More offices mull reopening, focus on vax

More offices mull reopening, focus on vax

Sindhu.Hariharan@timesgroup.com

14.07.2021

IT companies are reopening workplaces, balancing safety with team productivity. Smaller units are taking the lead with some having reopened and others charting a comeback in August. The few firms that have reopened only allow vaccinated employees. Large companies may reopen in October.

SaaS company Kissflow’s founder-CEO Suresh Sambandam told TOI that employees can choose to return from August 1. Their presence will be mandatory from October 1 on a ‘remote plus’ model wherein teams can work for three weeks in office and one from home. The effectiveness of ideation is better when teams work together in the office, and the ‘Remote plus’ model will ensure reduced staff strength. Kissflow has not made vaccination mandatory but is helping staff get the shot.

“As a young company, culture and agility is important. So, we vaccinated all our staff on a priority basis,” said Arvind Parthiban, co-founder and CEO of startup SuperOps.ai. The entire 45-member team returned to its office at RMZ Millenia on Monday. All staff needs, such as food and refreshments, are met on premises to curb external contact.

Cognizant, the city’s largest tech employer, said its focus now is vaccinating employees and dependents. Sources said plans are on for a phased reopening starting October.

Prabhu Ramachandran, cofounder of real estate startup Facilio, who interacted with IT park operators, said the consensus is to reopen with a flexible working model and the share of staff vaccinated plays a key role in the decision.

About 5% of cybersecurity firm Bahwan CyberTek’s staff work from office at the moment and plans are afoot to increase the strength in a phased manner. Tech company Guvi is opening its Taramani office on a partial basis over the next two months.

HR tech company Neeyamo has been operating with 50% staff at its Perungudi centre since July

5. The company said it is assessing employee preferences to decide when to reopen fully.

Counselling fixed for engg seats before med

Counselling fixed for engg seats before med

AICTE Schedule May Leave Engg Seats Vacant

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:14.07.2021

A day after announcing the exam date for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2021, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) issued a revised academic calendar for 2021-22 for engineering colleges on Tuesday. As per the schedule released by AICTE’s member secretary professor Rajive Kumar, the first round engineering counselling for BE, BTech programmes must be completed before September 30.

The second round of engineering counselling needs to be completed before October 10. First-year students can be admitted till October 20 and the last date to start classes for firstyear students is October 25.

According to experts, with the NEET exam scheduled on September12, conducting medical counselling before engineering counselling is not possible this year too. It would leave several hundred engineering seats in top engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu vacant as students who are unsure of getting medical seats will join top engineering colleges and discontinue it after getting medical admissions. Last year as many as 276 students discontinued BE, BTech courses in Anna University’s four campuses including College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) and Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) to study medicine and other courses.

Internal choices in NEET paper for 2021

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has introduced internal choices in the NEET 2021 question paper after multiple eductaion boards have announced syllabus reduction for Class XII students. As per the change in the question paper pattern, physics, chemistry sections will have five additional questions and biology (botany and zoology) section will have 10 additional questions. NTA has also split each subject into two sections — section A and section B. Students have to answer all the 35 questions in section A and 10 out of 15 questions in section B. As per the new pattern students can answer 180 questions out of 200 questions in NEET exam. Each correct answer will carry 4 marks and for every wrong answer one mark will be deducted. P 10

‘Medical counselling before engg only way to stop wastage of seats’

Anna University former vice-chancellor M K Surappa said the only solution to prevent wastage of seats is to conduct medical counselling before engineering counselling.

“AICTE should consult with the National Testing Agency (NTA) and come out with proper scheduling to prevent engineering seats from falling vacant. Despite bringing it to the notice of AICTE, no remedial action has been taken this year,” he said.

Many private engineering colleges also have from 50 to 100 seats vacant if the medical counselling is conducted before engineering counselling.

“If engineering counselling is conducted first, students select the engineering seats for safety and leave their seats after getting medical admissions. Around 100 students discontinue their courses in top colleges every year,” said RM Kishore, vicechairman of RMK Engineering College.

Unlike Anna University, private engineering colleges can fill up these seats at a later stage.

However, principals said they cannot fill all vacant seats after admissions to engineering courses are over. “Scheduling is the main issue. The present schedule is forcing the students to make one choice even though they are not willing,” a principal from city college said.

Meanwhile, deemed universities facing a different challenge as the admissions to IITs, NITs are being conducted in several rounds and students are leaving these institutions after taking admissions to join centrally funded institutions.

