Doctors remove peanut lodged in girl’s lungs

 Doctors remove peanut lodged in girl’s lungs

07/08/2021

Special Correspondent MADURAI

A 20-month-old baby girl, who had a peanut lodged in the left airway of her lungs, has been successfully operated upon at Apollo Hospital. She was brought by her parents on Wednesday from Karaikudi in an emergency condition of severe wheezing and breathlessness. Pulmonologists Dr. Bharathi Babu and Dr. Harikrishnan said it was a high risk emergency procedure given the baby's fragile lungs and distressed condition.

After the CT chest evaluation detected the foreign object to be a peanut, they immediately planned to pull it out. The team of doctors, including ENT surgeon Dr. Arun Prabhu Ganesan and anaesthetist Dr. Prabhu, took three hours to clear the baby's airway.

Managing her was not easy as a bronchoscopy had to be introduced inside the tiny lungs, that could worsen her breathlessness.

It required expertise to give anaesthesia and specialised instruments to carry out the procedure on such a small baby. She was discharged on Thursday, said a press release.

State legislature has equal authority to repeal a statute: HC

State legislature has equal authority to repeal a statute: HC

Disposes of PIL plea after government says it has decided to repeal Dr. J. Jayalalithaa University Act

07/08/2021

Legal Correspondent CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Friday disposed of a public interest litigation petition filed by former Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam of the AIADMK, seeking allocation of funds for smooth functioning of the Dr. J. Jayalalithaa University in Villupuram, since the incumbent DMK government had decided to repeal a law enacted in February this year for establishment of the varsity.

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy recorded the submission of Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram that the Higher Education Department had issued a Government Order (G.O.) on August 3 expressing its intention to repeal Dr. J. Jayalalithaa University Act, 2021, enacted during the fag end of the previous tenure of the AIADMK government.

“There is no doubt that the State legislature has equal authority to repeal a statute as it has to enact a statute in respect of matters falling within its legislative domain,” the judges said. They, however, added that as long as the law continues to be in force and its operation had not been stayed by any court, the provisions of the statute need to be followed scrupulously.

Therefore, the Bench quashed a notification issued by Thiruvalluvar University on June 25 inviting applications for postgraduate courses from students in Kallakurichi, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts, which fall within the jurisdiction of Dr. J. Jayalalithaa University.

It also set aside all steps that had been taken by Thiruvalluvar University to conduct those courses at its extension centre in Villupuram.

Cap on flights, rush during admission season see UK airfares soar two-fold

Cap on flights, rush during admission season see UK airfares soar two-fold

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:06.08.2021

Airfares on the India-UK sector have more than doubled for travel starting August 8, when India stops being on the UK’s red list and visitors from here will again be allowed with no need for a mandatory 10-day hotel quarantine.

The reason is a combination of three factors — a cap of 30 weekly scheduled flights between the two countries; pent-up demand for travel for almost 3.5 months since April 23, when restrictions were imposed on visitors from here during the second Covid wave; and the ongoing peak student travel season.

According to travel portal ixigo, average one-way economy fares from Mumbai and Delhi to London between March 8 and 22, 2021, were Rs 35,871 and Rs 40,273, respectively. Now, fares for travel between August 8 and 22 from Mumbai are up 115% at Rs 77,187, and by 51% from Delhi at Rs 60,932, ixigo data shows. This “is because of pent-up demand and increase in search queries for travel to UK”, it says. Return London fares are well in excess of Rs 1 lakh from most Indian cities.

“This is the peak student season and a large number of Indian students are headed to universities in the UK. Now, with relaxed rules, many parents are also seeking to go and drop their children there for studies,” a travel industry source said.

TICKET TO A COSTLY RIDE

Kaloji health university promotes BPT students

Kaloji health university promotes BPT students

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:06.08.2021

Kaloji Narayana University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) has decided to promote physiotherapy students without conducting the final examination.

Thousands of students, pursuing Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT), had approached the university seeking unconditional promotion, citing delay in the academic session by almost nine months.

The KNRUHS had scheduled the final exams in the October, 2020 which were later postponed to April, 2021. Subsequently, due to Covid-19 second wave, the exams were rescheduled to August, 2021, resulting in a year long delay in the academics.

