Engg grads can get second degree in another branch in 2 years: AICTE

Engg grads can get second degree in another branch in 2 years: AICTE

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:15.08.2021

Engineering graduates of one stream brooding over lack of jobs and cursing themselves for not choosing some other specialization may be a thing of the past as the All India Council for Technical has now decided to allow engineering graduates to complete a second engineering degree in a different discipline in two or three years under lateral entry system.

The council has asked all technical universities and institutions to make necessary changes to its statutes to implement the decision. “AICTE is receiving requests from students regarding admission in B Tech as an additional degree through lateral entry, ” the AICTE said in its circular sent to vice-chancellor of technical universities and directors/principals of AICTE approved institutions. “It is informed that the proposal was placed before the AICTE executive committee (EC) on its 144th meeting held on July 13 and the EC opined that technical universities can facilitate such students to take admissions to BTech/BE by allowing them to get admissions at appropriate level of BTech programme in another discipline or branch of engineering,” the circular said.

“Executive committee approved the exemption from pursuing courses already done in the first discipline of B Tech programme and students can be appropriately guided to complete their requirements of the second discipline. As there is a practical component involved, students will be required to take admission in an institution or college as a regular student and the concerned university will ensure this and make necessary provision in their statutes accordingly.

The EC further approved the duration for completing additional degree to be two years to three years without compromising credit requirements in core discipline and attainment of learning outcomes of the new programme. In view of the above, you may take necessary changes in your statute and take appropriate decisions in this regard,” said Dileep N Malkhede, advisor-I, Policy and Academic Planning Bureau , AICTE.

Anna University vicechancellor R Velraj welcomed the move and said it would help the students who cannot get jobs after their degree. “They can study the branches in which they are interested in the second attempt. We will discuss it in our academic bodies and implement it,” he said.

LATERAL ENTRY SCHEME

Engineering courses will come in more exciting combos, say experts

Engineering courses will come in more exciting combos, say experts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru: 15.08.2021

From clubbing tech-rich courses with traditional engineering streams to combining engineering with medicine, accounting and more, experts say students have great opportunities ahead of them.

Domain experts discussed the vast possibilities during a webinar held on Friday to support engineering aspirants from class 12, who are in the last leg of Karnataka CET preparations.

With the exam nearing (on August 28 and 29) Presidency University in association with The Times of India and Vijay Karnataka organised webinars and a CET Prepmaster mock test on Saturday.

Supriyo Guharoy, director, Presidency University, said: “Computer science will be a key driver in the digital age. However, even traditional courses are seeing new domains. It is an exciting time for an engineering graduate.”

Prof S Sadagopan, ex-director, IIIT Bangalore, agreed with Guharoy and added that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have begun playing a crucial role and will impact not just every engineering branch, but every other human endeavour. “Be it hospitality, medicine, journalism, or management, every field will be impacted by AI and ML,” he said.

“The reimagining of engineering for 21st century in India will go beyond engineering; it will be engineering with law, financial accounting, medicine and much more,” he added.

Guharoy said there is a healthy race between universities and colleges to provide professional and industry exposure to students and curriculums are being tailored to suit industry expectations. “Students, meanwhile, must get into the groove and change their grade-focused mindset. They must relearn, enhance their experiential learning, adopt critical thinking, self-learning and think out of the box,” he said.

Young medicos keep hearts in rural Gujarat beating

Young medicos keep hearts in rural Gujarat beating

Start Drive To Equip PHCs With Digital ECG Units

Prashant.Rupera@timesgroup.com

Vadodara/Anand:  15.08.2021

A 42-yearold patient who was attending a screening camp at Bamangaam Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Anklav taluka in Anand district had no idea that he was suffering from chest pain and breathlessness due to a life-threatening heart attack. The patient was immediately rushed for cardiac treatment at GMERS Medical College and Hospital at Gotri in Vadodara.

Patients like him are getting much needed help through a project — CardioGram — that aims at improving cardiovascular healthcare delivery at rural PHCs across the country.

A group of young interns and junior doctors have started the pilot project in Anand which will be showcased as a model district before it is scaled up to state and national level where each PHC is equipped with digital electrocardiogram (ECG) machines.

After installing the first digital ECG machine at Bamangaam PHC in Anklav taluka, the group is set to equip three other PHCs in Anand and two in New Delhi with digital ECG machines next month.

“Our target is to install 250 digital ECG machines in five states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Assam within the next six months,” said Dr Priyansh Shah, founder and president of World Youth Heart Federation (WYHF) — a youth led non-profit social enterprise that has launched the project.

“After establishing the model district of Anand, we will expand to over 24,000 rural PHCs of the country. Gujarat itself has1,500 rural PHCs which will be the next milestone,” he said.

