Computer Science remains top pick among engineering aspirants

Computer Science remains top pick among engineering aspirants

Of the 14,842 students who had been called for first-round counselling, 10,187 (68.6 per cent) were allotted seats.

Published: 06th October 2021 06:49 AM |

By Binita Jaiswal

Express News Service

CHENNAI: As expected, Computer Science and allied streams remained the favourites of top rank holders of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) this year. Almost 35 per cent of the seats allotted in the first round were for Computer Science and Engineering (CSE); this is almost 10 per cent more than last year.

As many as 3,572 seats were allotted in CSE stream. While 1,766 students opted for Electronics and Communication Engineering, only 478 chose mechanical engineering; for civil engineering, it was a meagre 245. This was revealed in the provisional seat allotment list, released by the TNEA on Tuesday for the first round.

Of the 14,842 students who had been called for first-round counselling, 10,187 (68.6 per cent) were allotted seats. That’s almost seven per cent rise from last year’s figures. Experts attributed this rise to 100 per cent pass percentage in Class XII results. “More students are interested in studying engineering,” said S Senthil, a faculty member of a private engineering college.

A major concern among experts is the waning popularity of government colleges. As per data available after the first round, government institutions, except for the College of Engineering Guindy (CEG) and the MIT campus of the Anna University, failed to attract top rank holders.

“There are not many takers for institutes like Alagappa College of Technology (ACTECH), Annamalai University, and the University College of Engineering. Only 286 of the 487 seats at ACTECH, 600 of the 640 seats at MIT, and 833 of the 902 seats at CEG were filled after the first round,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. He attributed the trend to poor infrastructure, lack of advanced laboratories, and lack of tie-ups with corporate bodies.

Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, and two private colleges, SSN college of Engineering and Thiagarajar College of Engineering feature among the five most-preferred colleges in the first round.

Show us data to justify quota in promotion: SC

Show us data to justify quota in promotion: SC

Says SC, ST Representation Must’ve Risen

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:06.10.2021

Observing that reservation in promotion for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes cannot go on indefinitely but only till they are adequately represented, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to place data before it to justify continuance of the quota.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and BR Gavai, which is examining the validity of the Centre’s decision to continue with the policy of reservation in promotion, asked attorney general KK Venugopal and ASG Balbir Singh repeatedly whether any exercise has been undertaken by the Centre after 1997 to find out the proportion of SC/ST employees in central government jobs.

‘Revert to NEET-SS pattern in 24 hours’

Lamenting that medical education has become a “business” aimed at filling up seats of private colleges, the Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the Centre, National Medical Commission and National Board of Examination 24 hours to reinstate the old question pattern of NEET-Super Speciality exams for 2021-22, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra. P 4

Need justification for reservation in promotion, says SC

The bench is hearing a plea of the Centre challenging the Delhi high court order quashing its notification granting reservation in promotion for SC/ST employees beyond the five-year period the Supreme Court had stipulated in the Indra Sawhney case.

“What exercise has the government done after 1997 to find out adequacy or inadequacy of their representation to continue with reservation in promotion... After a particular period of time, representation of SCs/STs is bound to to be more than 15 and 7.5%. We want to find out whether any exercise was undertaken by the government to get quantifiable data. Where is the data which say that there is deficiency in representation to justify reservation in promotion. Show us the data,” said the bench.

“How would you justify reservation in promotion? You are talking only about principles but not about data. There must be some justification for continuing with reservation in promotion,” the bench told the ASG.

As the court insisted, the AG said he would get back on Wednesday on whether there was quantifiable data of SC/ ST representation.

However, Venugopal told the court that in 1965, the percentage of SC and ST staff in central government jobs was 3.34% and 0.62% respectively which has risen to 17.5% and 6.82%. He said the SC-ST representation was more in Group C and Group D categories of jobs and less in A and B categories. The AG also contended that adequate representation means that their share in the government jobs should be proportionate to their share in the population.