“Considering the present Covid-19 pandemic prevailing in the country and Telangana, students are stuck in the same academic year since 2019. Promoting the physiotherapy students to next year without exams will help prevent the lag in their academics,” read a representation submitted by All India Medical Students Association to the Telangana governor on July 29.

The decision was taken by the university recently during its executive council meeting following multiple representations by the students. “Physiotherapy students may be promoted to next year but they have to compulsorily appear for final examination of that year before final examination of the next year (promoted year),” the university said in a notification issued recently.

The executive council observed that physiotherapy was an important branch of health sciences dealing with patients. “Physiotherapy graduates will be treating the patients, so it is not proper to expose society to physiotherapists with inadequate knowledge,” the council observed.

Students had sought a one-time promotion through Twitter storms, protests and representations to governor. A few students also moved the high court seeking relief

Parents knock VC’s door over fee row

Parents knock VC’s door over fee row

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:  06.08.2021

A group of parents from the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology (MGIT) met the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH), vice-chancellor prof Katta Narasimha Reddy and complained against the management for not allowing students for lab work and internals over fee issues.

“The All India Council for Technical Education has also instructed all institutions to seek tuition fee instalments in view of Covid-19. MGIT is insisting that parents pay the fee dues upfront,” read the representation by the MGIT Parents’ Association. JNTUH registrar Manzoor Hussain said that the university would issue instructions to the MGIT management to allow the students who have paid the total fee fixed by the government and not to insist for any additional fee.

No change in retirement age for Government staff

 

India off UK red list but no relief as vaccines used here not cleared

India off UK red list but no relief as vaccines used here not cleared

Naomi Canton

London: 06.08.2021

India will be moved off the UK’s red list this Sunday, bringing relief to tens of thousands of Indian students and opening the door for Indian nationals without UK residence rights to travel to Britain for the first time since April 23.

On Thursday, UK announced that India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE will be moved from the red to the amber list on August 8 “as the situation in these countries has improved”. But whilst those who have been double vaccinated with vaccines in the UK, Europe and the US will be exempt from home quarantine upon arrival from an amber list country, those who have received vaccines in India — Covaxin, Sputnik V and Covishield — will still have to self-isolate for 10 days, sparking claims of discrimination against India’s vaccines.

Welcome news for Indian students planning UK visit

The UK government says that anyone fully vaccinated under the UK vaccination programme, or vaccinated with a vaccine authorised by the European Medicines Agency for Europe, Swissmedic for Switzerland, or FDA for the US, who arrives from an amber country, is exempt from home quarantine.

No doses of the Moderna vaccine, which has been authorised by the FDA and approved by the Indian government, have arrived in India yet. From 8.30 am IST on August 8, when India moves to the amber list, travellers from India must now quarantine at home or the place they are staying for 10 days, as well as take a pre-departure Covid-test and two tests after arrival. This replaces the system under the red list when they were required by law to quarantine in a managed hotel for 10 days — at a cost per adult of £1,750 that is set to rise to £2,285 (Rs 2.3 lakh) on August 12.

The move follows a trip by foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla to London on July 24 when he asked the UK to review its travel ban on visitors from India, stating that “Mumbai, Delhi, big cities are practically free of Covid”.

It is welcome news for the 65,000 Indian students who are expected to arrive in the UK in the next few weeks. “This will really help Indian students who cannot afford these exorbitant hotel quarantine fees,” said Indian National Students Association UK president Amit Tiwari. “Indians will have a big cost saving and it is better for their mental well-being to quarantine on campus rather than in a hotel,” said Sanam Arora, chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK.

“If someone is vaccinated in India, they should be treated the same as someone vaccinated in Europe. Or else that is discrimination,” pointed out Sunil Amar, a private banker in London. “It is amazing news and very sensible to take India off the red list because numbers are down and this means travel will be back so it will help airlines,” he said. The Joint Biosecurity Centre released data to back up the decision showing that of 5,263 travellers tested upon arrival from India between July 1 and July 21, 49 (0.9%) tested positive for Covid-19.