Like Priyansh, Dr Adnan Vohra and Dr Nidhi Shah — all intern doctors at state-run SSG Hospital in Vadodara are volunteering for the project with a team comprising Dr Pankti Shah, Dr Harshraj Vaghela, Dr Priyal Thakkar, Dr Keshav Shah, Dr Smit Shah, Dr Devarsh Shah and Dr Dhrumil Patil.

Nationally, the group has 600 volunteers of interns and junior doctors in 58 cities. Initially, the group is using its own funds but plans to scale up the initiative with a hyper-local model involving local businessmen and community leaders.

WYHF has already trained healthcare workers at three PHCs and one community health centre in Anklav. “It was during the screening camp at Bamangaam during which we found that six patients out of 71 needed treatment at higher centres. Three of the six patients were asymptomatic. It was only because of the digital ECGs that the problem was identified,” Shah added.

Deployment of ECG machines at PHC will help in diagnosing many more such cases and in turn save thousands of lives, he said. Companies manufacturing digital ECG machines have their own mobile applications through which sending digital ECGs to cardiologists becomes easy.

The only man whose photo hangs inside the Lok Sabha

PEOPLE WHO SHAPED PARLIAMENT

The only man whose photo hangs inside the Lok Sabha

Chakshu Roy

15.08.2021

In August of 1925, there was excitement in Simla. Members of the legislative assembly were in town to participate in the session of the national legislature. The session’s highlight was the election for the presiding officer of the assembly. The Government of India Act of 1919 had set up the 141-member assembly and appointed its first presiding officer (the President which is the equivalent of the modernday Speaker) for a four-year term. For the first time, there was going to be an election for the position of President.

The candidate opposing the government nominee was Vithalbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, the elder brother of Vallabhbhai Patel. He was a lawyer who had frustrated the government with his interventions in provincial and national legislatures. In a closely contested election, Vithalbhai won with a margin of two votes a month before his 52nd birthday. Over the next five years, he would lay the foundation on which legislatures in India would function and flourish after independence.

When he assumed office, President Patel continued wearing his usual dress of khadi and dhoti. His biographer recounts that he went ahead with the parliamentary tradition of wearing a wig and a robe but made of khadi. His robe was fashioned out of a black khadi silk saree presented by Sarojini Naidu. The first task before Vithalbhai was to secure respect for the office of the presiding officer.

The prevailing tradition was that when the Viceroy came to deliver his annual address to the legislature, the presiding officer vacated the chair and sat with the assembly members. The implication being that even in the legislature, the Viceroy was supreme. Vithalbhai put an end to this practice, and at the following annual address, he conducted the Viceroy to a dais and kept his chair.

He also ensured that assembly members had an adequate opportunity to hold the government to account. In his five-year tenure, he allowed discussion of 20-plus adjournment motions. He would also brook no disrespect of the legislature. When the Commander in Chief was absent from the House during a debate on his speech, Vithalbhai observed that it was highly discourteous to the House, prompting the commander to explain his absence to Vithalbhai.

In the President’s chair, Vithalbhai was unbiased and upheld parliamentary conventions. His ruling on the government’s repressive Public Safety bill (which gave the government power to detain suspects without trial) is one such example. When the first bill came up in the assembly, there was an equality of votes. President Patel had the casting vote, and he exercised it to defeat the bill. He followed the parliamentary tradition that the presiding officer vote to favour the status quo.

Smarting from the defeat, the government again brought the bill to the assembly. This time a member objected that the government had filed cases against 31 individuals and discussing cases pending before the court was not permissible under the rules. Vithalbhai ruled that discussion on the bill would violate the sub judice rule, and he could not allow such a violation. The venue for these discussions was the current Lok Sabha chamber.

Bhagat Singh expressed public resentment about this bill by throwing two bombs from the visitor’s gallery into the assembly chamber. After this incident, without consulting President Patel, the government made security arrangements in the assembly complex. Vithalbhai believed that whatever happened in the precincts of the assembly should be done with the approval of the presiding officer.

The deadlock and subsequent conversations on this issue between President Patel and the Viceroy led to the Watch and Ward service, which transformed into the Parliament Security Service. Vithalbhai was also instrumental in setting up the independent parliamentary secretariat. He believed that an independent and impartial administration responsible to the presiding officer was a requirement for the functioning of the legislature.

When Vithalbhai became the president of the central assembly, he declared, “From this moment I cease to be a party man. I belong to no party. I belong to all parties.” His is the only portrait that adorns the Lok Sabha chamber facing the chair of the Speaker. His presence should constantly remind our parliamentarians about their responsibility to the constitution and people.