“The ministry of education and AICTE either reduce the counselling to IITs and centrally funded institutions to four rounds or need to allow all AICTE approved institutions to admit 10% more than the sanctioned intake. It will reduce the damage caused by Jo-SAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority) counselling delays and longer schedules. It is also a good idea to cancel JEE (Advanced) as it proves a non-existent differentia,” said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, vice-chancellor of SASTRA.

Don’t be reel hero, be real hero: HC to Vijay

Don’t be reel hero, be real hero: HC to Vijay

Court Slaps ₹1L Fine On Actor For Contesting Entry Tax On Imported Lux Car

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:14.07.2021

The Madras high court has imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on actor Vijay for challenging levy of entry tax for his imported luxury car, Rolls Royce Ghost, saying such a reputed actor is “expected to pay tax promptly and punctually,” and actors who are seen by their fans as real heroes “can’t be just reel heroes.”

Dismissing the petition related to the import of the car from England in 2012, Justice S M Subramaniam said, “In a state like Tamil Nadu, where such actors have become rulers, they are not expected to behave like a ‘reel hero’. Tax evasion is to be construed as an anti-national habit, attitude and mindset and unconstitutional,” the judge said in his July 8 order released on Tuesday.

The court directed the actor to pay the fine to the chief minister’s Covid-19 public relief fund within two weeks.

The current market price of the car in India is approximately ₹6 crore. Entry tax in TN is 20% of the cost of the car. Noting that non-payment of entry tax by the petitioner could never be appreciated, the judge said the actor should respect the sentiment of lakhs and lakhs of his fans who watch his movies by paying for ticket. “It is only out of such money that the petitioner has purchased the ‘world’s prestigious’ car for his personal use,” the court said.

“These actors are portraying themselves as champions to bring social justice. Their movies are against corruption in society. But they are evading tax and acting in a manner which is not in consonance with the provisions of the statutes,” the judge said.

While the common man is motivated and encouraged to behave as a lawful citizen and pay tax and to thrive hard to achieve social justice in society, the rich, affluent and reputed people fail to pay tax, the judge said, adding that if such was the situation, it would be a long way to achieve constitutional goals.

CBI registers case against RPO officer for taking bribe

CBI registers case against RPO officer for taking bribe

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:14.07.2021

The CBI registered a case against Madurai regional passport office senior superintendent V Veeraputhiran for issuing illegal passports to Sri Lankans and taking a bribe of ₹45,000 from an agent. The agent, S Ramesh, has also been booked by the CBI. The CBI said it had received reliable source information that during June-September 2019 , Veeraputhiran entered into a criminal conspiracy with Ramesh and some other travel agents to provide passports to Sri Lankans who were not eligible for Indian passport. Ramesh transferred a bribe of ₹45,000 in three tranches to the Indian Bank savings account of Veeraputhiran. The CBI registered a case of criminal conspiracy and corruption against the duo.

CBI said he issued illegal passports to Sri Lankans and took a bribe of ₹45,000 from an agent

HC dismisses PIL challenging validity of TN’s panel on NEET

HC dismisses PIL challenging validity of TN’s panel on NEET

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:14.07.2021

The Madras high court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation moved by the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP challenging the validity of a committee constituted by the state government to study the impact of NEET on students from socially and economically backward classes.

“The setting up of the commission can, by no stretch of imagination, be seen to be contrary to any Supreme Court order, whether in letter or spirit, or as a counter to any legislative action taken by the Union or process put in place,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said.

“For all we know, the commission may come up with some material that the state government may use to persuade the Union to search for an alternative or modify the process to make it more inclusive for students belonging to the socially backward and economically weaker sections to participate therein with a better chance of success,” the court added.

The setting up of the commission does not amount to subverting any process of admission, far less an act of defiance to any order passed by the Supreme Court or even the remotest challenge to the exclusive authority of the Union to enact a law and conduct a procedure in a field which is constitutionally designated to be undertaken only by the Union, the judges asserted.

Noting that a section of citizens may feel that it is a waste to appoint a commission; that the costs incurred in maintaining such commission may be better used to provide relief to those who suffered in course of the pandemic, the court said, “But these are choices that an elected government has to take.” Indeed, in the constitutional scheme, the elected government has the freedom to take. Courts cannot rush in and interdict notifications or steps taken pertaining to policy or for garnering public opinion or the like, the judges said.

