Bank of Baroda bets on super app

Bank of Baroda bets on super app

Mayur.Shetty@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:4.10.2021

Bank of Baroda will position its new digital platform bob World as the main bank and all banking channels will be an adjunct to the primary platform. The public sector lender is adopting a strategy similar to SBI, which is working to integrate all services on its Yono platform.

Bank of Baroda MD & CEO Sanjiv Chadha told TOI that post-pandemic, the bank has seen a surge in digital transactions and twice the number of branch visits are happening on the app. “So rather than being an adjunct to the bank, it will be the bank and the other parts of the lender will become an adjunct. The thought was to enable everything that can be done in the branch within the app,” said Chadha.

“The way the app (bob World) is positioned, you can save, borrow, invest and pay. All four capabilities are in the app and are being scaled up every day. In addition to regular transactions, we are having things like airline ticket booking and shopping across merchants to bring the cheapest proposition to the customers,” said Chadha. The bank plans to extend use of the app from retail to businesses as well.

For the financial inclusion and to reach out to people who do not have digital access, the bank is also doubling the number of business correspondents to 50,000.

“It’s a matter of great pride for us that while we have a 6-7% share in banking. Our share in Jan Dhan Yojana is 15%. We have a very aggressive programme for increasing our business correspondent and increase their number from two for every branch to five BCs for every bank branch that we have,” said Chadha. The bank will however not be increasing its headcount as it has realised some efficiencies following the amalgamation of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, which will enable the lender to redeploy staff.

SC upholds hike in payout from ₹10L to ₹2cr for accident victim

SC upholds hike in payout from ₹10L to ₹2cr for accident victim

Endorses HC Order On Basis Of Salary Slip, Tax Papers Filed By Kin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:4.10.2021 

A Supreme Court bench of Justices R Subhash Reddy and Hrishikesh Roy has dismissed an appeal filed by the National Insurance Company Limited against an order of the Madras HC that enhanced the compensation paid to the family of an accident victim by 1,700% from 10.4 lakh to 1.85 crore based on Form-16, salary slip and other tax papers filed by the victim’s family.

On October 14, 2013, Subash Babu, a 35-year-old manager of a private firm, was killed in an accident while driving a car from Perumanallur to Erode. His wife and other family members who were travelling with him escaped with injuries. His wife, an eyewitness, told Tiruppur motor accident claims tribunal that a van which was going in front of their car turned right without showing any signal and their car rammed against the van and her husband died in the impact.

The tribunal, however, fixed 75% contributory negligence on the victim based on police FIR, which blamed Babu for negligent driving, and awarded Rs10.4 lakh as compensation by fixing Babu’s monthly income at Rs 20,000 per month.

Aggrieved by the order, the family moved the HC. In August 2018, Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy of the Madras HC quashed the order of the tribunal and held that since there was no rebuttal witness provided by the insurance company, the accident happened only due to the negligence of the van driver. Taking into consideration the victim’s tax records and pay slip, the court fixed the victim’s annual income at 12.3 lakh and computed the compensation to be paid by the insurance company as 1.85 crore.

Agreeing with the HC ruling, the Supreme Court bench said, “In view of such evidence on record, there is no reason to give weightage to the contents of the FIR. If any evidence before the tribunal runs contrary to the contents in the FIR, the evidence which is recorded before the tribunal has to be given weightage.”

Pandemic slipping into endemic phase

Pandemic slipping into endemic phase

WATCH FOR VARIANTS Govt Must Ramp Up Genomic Sequencing, Say Experts

Kids Need Time To Reconnect And Socialise, Say Teachers

Experts Say Virus Is Still Around, Advise Extreme Care And Caution

BV.Shivashankar@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:4.10.2021

With fresh Covid-19 cases hovering in the 500-800 range for the past month and with no sign of a third wave of infections, experts suggest the viral disease may have lost its pandemic characteristics and could be getting closer to the endemic phase in Karnataka.