In 2017, the Delhi high court had quashed the notification on a batch of pleas filed by general category government employees who approached the court through their lawyer Kumar Parimal. The HC accepted his submission that such a move made under Article 16 (4A) was not permissible without adequate data to prove inadequacy of representation and backwardness. The HC quashed the department of personnel and training’s Office Memorandum dated August 13, 1997.

SC said govt is talking only about principles but not about data

What exercise has the govt done after 1997 to find out adequacy or inadequacy of their (SC, ST) representation to continue with reservation in promotion... Show us the data. You are talking only about principles but not about data. There must be some justification for continuing with reservation in promotion

—SC bench to Centre

Only 500 allowed for Mys Dasara finale; -ve cert must

Only 500 allowed for Mys Dasara finale; -ve cert must

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru/Mysuru:06.10.2021

With the Dasara festival beginning on Thursday, the Karnataka government on Tuesday said only a maximum of 500 people will be allowed to attend Jumboo Savari (elephant procession) on Vijaya Dashami that marks the culmination of the nine-day festival at Mysuru Palace on October 15.

Guidelines issued by the government mandate a negative RT-PCR test report and at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine for officers and staff on duty and artists who perform at the festival.

Other attendees must wear facemask, maintain distance and ensure hand hygiene, the guidelines said.

Experts agree with WHO on booster shots

Are booster shots necessary after the two-jab course? Top scientists and virologists have concurred with the WHO view that Covid-19 vaccine booster doses may be needed only if there is evidence of insufficient protection against the virus over time. P 2

MYSURU DASARA

One vax dose a must for all participants, say guidelines

The local administration led by the district minister was urging the chief minister to allow at least 1,000 participants for the Dasara finale. But the CM turned down the request on the advice of the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee. Last year, 50 participants and 300 viewers were allowed for cultural events in the festival.

Senior BJP functionary and former Congress chief minister SM Krishna will inaugurate the state’s flagship event atop Chamundi Hills on Thursday morning. Number of attendees for this event is restricted to 100.

According to guidelines, all participants, including government officials, will be asked to possess a negative RTPCR report (from a test done after October 4) to be allowed into the venues. They should have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine and carry proof of the same, the order read.

The order said that “strict compliance with the guidelines” was necessary to “prevent the spread of Covid-19” and added that the events which cannot be held with proper social distancing will remain cancelled.

Though a low-key Dasara due to Covid-19 restrictions, all events, including the inauguration, Jumboo Savari, cultural events and the Vijayadashami procession, will be livestreamed so that people are not deprived of the annual cultural events. “Arrangements have been made to use social-media platforms to telecast the events real time,” Mysuru district minister ST Somashekar said.

Heavy police security will be ensured at important venues where cultural events will take place.

How depression & anxiety affect the body

How depression & anxiety affect the body

Mental Stress Can Aid Disease, Hit Fightback

Jane E. Brody

06.10.2021

It’s no surprise that when a person gets a diagnosis of heart disease, cancer or some other life-limiting or life-threatening physical ailment, they become anxious or depressed. But the reverse can also be true: Undue anxiety or depression can foster the development of a serious physical disease, and even impede the ability to withstand or recover from one.

The human organism does not recognise the medical profession’s artificial separation of mental and physical ills. Rather, mind and body form a two-way street. What happens inside a person’s head can have damaging effects throughout the body, as well as the other way around. An untreated mental illness can significantly increase the risk of becoming physically ill, and physical disorders may result in behaviours that make mental conditions worse.

In studies that tracked how patients with breast cancer fared, for example, Dr David Spiegel and his colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine showed decades ago that women whose depression was easing lived longer than those whose depression was getting worse. His research and other studies have clearly shown that “the brain is intimately connected to the body and the body to the brain,” Spiegel said in an interview. “The body tends to react to mental stress as if it was a physical stress.”

