RGUHS CONVOCATION 2021

 

5 feel uneasy after jab, recover in hours

5 feel uneasy after jab, recover in hours

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Shivamogga:07.02.2021

Five nursing students experienced uneasiness after taking their first Covid-19 vaccine dose on Friday. They were admitted to McGann Teaching District Hospital in Shivamogga, but recovered the next morning. District health officer Rajesh Suragihalli said that it might be a case of anxiety.

The five, who study at a private nursing college, took the shot at McGann hospital in the morning and returned to their hostel. After lunch, they complained of uneasiness and a headache. One of them also spoke about breathing problems. The warden suggested that they should be immediately taken to the hospital.

Suragihalli said that initially, one student was brought to the hospital. Later, four others arrived. Doctors decided to keep them under observation for the night. “They were discharged early on Saturday. It may have been anxiety. So far, there have been no complaints of vaccine side effects in Shivamogga,” he added.

Two weeks ago, junior doctors from the Shivamogga Institute of Medical Sciences wrote to health minister K Sudhakar, saying the government should allow healthcare workers to choose from the two available vaccines. Earlier, a 60-year-old doctor, who had taken his first jab, passed away. Officials said the death was not linked to the vaccine.

2 students to get ₹35k relief for air ticket error

CONSUMER IS KING

2 students to get ₹35k relief for air ticket error

Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:07.02.2021

A commercial airline has been ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 35,000 and refund the ticket fares of two students who were not allowed to board a scheduled flight to Bengaluru to attend an academic competition due to a technical glitch. The duo was forced to book tickets on another flight by paying extra money.

On February 19, 2019, Bhavana and Ananya Sharma were to travel from Delhi to Bengaluru to attend a moot court competition the next day. Bhavana’s father Shri Harsha had pre-booked tickets for them by paying Rs 11,046 via his credit card. But the airline staff didn’t allow them to board, claiming the payment wasn’t complete. The girls tried to explain that the tickets mentioned travel status as ‘confirmed’ as the money had been deducted, but in vain. They had to shell out Rs 29,420 to book another flight the same night.

Shri Harsha contacted IndiGo, which ultimately refunded Rs 11,046, stating there was a technical glitch in the ticketing procedure. But when the issue of the girls being forced to buy new tickets was raised, there was no response from the airline staff. Feeling cheated, Harsha approached the Bengaluru rural and urban 1st additional district consumer disputes redressal forum on September 17, 2019 with a complaint against InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, operator of IndiGo.

IndiGo’s lawyer argued the complainant was attempting to make unlawful gains. He said a technical error which appears to have taken place in the complainant’s payment gateway is not in the airline’s control, and the money deducted for the initial tickets had been refunded.

Judges of the forum questioned the airline over issuing tickets with a ‘confirmed’ status. They noted there was a correspondence from the airline, acknowledging the glitch due to which the credited amount wasn’t reflecting in the system.

In their December 9, 2020 verdict, the judges rapped IndiGo for deficiency in service. They ordered InterGlobe Aviation Ltd to pay Rs 25,000 to Harsha apart from Rs 10,000 for litigation expenses. The airline was told to refund the ticket cost of Rs 18,374 after deducting the earlier refunded amount.

Indian nurses head to Gulf for lucrative Covid vax stints

Indian nurses head to Gulf for lucrative Covid vax stints

Sunitha.Rao@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:07.02.2021

Some private hospitals in Bengaluru have raised their concern with the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) about nurses quitting abruptly. They are being “lured” with attractive salary packages in Gulf countries for their Covid vaccination drives for 3-6 months, they said.

PHANA has told all member hospitals to report such cases. “At a time when the mass vaccination drive is all set to begin in India, we are seeing the new trend of nurses quitting to go to Gulf countries. Some nurses who quit have been trained by the government to work in Covid vaccination session sites,” a PHANA member told STOI.

According to one advertisement, nurses are being offered 8,000 Arab Emirates dirhams (around Rs 1.5 lakh) per month. The pay package is 6-7 times the salary in Bengaluru. Covid-recovered, unmarried nurses below 40 years and trained in Covid vaccination sessions are much in demand, sources said.

