100% NEET score for Panvel girl as she turns eighteen

100% NEET score for Panvel girl as she turns eighteen

Yogita Rao & Ardhra Nair TNN

Mumbai/Pune: 02.11.2021

This was possibly the best ever birthday gift that Karthika Nair would have imagined. Nair, a Panvel resident, who scored 720/720 in NEET-UG and shared the top position in the country, turned 18 on Sunday. Though she was targetting the perfect score, she was not expecting to actually get it. A student of DAV Public School in Panvel, Nair will be considered as the third-ranker for the counselling round. Including the national topper, Maharashtra has two rankers — Hriday Mohite and Vaishnavi Sarda — in the top 20. NEET-UG results were announced on Monday. On Thursday, the Supreme Court gave a goahead to the National Testing Agency to release the results. Of 15.4 lakh students who appeared for the test, 8.7 lakh qualified nationally.

Speaking to TOI, Nair said that she would want to join AIIMS, Delhi, which is the best in the country. “I have always found physics very tough and had to put in extra efforts. I relied entirely on NCERT books for my preparation,” said Nair, whose father works for a private logistics firm and mother is a computer science lecturer at a Navi Mumbai college. While her interest lies in oncology, she would explore other fields too, she said.

She found this year’s NEET paper tougher than the previous years, but managed to crack it well. Previous years’ question papers and mock tests helped her in practising for the exam.

“Studying online in the pandemic was no tough task. There are students who may find it difficult to understand lectures online, but the teachers were helpful and we were saving time in commuting to school and coaching class,” said Nair.

Hriday Mohite, from Pune’s DAV Public School, ranked fifth with a few others but in counselling ranks 14th in the country and second in the state.

The football enthusiast is the son of anaesthesiologist Dr Vishal Mohite and IT professional Trupti Mohite. “When the answer key was released, we had a feeling that he would get top marks. He has always been good at studies and has worked hard for this,” said Dr Mohite. Hriday wanted to become a doctor since his school days.

Aus among 16 countries to OK Covaxin for entry

Aus among 16 countries to OK Covaxin for entry

02.11.2021

Australia will recognise Covaxin, apart from Covishield, allowing those fully jabbed entry into the country, reports Saurabh Sinha. While WHO’s emergency use listing is awaited, some of the 16 countries that have recognised Covaxin include Estonia, Greece, Iran, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Oman, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe

13.7L files cleared out, 8L sq ft space freed

GOVT OFFICES

13.7L files cleared out, 8L sq ft space freed

New Delhi:  02.11.2021

In a massive weeding exercise, over 13.73 lakh files were cleared out and almost 8 lakh square feet of space freed in central government offices over the past month, as part of a special campaign for disposal of pendency from the government of India.

Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh, who on Monday reviewed the outcome of the special campaign launched on October 2, said that the government earned Rs 40 crore through disposal of scrap during this period. At the review meeting with top officials of department of administrative reforms and public grievances (DARPG) on outcome of the campaign here on Monday, Singh noted with satisfaction that more than 13.73 lakh files were weeded out of 15.23 lakh files identified for the purpose. Similarly, against the target of 3.28 lakh public grievances, 2.91 lakh were redressed within 30 days.

Out of 11,057 references from MPs, 8,282 were resolved. Moreover, 685 out of 834 identified rules and processes were simplified during the said period. Singh said the special campaign on disposal of pendency in government was conducted on the directions of the PM and the progress will be presented to him this week. He informed that during this campaign, files of temporary nature were identified and weeded out.

Bankers question arrest of ex-SBI chairman Chaudhuri

Bankers question arrest of ex-SBI chairman Chaudhuri

Feel It’ll Raise Fears Of Sanctioning Loans, Initiating Recovery

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai/New Delhi:  02.11.2021

Bankers have come out in support of Pratip C Chaudhuri, the former SBI chairman, and have questioned the way he was arrested in a case involving Alchemist Asset Reconstruction Company and an aggrieved borrower.

“Prima facie, it appears that the norms have been ignored. This is not the way it is done, without giving an opportunity to a person to be heard... It does not appear to be a case of corruption,” former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar told TOI. He said that the case involved a dispute between an ARC and the property owner and one person seems to have been singled out. “It is not about an individual. Today it is him, tomorrow it may be someone else,” Kumar added.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, who succeeded Chaudhuri and was the first woman to head the country’s largest bank, too backed her former boss.

Ironically, the arrest came a day after the finance ministry’s norms on uniform staff accountability framework for non-performing assets (NPA) accounts of over Rs 50 crore, meant to protect bankers from bona fide business decisions that prove wrong later. Bankers have been wary of action by law enforcement agencies, prompting several of them to go slow in sanctioning loans, a concern that had prompted even PM Narendra Modi to step in and comfort them.

“Absolutely pathetic, is the system being gamed again by defaulters despite all efforts by Modi govt, time for overhaul of judicial processes to improve transparency and introduce accountability,” tweeted former SBI deputy MD Sunil Srivastava. Reacting to Kumar’s comments to a news platform, Mohandas Pai took to social media to seek government intervention.

Several bank executives said that Chaudhuri’s arrest will once again raise fears, not just in sanctioning loans but even in the recovery process, where lenders and borrowers often opt for settling the dues and waive the penal interest. SBI sources alleged that the borrower has sought to frustrate the bank’s attempts to recover the dues for a long time. Executives also pointed out that given the size of the transaction, it is unlikely that it would have been Chaudhuri’s decision. “Also, even in smaller loans, it is never one person who decides on the recovery action” an SBI executive said.