Roy is head of outreach PRS Legislative Research

From this moment on, I belong to no party. I belong to all parties

— VITHALBHAI PATEL

After being elected first president of the central legislative assembly

Most docs with disabilities denied seats in AIIMS

Most docs with disabilities denied seats in AIIMS

Handful Who’ve Got Admission Were Mostly Given Non-clinical Subjects Which Have Few Takers

Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com

15.08.2021

Year after year, the bulk of MBBS doctors with disabilities who clear the post graduate entrance exam for seven All India Institutes of Medical Sciences including the one in Delhi are denied admission. Barely 0.4% of seats over the last three years have been given to them despite the disability rights law of 2016 stipulating a 5% reservation.

Even the handful who have got admission were mostly given non-clinical subjects which have few takers. Out of over 4,000 PG seats in the various AIIMS from 2018 onwards, 200 should have gone to those with disabilities if the 5% quota was implemented. Instead, 17 have been given to them.

From 2021 onwards, the combined entrance exam, Institutes of National Importance Common Entrance Test (INICET) is also for admission to PGI Chandigarh, Jipmer Pondicherry and Nimhans Bangalore.

The seat matrix for January 2021 INCET shows that 27 seats were reserved for persons with disabilities out of a total of 684 PG seats in all seven AIIMS combined, barely 4%. Though 38 doctors with disabilities are shown in the list of candidates who qualified, not a single one was allotted a seat. In the July 2021 INICET, out of 536 PG seats in all the AIIMS, 26 have been reserved for doctors with disabilities but in the mock round of allotment, not a single seat has been allotted. The results of the next round will be out on August 16 and the remaining rounds will be completed within 30 days after that.

“As per current data, a total of 35 persons with benchmark disabilities (PWBD) candidates have qualified for seat allocation. Seventeen out of 31 opted for AIIMS as first preference and 15 opted for AIIMS as second preference. In the mock round, the choices filled by the candidates were not available at AIIMS and hence no seat was allocated at AIIMS. This may change in the subsequent rounds,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS, Delhi. However, a candidate with disability said that usually, there wasn’t much change from the mock allotment.

Dr Guleria added that allotment depended on the order of merit of the candidates and preferences filled by them and that they were allocated the highest available seat from among their preferences according to order of merit.

“Unlike seats reserved for OBC, SC and ST, which are shown branch or specialty wise in the seat matrix issued, for doctors with disabilities, they just give the total number of seats without a break up of which specialties these seats are available in. So, candidates with disabilities are forced to choose blindly not knowing what specialties are open to them. This is the reason for such a huge number of candidates being rejected on the basis of FCNA or filled choice not available,” said a doctor with disability.

Full report on www.toi.in

Out of over 4,000 PG seats in the various AIIMS from 2018 onwards, 200 should have gone to those with disabilities if the 5% quota was implemented. Instead, 17 have been given to them

Chargesheet against Siva Sankar Baba 350 pages long

Chargesheet against Siva Sankar Baba 350 pages long

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.08.2021

The CB-CID on Friday filed a 350-page chargesheet in the Chengalpet court against Siva Sankar Baba, the founder of Kelambakkam-based Sushil Hari International school arrested in June for sexually assaulting several students. Three other teachers of the institution were arrested in the same case.

Police have included evidence of at least 30 students in the chargesheet that was filed on the 59th day, when the remand period for Siva Sankar Baba ended. A copy of the chargesheet is set to be issued to Siva Sankar Baba when he is produced before the magistrate on Monday. The trial is expected to begin soon.

The Mamallapuram allwomen police, based on three complaints, booked Siva Sankar Baba on June12 and the case was transferred to the CB-CID on June 13. Police arrested Baba from a lodge at Chittaranjan Park in Delhi on June16. Even as he was in judicial remand, two more Pocso cases were slapped against him in July and the first week of August. While his bail pleas were repeatedly rejected, he approached the Madras high court seeking intervention.

Paddy seed sharing fest in Tiruvarur

Paddy seed sharing fest in Tiruvarur

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

15.08.2021

A day-long seed sharing festival was organised by “save our rice campaign” at Tiruvarur on Saturday as part of the annual traditional paddy festival. Farmers were provided with free seeds of native paddy breeds. The festival was not held due to the pandemic last year. Presiding over the event, professor P Duraisingam, chairman of Create (Consumer, Research, Education, Action, Training and Empowerment) – save our rice campaign, said paddy festivals played an important role in retrieving indigenous varieties. “Mappillai Samba and Karuppu Kouni traditional paddy breeds have high medicinal value and are resistant to pests and diseases too. This has encouraged many to cultivate the varieties though the yield is a little less compared to other breeds,” Duraisingam added.