The court added that the constitution of the commission does not call for any interference as long as the state does not do anything to upset the procedure for admission to medical institutions as established by law.

The issue pertains to a plea moved by BJP Tamil Nadu secretary K Nagarajan. He wanted the court to quash the order issued by the Tamil Nadu government on June10 constituting the committee headed by Justice A K Rajan.

HC order a significant step: Stalin

Chief Minister M K Stalin hailed the Madras high court order dismissing the plea against A K Rajan committee as a significant step in the struggle against Neet. Noting that the court has dealt a blow to BJP as well as AIADMK, Stalin said in a statement on Tuesday that the order has not only upheld the student’s rights, but also the state’s rights. “The judgement was a significant step in our battle against Neet,’’ he said. TNN

43-year-old woman dies after swallowing artificial tooth while drinking water

43-year-old woman dies after swallowing artificial tooth while drinking water

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:14.07.2021

A 43-year-old city resident died a day after swallowing her artificial tooth accidentally while drinking water, police said.

S Rajalakshmi of Valasaravakkam had replaced three front teeth with artificial ones nearly seven years ago at a private hospital in Porur. On July 4, she suffered from dizziness and felt nauseous soon after swallowed one of the three artificial teeth by mistake. She was taken to a private hospital.

After going through her test reports, doctors felt there was nothing alarming and discharged her. But she fainted the next day and died on the way to hospital, said a police officer from Royala Nagar station, who is investigating the case.

She is survived by her husband Suresh, 48, a private advertising firm employee, and their two sons. Police have sent the body for autopsy.

Police suspect Rajalakshmi’s artificial tooth could have become loose as it was fixed seven years ago and she could have avoided a hospital visit now due to Covid tests. A case under Section 174 (unnatural death) of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been registered.

Oral pathologists say the chance of death due to swallowing of dentures is rare unless it reaches the air pipe instead of the food pipe. Delicate tissues in the air pipe might get damaged and subsequent bleeding or asphyxiation may cause death at times, they said.

Dr SM Balaji, an oral surgeon from Balaji Dental & Craniofacial Hospital in Teynampet, said the type of denture had be assessed. “Usually, acrylic removable dentures are liable to cause more damage when swallowed as they have metal clasp. This aspect is very crucial and can be identified only on autopsy or radiological imaging or previous dental records or from patient's care providers.”

Any patient wearing dentures should regularly check with dentists. Any loose denture or tooth should be promptly attended to and the person concerned not wait for an occasion to change it. In case of such swallowing, early identification of swallowed dentures and immediate medical attention can help avoid catastrophic outcomes, he said.

Dentists caution that any loose denture or tooth should be promptly attended to and the person concerned should not wait for long to change it

STATE VACCINATES 3.35L ON TUESDAY

STATE VACCINATES 3.35L ON TUESDAY

7 districts report 100+ new Covid infections

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:14.07.2021

Fresh cases continued to decline with TN recording 2,505 new cases on Tuesday compared to 2,652 new cases on Monday. The state registered 48 deaths and 3,058 recoveries, leaving 31,218 people still under treatment for the viral infection. On Tuesday, seven districts reported cases in three digits and 24 reported fewer than 50 cases.

Coimbatore topped the table with 282 cases followed Erode (187) and Thanjavur (185). Chennai reported 160 cases while Salem had 162 cases, Trichy 98 and Madurai 30.

Ramanathapuram recorded just 13 cases, the lowest in the state. Cases went up in Tirunelveli from 16 on Monday to 25 on Tuesday.

“While cases are coming down, there is still no evidence on how the third wave could be. Countries like the UK are reporting a sudden spurt, but their hospitalisation and deaths are fewer compared to previous waves,” said health minister Ma Subramanian.

It is sad that TN does not receive adequate vaccines, he added.

“We require more than 11 crore doses to completely vaccinate adults, but we have received just 1.67 crore. On Tuesday, after we received 1 lakh doses of Covaxin and 1.5 lakh doses of Covishield, we had about 6.5 lakh doses. We will use them for a couple of days,” he said.

Subramanian said he will meet Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya in New Delhi on Thursday. At the end of the day, TN vaccinated 3.35 lakh people.

Of the 48 deaths in the state, Salem reported six followed by five each in Chennai, Tiruppur and Dindigul. At least 19 districts did not report any deaths.