Many people are reluctant to seek treatment for emotional ills. Some people with anxiety or depression may fear being stigmatized, even if they recognize they have a serious psychological problem. Many attempt to self-treat their emotional distress by adopting behaviours like drinking too much or abusing drugs, which only adds insult to their preexisting injury. And sometimes, family members and friends inadvertently reinforce a person’s denial of mental distress by labeling it as “that’s just the way he is” and do nothing to encourage them to seek professional help.

Anxiety disorders affect nearly 20% of US adults. That means millions are beset by an overabundance of the fightor-flight response that primes the body for action. When you’re stressed, the brain responds by prompting the release of cortisol, nature’s builtin alarm system. It evolved to help animals facing physical threats by increasing respiration, raising the heart rate and redirecting blood flow from abdominal organs to muscles that assist in confronting or escaping danger.

These actions stem from the neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine, which stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and put the body on high alert. But when they are invoked too often and indiscriminately, the chronic overstimulation can result in all manner of physical ills, including indigestion, cramps, diarrhea or constipation, and an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

“Depression diminishes a person’s capacity to analyze and respond rationally to stress,” Spiegel said. “They end up in a vicious cycle with limited capacity to get out of a negative mental state.” Potentially making matters worse, undue anxiety and depression often coexist, leaving people vulnerable to a panoply of physical ailments and an inability to adopt with needed therapy.

According to Dr John Frownfelter, treatment for any condition works better when doctors understand “the pressures patients face that affect their behavior and result in clinical harm.” NYT NEWS SERVICE

EMOTIONAL ILLS

WHO may take call on Covaxin this month

WHO may take call on Covaxin this month

New Delhi:06.10.2021

The WHO’s approval for emergency use listing of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is expected to take a few more weeks to arrive. The decision, however, will be taken in October itself.

WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization is holding its meetings from October 4 to 8, during which it will examine the latest evidences to prepare policy recommendations for the best use of Covaxin. The policy guidelines will be issued once the EUL process is completed. TNN

WHO: EUL decision on Covaxin still pending

Though Covaxin was on the agenda of SAGE’s meeting on Tuesday, officials said the decision on EUL approval is still pending.

The WHO said in response to an email query from TOI: “The EUL decision on Covaxin is still pending. Bharat has been submitting data to WHO on a rolling basis and submitted additional information at WHO’s request on 27 September. WHO experts are currently reviewing this information and if it addresses all questions raised, WHO and the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will carry out the risk/benefit assessment and come to a final decision whether to grant Emergency Use Listing to the vaccine.”

The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) related to EUL is expected to convene its meeting next week. A final call will be taken based on the recommendations of both TAG and SAGE.

According to WHO, the EUL process is centred on determining if a manufactured product is qualityassured, safe and effective.

The WHO SAGE is responsible for issuing evidence-based policy recommendations for the best use of vaccines against Covid-19. “Such product-specific recommendations are issued once a vaccine is authorised through a regulatory process, including the assessment of safety and efficacy from phase III clinical trials,” it said.

Last student picked for AIIMS scored just 6% less than topper

Last student picked for AIIMS scored just 6% less than topper

06.10.2021

The actual scores in the entrance exam of those who got admission to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi differed very little, no matter which category they came from, reports Rema Nagarajan. While the ranks give an impression of huge differences between admitted students from various categories, their percentile scores vary by less than one and even the absolute marks differ by less than six percentage points between the topper and the last student selected.

In fact, not only were there no candidates with scores below 99th percentile among those who got admission, even their final percentage scores were well above 90% no matter which category they belonged to, an analysis done by TOIshows.

‘National SC/ST panel should demand data on admission’

For instance, in 2018 while over 3.74 lakh appeared for the exam, the lowest selected rank, which was from the scheduled tribe (ST) category, was 2,090 with a percentile score of 99.45 though the qualifying percentile level was 93.65 for tribals.

The competition is so close that several tie breaker scores have to be used to assign ranks. Ties — those with equal overall percentiles — were resolved using percentiles in the biology section of the paper followed by chemistry, physics and finally the candidate’s date of birth, with older candidates getting ranked higher.

