Colleges told to give student caste data

Colleges told to give student caste data

Shrinivasa.M@timesgroup.com

06.10.2021

Even as the caste census exercise is caught in a fierce debate, the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes has asked the Directorate of Collegiate Education (DCE) to furnish collegewise caste, sub-caste, category and gender details of final-year students in the state who have completed courses between 2011-12 and 2020-21.

Karnataka State Permanent Backward Classes Commission chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde said that they have taken up the exercise to “compare educational and employment status” of people from different castes and categories and added that the process will take “some time” for completion.

Sources said that the DCE has asked college principals to update details of students on the Education Management Information System (EMIS) by October 12.

The commission has sought data through two separate forms: Caste and other details of students through proforma III; and caste-category details of employees and officials through employment proforma A. Authorities said that details of only those students who have cleared the final year have been sought. “Year-wise details have been sought,” said a college principal, confirming that the controversial exercise has already been set in motion.

Reprimanding student for indiscipline does not amount to abetment of suicide, says SC

Reprimanding student for indiscipline does not amount to abetment of suicide, says SC

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:06.05.2021

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a teacher reprimanding students for indiscipline or bunking of classes would not amount to abetment of suicide if an emotional and sentimental student takes the extreme step after being admonished as it is a solemn duty of a teacher to instil discipline in the pupils.

A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari quashed the criminal proceedings against a teacher of a private school who was booked for abetment after a class IX student committed suicide after being caught for bunking classes. FIR was filed against the teacher as he had reprimanded the student who also named him in the suicide note.

The bench, however, after examining the note, said a reading of it suggests the hypersensitive temperament of the deceased which led him to take such an extraordinary step and which would not ordinarily induce a similarly circumstanced student to commit suicide.

“It is a solemn duty of a teacher to instil discipline in the students. It is not uncommon that teachers reprimand a student for not being attentive or not being up to the mark in studies or for bunking classes or not attending the school. The disciplinary measures adopted by a teacher or other authorities of a school, reprimanding a student for his indiscipline, in our considered opinion, would not tantamount to provoking a student to commit suicide, unless there are repeated specific allegations of harassment and insult deliberately without any justifiable cause or reason,” Justice Murari, who penned the judgement, said.

The court said a simple act of reprimand of a student for his behaviour or indiscipline by a teacher, who is under moral obligations to inculcate the good qualities of a human being in a student would definitely not amount to instigation or intentionally aid to the commission of a suicide by a student.

“If a student is simply reprimanded by a teacher for an act of indiscipline and bringing the continued act of indiscipline to the notice of principal of the institution, who conveyed to the parents of the student for the purposes of school discipline and correcting a child, any student who is very emotional or sentimental commits suicide; can the said teacher be held liable for the same and charged and tried for the offence of abetment of suicide under Section 306 IPC. Our answer to the said question is ‘No’,” the bench said.

“‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’ an old saying may have lost its relevance in present days and corporal punishment to the child is not recognised by law but that does not mean that a teacher or school authorities have to shut their eyes to any indiscipline act of a student. It is not only a moral duty of a teacher but one of the legally assigned duty under Section 24 (e) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 to hold regular meetings with the parents and guardians and apprise them about the regularity in attendance...,” the court said.

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.”