“Going by the stagnation in terms of new cases and the low test positivity rate (TPR), we can say Covid-19 is reaching the phase of endemicity in Karnataka,” said Dr MK Sudarshan, chairman, state Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). “There will be a new wave only if the novel coronavirus mutates and a new variant emerges. It is therefore important to step up vigilance and surveillance and keep a close watch for mutations, if any. It can be done through more aggressive genomic sequencing.”

The TAC has advised the government to step up current levels of genomic sequencing of test samples to track mutations of the virus. While the test positivity rate is around 0.5%, experts say it could be a pattern as pandemics normally have two or three waves of infections.

Once it becomes endemic, the virus spread will be restricted to local transmission without importation of infection from outside through travel history. Infected people will not suffer a serious form of the disease, and the fatality rate will be low.

Noted epidemiologist Dr T Jacob John said an endemic trend is being witnessed across the country, except in three states — Kerala, Mizoram and Meghalaya, where new cases are still relatively high. “However, the situation in Kerala has improved considerably, with daily cases being stable at around 12,000. So, Covid-19 is becoming endemic there too,” said Dr John.

Extreme caution

Dr V Ravi, virologist and nodal officer for genomic sequencing in Karnataka, said, normally, the process of genomic sequencing should be scaled up to around 10% in the given scenario, especially in districts like Bengaluru Urban and Mysuru where cluster outbreaks are known to occur.

“The situation calls for extreme caution, and vigilance and genomic sequencing needs to be increased. Although the prevailing endemic-like situation gives an impression that the virus is gone, it is still around,” Dr Ravi said.

Karnataka at present has four genomic sequencing laboratories located at Nimhans, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), IISc and Jawaharlal Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).

But the state government has now taken steps to add six more labs to the list, with four new labs to be set up in medical colleges located in Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Hassan and Mysuru and another two at district hospitals in Vijayapura and Mangaluru.

Dr KV Trilok Chandra, health commissioner, said, “We have already procured of required equipment and the new genomic labs will be operational by this month end.”

PhD not mandatory for asst prof

PhD not mandatory for asst prof

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

4.10.2021

In a move to allow universities to fill the vacant posts, the Ministry of Education has lifted the mandatory requirement of PhD for applying to the post of assistant professors across Indian higher education institutes.

The criteria has been lifted temporarily for 2021.

In 2018, the government had directed that candidates would need PhD to apply for the post of assistant professor as NET will not be the only criteria for recruitment This was announced under the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the plan of implementing the policy has been put on hold for the current year due to Covid, however, it has not been cancelled. As per the existing norms, candidates who have been awarded a PhD degree in accordance with UGC will be exempted from the requirement of the minimum eligibility condition of NET/SLET/SET.

UPSC 2020 sees better women representaion

UPSC 2020 sees better women representaion

Over 28% women have qualified for the UPSC this year as against 23% in 2019

c-Puniti.Pandey@timesgroup.com

4.10.2021

Women candidates have scored decent ranking in the recently released UPSC 2020 results as half of the top 20 positions have been occupied by women from the diverse educational field. This year’s result confirmed a perfect balance in the male-female ratio in the toppers list. Also, there is a slight improvement in the number of women qualifiers as compared to the last few years. Over 28% women have qualified for the UPSC this year as against 23% in 2019. In 2018, 2017 and 2016 the percentage of women qualifying the exams were 24.24%, 24% and 23.33%, respectively. This year, out of the total 761 qualifiers, 545 were male candidates while there were 216 women. In 2019, against 632 male, 197 female candidates qualified.

Despite the improvement in numbers, women continue to have less than 30% representation in UPSC. Explaining the possible reasons behind this, Shreya Singhal, AIR 176 in UPSC 2020 says, “ Women have additional challenges and responsibilities, which act as a hindrance in the professional world. Women have to juggle between personal and professional lives and balance both. Despite this, there is a gradual increase in the representation of women in civil services over the years.”

