In all, 207 of the 480 fresh cases on Thursday were from Sivakasi, the fireworks hub.

While it took 102 days for Virudhunagar to report the 1000th case, it had taken only two days to add the last 1,000 cases. However 2,947 people have been discharged after recovery while 2,203 are undergoing treatment. Positivity rate on Thursday and Friday is close to 29% with results coming for nearly 1,500 samples a day. Virudhunagar, Sivakasi, Rajapalayam and Aruppukottai towns and the villages around them remain the hotspots. President of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association (TANFAMA) P Ganesan said that about 30 to 40 of the 1,070 factories had been closed in Sivakasi, after some of their workers tested positive.

The spike in cases witnessed since last week has been ascribed to the increased testing. The daily testing capacity of the district was only 1,000 samples till last week, done at three labs, which has been increased to 2,500 from Monday.

“We have a backlog of over 9,000 samples at laboratories across the state including 3,500 in Chennai. We increased sample collection to 3,000 today (Friday) and will scale it up to 3,500 a day from tomorrow (Saturday),” Virudhunagar collector R Kannan said. Government and private laboratories in Madurai and Theni are expected to help the district clear the backlog.

The collector said that the spread of the virus has not affected the functioning of industrial units. Firework units were instructed to maintain social distancing and make facilities for a doctor to be available in the vicinity among other safety measures.

“We have warned to cancel the licence of buses as well as units that bring more than 30 employees,” he added. The fireworks factories which closed down due to the lockdown reopened on May 7 and all 1,070 started functioning. On normal days, social distancing is a question in these units as workers work within closed quarters in tiny sheds. Though the number of workers has come down, there still are about 2 lakh now. Another two lakh people are employed indirectly as they work from their homes and supply wicks and cases to the industries.

Matchwork industry is another one that provides largescale employment in and around Sivakasi and Arupukottai, and the printing industry. They were allowed to start functioning with 50% strength. Contacts of some working in fireworks units had tested positive.

207 of the 480 fresh cases on Thursday were from the fire works hub of Sivakasi.

Covid cured, but patients report serious ailments

FIGHTING COVID-19

Covid cured, but patients report serious ailments

Increase In No. Of People Returning To Hospitals With Strokes, Heart Attacks, Clots In Vessels, Say Docs

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

25.07.2020

The growing challenge for people discharged from Covid-19 wards is complete recovery.

While many struggle to overcome residual symptoms such as pain and fatigue, doctors in emergency rooms say there is an increase in the number of people being wheeled in with strokes, heart attacks and life-threatening clots in blood vessels. In some cases, chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension — both risk factors — have worsened.

A fortnight ago, an 84-year-old discharged Covid-19 patient returned to Gleneagles Global Hospital with severe stroke. “We treated her for a stroke and sent her back home. In just a few days, she developed breathlessness and died at home,” said infectious diseases expert Dr Subramanian Swaminathan. The cause of death, he suspects, could be a heart attack or pulmonary embolism blockage in a pulmonary artery of the lungs — triggered by Covid-19 complications.

Many younger patients with no co-morbidities are also being brought back to hospitals with clots. Kauvery Hospitals senior vascular surgeon Dr N Sekar said at least 10 recovered Covid-19 patients returned with clots on limbs, intestine, brain, and heart in the last 10 days. These included those with mild or no symptoms when infected with Covid-19.

Data from across the globe is also showing the virus can worsen or cause diabetes. “Some viruses such as mumps, measles and coxsackievirus attack pancreatic cells (beta cells) that produce insulin. Senior diabetologists across India are forming a registry to study effects of the virus,” he said.

Cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy have super specialists such as vascular surgeons who attempt surgical intervention to save limbs. Patients in districts aren’t that lucky. “As numbers increase in the districts morbidity and mortality will go up. Although TN has a better doctor-patient ratio compared to many states, doctors are not uniformly spread. So is access to care,” said public health expert T S Sunderraman.

While ICMR has asked all states to record and notify post-covid complications carefully, doctors are already tweaking treatment protocols. These protocols, however, are not uniform across hospitals.

Dr Sekar says the infectious diseases team at his hospital has now made it mandatory to give blood thinners to all those testing positive for Covid-19, unless they have complications that prevent them from taking the drug. “All young and healthy patients with no symptoms are advised blood thinner pills for at least a month. Elderly or patients with mild or moderate symptoms are given both blood thinners and anticoagulants for six weeks,” he said. The prescriptions attached to discharge summaries for patients at Apollo Hospitals have only anticoagulants for people who had moderate and severe symptoms. “We added these two weeks ago after medical journals strongly recommended medications to prevent complications,” said infectious diseases expert Dr V Ramasubramanian, who is also on the expert medical panel for the state government.

Even among government hospitals protocol for post-covid management differs. While Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital does not offer blood thinner or anti-clotting medicine, Omandurar hospital gives patients with moderate and severe symptoms blood thinners (asprin), or anticoagulant (clopidogrel).