A recent case was at Excel Care hospital near Banashankari, where two nurses quit abruptly, one after the other, in January. Both were male nurses, who had recovered from Covid. “One of them stopped coming to work on January 24. We realised he was hired by a Dubai hospital for a mass vaccination drive and was offered Rs 2 lakh a month. He quit without serving the notice period. He was trained by the Karnataka government for Covid vaccination. We also heard he got the visa within a day,” said Dr Suresh Krishnamurthy, medical director of the hospital.

Covid test target cut from 1L to 70K

The government, in a circular issued on January 30, has reduced the daily, statewide Covid testing target from 1 lakh to 70,000. The norms prescribe RT-PCR tests through a pooling method, with some exceptions. The fall in testing comes alongside a fall in Covid-19 cases across the state. Bengaluru crossed 4 lakh cases on Saturday, of which 98% have recovered. P 5

Row erupts over toddler’s billing

A row has erupted after one-year-old Vishalini overcame acute Covid-19 pneumonia after a 74-day battle at Rainbow Children’s Hospital, a private facility in Marathahalli. Though BBMP had referred her to this facility, entitling her to free treatment, her family, which has limited means, spent ₹6 lakh on the child’s treatment. P 5

We may face staff shortage in vax drives: Doc

Dteam r Krishnamurthy got a shock two added days later his when another nurse quit. “At a time when the pandemic has gradually declined and vaccination has begun, our country may lose trained nurses who go outside for better salaries. The government should take note of it,” he said.

PHANA president Dr HM Prasanna said. “As of now, we’ve heard from two hospitals. We’re yet to get the exact number of nurses who have quit. If a few nurses quit, it won’t be an issue as there is always attrition. But there is a huge demand for nurses abroad for vaccination drives. If many nurses quit, we’ll face a manpower shortage in our own vaccination drives and to tackle the Covid second wave, if it happens,” Dr Prasanna told STOI.

The matter will be brought to the government’s notice if there’s an exodus of nurses, he added. While a 20% attrition rate among nurses is seen annually in city hospitals, it could go up, sources said.

› FULL COVERAGE | P 5 & 18

TEENS ARE TALKING, ARE YOU LISTENING?

TEENS ARE TALKING, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Anxiety, Career Choice, Isolation… Young Adults Are Podcasting What’s On Their Mind

Kamini.Mathai@timesgroup.com

07.02.2021

In 2020, amid the noise of the pandemic, the ensuing lockdown, the shutting of schools, and the sudden upheaval of their lives as they knew it, some teens managed to collect their thoughts and find their voice. Then they did what most teens do — grabbed a pair of headphones and turned up the volume. Only it wasn’t to shut out the world, but to stream into it.

Enter the teen podcaster. They’re talking about everything — what it’s like to be a teenager, mental health issues kids their age have to grapple with, career choices and how the lockdown has taken a toll.

Thirteen-year-old Kaveri Deepak from Chennai started her podcast ‘Young Spirit — Tween to Teen’ in May when she realised she was staring at an entire year of no school. “I was bored and then I figured so were others my age. So, I began to explore what teens were doing in lockdown,” says Kaveri, who set off on her quest of ‘unboredom’, and over one season of nine episodes spoke to kids from around the world. “There was a 15-year-old from Jersey, a Channel Island near England. She is an environmentalist, dancer, swimmer, and she opened my eyes to a different world of quarantine,” says Kaveri, who has garnered 1,000 listeners over the past eight months.

Now that the lockdown is more or less over, Kaveri has shifted focus for her second season and is now talking to teenpreneurs as well as helping kids learn to navigate social media. “For one of my episodes I spoke to a child artist in the movies on how she manages an anonymous Instagram account,” says the class 8 student, who podcasts on Apple, Spotify, Google.

From her living room in Gurugram, 15-year-old Aarushi Gupta begins her podcast ‘When I was 13…’, which she says has helped her collect more than 35 life lessons. “Dinner table conversations would always begin with my parents telling me how life was different when they were teens,” says Aarushi, who decided to talk to people across generations and different walks of life on what it was like when they were 13. “I’ve interviewed CEOs, dancers, artists and entrepreneurs. I realised that a lot of teenagers were anxious about ‘what next’. These interviews gave us food for thought,” says Aarushi, who has around 1,000 listeners across various platforms.