The lowest selected rank from the SC category was 655 with a percentile score of 99.83, again well over the qualifying level of 40% marks equivalent to 93.65 percentile. The lowest selected rank from the OBC category was 188 equivalent to 99.95 percentile, against a qualifying level of 45%, equivalent to 97.01 percentile. For the general category, the qualifying level was 50% equivalent to 98.83 percentile.

In 2019 too, calculations show, there was a difference of less than six percentage points in the overall scores of the first rank and the last rank (3,000) that got admitted. The marks are not publicly announced. To understand how we arrived at them, see the accompanying box.

Anthropologist Dr Anna Ruddock notes in her book on AIIMS-Delhi called ‘Special Treatment’ that the ranking system acts as a management tool, suggesting a legitimate differentiation in achievement that actually disguises the homogeneity of marks among top-ranked students and ends up implying that OBC, SC, and ST candidates who score lower than the GC cut-off lack the necessary aptitude to study at AIIMS.

“Among those admitted in AIIMS-Delhi, there is hardly any difference between those from different categories because the OBC, SC and ST candidates selected represent a small proportion that has access to facilities and resources to be able to get in. The National SC/ST commission should demand anonymised data on admission into all such institutes and analyse it so that informed policies could be made on how to ensure inclusion of the most deprived within categories and across geographies,” said an AIIMS faculty member.

WIDE VARIATION

Restore old NEET-SS pattern: SC warns govt, NMC & NBE

Restore old NEET-SS pattern: SC warns govt, NMC & NBE

‘Med Studies, Profession Has Become A Biz’

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:06.10.2021

Accusing authorities of playing with the careers of aspiring super speciality doctors to benefit private medical colleges, Supreme Court on Tuesday gave 24 hours to the Centre, the National Medical Commission and the National Board of Examination in medical sciences to revert to the old question pattern for the NEETSuper Speciality Exams for the 2021-22 academic session.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and B V Nagarathna sent out a loud warning: “You cannot be causing prejudice to the students. If there is a sense of obduracy (on the part of the authorities in not reverting to the old pattern of examination), the arms of law are long enough to deal with the obduracy. We have given you time till tomorrow [Wednesday] to reform. NMC and NBE are not doing any favour to the students. We are giving you an opportunity to correct yourself.”

Pointing out NEET-SS is unlike other examinations, Justice Chandrachud said, “The students prepare for years, right from their postgraduation in medicine days to get admission into super speciality courses after doing their masters. We know the private sector has invested money in offering the super speciality courses and their interest too has to be factored in while doing the balancing act. However, the interest of the students, who will be the torch bearers of advanced healthcare in India in future, cannot be sidelined.”

The bench said, “Our education system is so botched up. We do not have either a plan or vision. What is the great hurry in bringing into force the new pattern of examination? Heavens would not have fallen except for a few seats in private medical colleges going vacant. Why not postpone the new examination pattern to the next year to give sufficient time to the doctors?”

Repeatedly expressing doubts whether the change of exam pattern was meant to benefit only private medical colleges which demand a high capitation fee, the bench said, “The medical education, profession and the regulatory mechanism has become a business.”

The bench tore into the decision terming it as an attempt only aimed at filling seats in private colleges. There are a total of 414 medical colleges that offer super speciality courses of which 118 were run by the governments while 296 are private institutions.

A group of 41 doctors, preparing for NEET-SS examination scheduled for November 10-11, had complained that the authorities had arbitrarily changed the earlier pattern of examination (40% questions from general medicine and 60% from the super speciality course applied for) to a new pattern (100% questions from general medicine) more than a month after notifying the exam dates.

The Centre and NBE had filed an affidavit stating that the change of pattern was necessitated as many super speciality course seats have been going vacant because of the earlier pattern of exam and also offered to postpone the November 10-11 examination to January 10-11 to give sufficient time to the students to prepare for the new pattern of NEET-SS.

The Centre and NBE had filed an affidavit stating that the change of pattern was necessitated as many super speciality course seats have been going vacant because of the earlier pattern of examination