“If a defaulter can send a former bank chairman to jail on an allegation, how can bankers be expected to do this? The government has repeatedly assured us that authorities cannot pick up a banker without reason. The case has been filed just before the courts are closed for Diwali — this appears to be premeditated,” said a senior banker.

Biometric entry for central staff to resume from November 8

Biometric entry for central staff to resume from November 8

New Delhi:02.11.2021

With Covid cases on the decline, the Union government on Monday ordered resumption of biometric attendance for all its employees from November 8.

Biometric attendance, which involves pressing one’s fingers on a scanner, was discontinued across central government offices since last year, as a precautionary measure against Covid. Attendance was instead being maintained through physical registers.

An order issued by the department of personnel and training said the matter had been reviewed and “it has been decided to resume biometric attendance for all levels of employees”, with effect from next Monday. It added that the heads of departments would be responsible for ensuring sanitisers next to biometric machines. Also, physical distance of six feet must be maintained by all employees while marking attendance and if need be, additional biometric attendance machines may be installed to avoid overcrowding.

Asking all employees to wear masks at all times, including while waiting to mark their attendance, DoPT said designated personnel should be deployed near biometric stations to clean/wipe the touchpad/ scanner areas of biometric scanners frequently. TNN

NEET results: Leena is only student from state in top 25

NEET results: Leena is only student from state in top 25

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jaipur:02.11.2021

Leena Khandelwal  was the only student from the state to secure a place in the top 25 in the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), the results of which were announced on Monday. With AIR 23, she is all set to join an elite medical institution.

Alwar resident Leena will be the first doctor in her family. She secured 710 out of 720 marks in the exam. She said she believed in her capabilities and prepared for NEET from NCERT syllabus. “Preparations done with similar type of study materials, notes, modules and NCERT syllabus is enough. I believe that if we prepare with the one type of study materials constantly, then we can score better. If you use different study materials or books, you tend to get confused,” said Leena.

The last two years have been challenging for everyone because of the pandemic. Coming to online classes after offline classes caused some problems in the beginning for Leena but she soon adjusted to the system. Leena was a classroom student from Allen Career Institute for the last two years.

Uttar Pradesh resident Aman Tripathi, who secured AIR 4, was studying in Kota for the last three years.

A classroom student of Allen Career Institute Kota, Aman said hard work has no substitute and consistency is the key. “Constant support is all that an aspirant needs for exam preparation. I believe in consistency and made a proper study plan before starting my preparation. I kept myself away from distractions — social media, relatives, friends. It’s self-study that helped me get a grip on the subjects,” said Aman.

BRINGING HOME LAURELS

T boy gets perfect score in NEET, shares No. 1 rank with two others

T boy gets perfect score in NEET, shares No. 1 rank with two others

Nirupa.Vatyam@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  02.11.2021

Mrinal Kutteri

from Telangana, Delhi’s Tanmay Gupta and Maharashtra girl Karthika G Nair scored a perfect 720 to be declared joint toppers of this year’s National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical courses, according to the results announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Monday night.

In all, two Telugu states bagged four places in the top 20 list. Apart from Kutteri, Chandam Vishnu Vivek and Gorripati Rushil, both from Andhra Pradesh, and Khandavally Shashank from Telangana secured an all- India rank of 5.

In 2020, as many as eight students from the two states — three from Telangana and five from AP — figured in the top 20 list.

Mrinal Kutteri

Confusion for hours as NTA mailed results

I want to do MBBS from AIIMS, Delhi and become a surgeon one day,” Kutteri, told TOI soon after the results were announced. The elated topper said the fact that no one pressurised him to study or follow a particular timetable actually helped him to prepare for the test at his convenience and secure the first rank.

But hours of confusion preceded the celebrations on Monday as NTA, which conducted the test, emailed the results to every candidate even before there was an official confirmation on the release of the results. This started from around 6 pm when many could not access their results on the official NEET website. “It would have been better if the results were made available on the website first. I was very tense as I couldn’t access my results, but all my friends got theirs,” said Rushil, a student from Sri Chaitanya, Vijayawada. He is one of 12 students from the country to secure all-India 5th rank. Rushil said he could access his results only around 9 pm.

The institutes too said that students were anxious as they couldn’t access their results on the website. “It took us more than two hours to figure out that the topper was from our institute. The servers were down,” said K Seshagiri Raju, deputy director, Aakash Educational Services Limited (Telangana).

Meanwhile, four students from Telangana-- Kasa Lahari, Emani Srinija, Dasika Sri Niharika, and Pasupunoori Sharanya — secured a spot in the list of top 20 female toppers in the country. Another Telugu student, Adireddi Srinivas, made it to top 10 male (person with disabilities) candidates list while several others from the two states figured in the toppers list in categories such as EWS, SC, ST, and OBC-NCL.

‘No pressure helped me prepare well’

— Nirupa Vatyam

Hyderabad:

City boy Mrinal Kutteri is on cloud nine as he managed to secure the top rank and is certain of getting a seat in his dream institute—AIIMS, New Delhi. Kutteri said that right from his childhood, he dreamt of becoming a doctor and is very happy with his NEET result. He said that his parents never forced him to study or get into a particular field. “Even when it comes to my studies, they never told me when or how to study. I lost count of how many times I prepared my timetable. No one tried to impose anything and I think that is what helped me in excelling,” he added.

›Related report: P8