Although she kickstarted her podcast two years ago, during the lockdown her episodes focused on reconnecting with family. “I brought families together in conversation on how they were staying emotionally connected though physically distant,” she says.

Podcast mentor and coach Bijay Gautam says in the past couple of years he has given several teens masterclasses on podcasting. “Many have been influenced by YouTubers. But unlike videos, the effort involved in podcasting is minimal. You just need an internet connection, a microphone and headphones,” says Bijay. “And you’re a mini celebrity among your friends and family.” Teens, he says, most often want to podcast on career choices or issues they are grappling with, such as anxiety. “It helps them build their communication skills and ups their confidence levels,” says Bijay.

Kaveri, for instance says she wanted to be an actress and her parents weren’t gungho about it, but becoming a podcaster has put her in the spotlight. “Podcasting hasn’t just made me confident, it’s also helped me discover where my passion lies.”

With Google, Apple, radio channels, and digital music services like Spotify and Gaana getting into podcasts, the market is growing, says Bijay.

According to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023, India’s music, radio and podcasts market was worth ₹5,753 crore in 2018, up from ₹3,890 crore in 2014. The report says the podcast listening market has increased in the past few years. Monthly listeners (people who listened to at least one podcast in the last month) totalled four crore in 2018, up 57% from the previous year. This made India the world’s third-largest podcast-listening market (after China and the US).

Chennai-based psychologist Aprajitha Bhardwaj believes the pandemic has brought a sense of isolation among kids. “Podcasts are a great way for them to talk about their feelings or thoughts, which may otherwise be bottled up,” says Aprajitha.

That’s how it helped 17-year-old Yashvardhan Khaitan of Dublin High School, California, who after three months of “mental turmoil” during lockdown, debuted his podcast TeenTalks in June 2020. “During the pandemic, I was forced to pursue online studies. This took a toll on my mental health, as I was not prepared to be in front of a screen and listen to my teachers for hours. I had a hard time keeping up to date with assignments and deadlines and developed anxiety,” says Yashvardhan, who then came across social media posts from several teens feeling the same way.

Over 22 weekly episodes and 1,000 listeners, Yashvardhan says he discovered that a number of teens were dealing with severe mood swings. “One morning they said they would feel energised and happy, but an hour later, they will go down the rabbit hole and feel sad, hopeless and disconnected from their peers,” he says.

For him, the podcast has led him on to a positive track. “After recording an episode with a student, I have this feeling of happiness and awe that I would never have experienced during the pandemic. With every student I speak to I get a better idea of how this entire situation is unfolding and what I can do to make this time better for myself,” he says.

DHANALAKSHMI SRINIVASAN UNIVERSITY

 

Community certificate delay: SHRC summons CS, revenue officials

Community certificate delay: SHRC summons CS, revenue officials

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:07.02.2021

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has summoned the TN chief secretary and revenue officials in Dindigul district to appear for inquiry on Tuesday (February 9), based on a petition by a former legislator about violations in issuing community certificates to tribal people. SHRC stated that if the officials fail to comply with the summons, final decision will be taken by the commission in their absence.

P Dilli Babu, the former MLA, also the president of Tamil Nadu Tribals Association, stated in his petition that despite directions from the Centre, the state and courts, revenue department officials bestowed with the responsibility of issuing community certificates have been making petitioners run from pillar to post. This in itself is a violation of their human rights, the petition stated.

In his petition, Babu cited instances of revenue officials in Dindigul, Tiruvallur, Aruppukottai refusing to issue Scheduled Tribe (ST) community certificates to people belonging to some of the tribes. He pointed out that the data submitted by the department of tribal welfare to SHRC, in response to an earlier petition, that there are 7.9 lakh tribals (1.10% of the state population) and 36 tribes, sub tribes in Tamil Nadu, is ten years old.

The department did not respond when asked about the tribes included under the ST category in recent years and did not mention the number of community certificates issued to them so far, Babu said. He further cited an earlier direction by the Supreme Court that held that if parents have a community certificate, the same can be issued to their children too, and questioned why the practice was not adopted in Tamil Nadu.

Further, in May 2018, the then chief secretary had advised the district collectors to finish backlog petitions on issuing community certificates, the petitioner pointed out and sought a remedy on the issue.