Talking about the challenges that she faced during her preparation, she adds, “While my father and cousins have been pillars of strength, I too faced awkward questions from my relatives regarding my parents allowing me to study in a different city.” “Had it not been this time, I doubt if I would have got another year for preparation for the UPSC exam,” says Shreya, 25, who hails from a small town called Sarswa in Saharanpur. UPSC exams being tough, demand exhaustive preparation, which becomes restrictive for girls.

Several families from remote places hesitate to send their daughters to a different city for better preparation. “Not all families are broad-minded and liberal to allow girls to travel to a new place,” explains Shreya who moved to Jaipur and then to Delhi for higher education. She had been preparing at Residential Coaching Academy, Jamia Millia Islamia, after pursuing BTech from Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur (MNIT). Her father is a chemist and her mother is a homemaker.

Highlighting the challenges, AIR 15 Ria Dabi says, “There is a perception in society that women should look after the domestic front. Covid made the situation worse. Women living in rural areas face challenges such as reaching the far away exam centres, getting study material, financial issues and family constraints,” she adds. “With increasing number of women achieving top ranks, young girls have found their role models. This year, out of the top 25 candidates, 12 are women, which is the proof of change,” adds Ria, who is the sister of 2015 AIR 1 Tina Dabi. Inspired by Tina, Ria, 23, a graduate from Lady Shri Ram college, DU started to prepare at Career Launcher in 2019. Talking about the gradual change in the demography of UPSC, Shreya says, “Perceptions have changed after Tina Dabi emerged as the all India topper in UPSC in 2015. There is greater visibility for women candidates.”

Like doctors, law students to do rural service: Nalsa chief

Like doctors, law students to do rural service: Nalsa chief

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:4.10.2021

In a radical change in approach to provide free legal aid to people residing in every nook and cranny, Nalsa chairman Justice U U Lalit announced that like MBBS students hands-on internship, final year law students would be persuaded to act as paralegal volunteers in the hinterland and help in making the poor and the needy aware of their right to free legal assistance.

This novel approach to make the poor and needy, women facing sexual assault, harassment or domestic violence, physically challenged, acid attack survivors and destitutes aware about availability of completely free quality legal assistance is a milestone decision in the 25-year existence of National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa).

Justice Lalit said that Nalsa has held talks with Bar Council of India (BCI), which grants recognition to law colleges and prescribes the curriculum for law courses, and that BCI has agreed to make changes in the curriculum that would enable the final year law students to act as paralegal volunteers for at least six months.

There are as many as 530 law colleges across the country recognised by the BCI. If each law college has 50 seats in the final year course, then the 530 colleges would provide a healthy paralegal force of over 26,000 students, who can fan out to the hinterland and educate almost the entire rural population in a matter of months about their right to get free legal aid.

Justice Lalit said that Nalsa, in collaboration with state, district, taluk legal aid services authorities, paralegal volunteers and NGOs, would try to reach out each of the 6.65 lakh villages at least three times during the 45-day-long campaign, which would end on the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14.

The Nalsa chairman also said that the quality of legal aid has been a sore point for the last 25 years and promised a substantial improvement in the next few years.

Full report on www.toi.in

Students’ role vital in getting NEET relief: MP

Students’ role vital in getting NEET relief: MP

Trichy:4.10.2021

The role of the student community in consolidating the voice against the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET) for selection to MBBS course is vital to getting exemption for Tamil Nadu from the test, said speakers at a state-level conference organised by Students’ Federation of India (SFI) here. Members of Parliament, educationalists and writers who attended the conference said the conduct of the test invades the state’s autonomy and demotivates medical aspirants.

DMK Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva said there is a perception that only Tamil Nadu is opposing the entrance test, which must be changed by mobilising anti-NEET protesters from other states. Unity among NEET opponents was the need of the hour. “If we can achieve a solution in the projallikattu movement, why not in NEET? SFI’s role is vital to gather support across India. We must bring back education under the state list,” he said. He claimed that the AIADMK government did not take dedicated measures to get an exemption for the state. General secretary of the state platform for the common school system, Prince Gajendra Babu, said the Union government has to uphold the spirit of federalism by giving exemption to Tamil Nadu in NEET. TNN