In a first, IITs to hire quota-based faculty

In a first, IITs to hire quota-based faculty

Hemali.Chhapia@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:20.11.2021

For the first time since they were set up, IITs have placed advertisements for quota-based hiring of faculty members. The recruitment process, for which IITs had autonomy, has been changed at the behest of the Centre and new deadlines set.

Since 2019, the education ministry (then called HRD ministry) has been pushing centrally funded higher education institutions to apply the reservation policy in hiring. This time around, the IITs have deferred to the ministry. Advertisements are out for hiring SC/ST/OBC/ EWS faculty members at all institutes, including the IITs.

A letter issued by the education ministry in Augustend insists that reservation rules be adhered to and vacancies “especially in the scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and other backward classes” be filled by September 4, 2022.

Deadline being sent to IITs for first time

I ITs follow a year-long rolling recruitment process and never before has a deadline been sent by the ministry. The time limit poses difficulties due to the paucity of engineering doctoral candidates, more so from the SC/ST/OBC categories—a PhD is the minimum eligibility criterion. Usually in a year, the IITs in the metros manage to hire about 35 faculty members, 40 in a good year. “Filling up hundreds of vacancies will be impossible,” said a director.

While some institutes have advertised vacancies for a number of specific positions, others have enlisted all the departments where there is at least one unfilled post.

“Each IIT has followed its own process. We are all recruiting under the mission mode. But while IIT Bombay has advertised for 50 positions, IIT Madras has for 49. Others like IIT Delhi, Roorkee, Hyderabad, Kharagpur have enlisted departments where there are vacancies,” said a dean (faculty). All the advertisements encourage women from the disadvantaged background to also apply.

In June 2020, a committee set up to suggest implementation of reservation in central education institutes had said that the IITs are institutes of national importance and ought to be exempted from reservation. It said the matter of reservation be left to each IIT’s board and if quota in hiring was to be implemented, the posts of professor and assistant professor be exempted. The committee also suggested a programme at all IITs to attract quality candidates from the disadvantaged sections to boost PhD numbers.

Usually in a year, the IITs in the metros manage to hire about 35 faculty members

IndiGo largest airline in APAC by capacity: Report

IndiGo largest airline in APAC by capacity: Report

New Delhi:20.11.2021

IndiGo has emerged as the tenth largest airline globally and the largest in the Asia-Pacific region by seat volume, according to UKbased air consultancy firm OAG. The low-cost carrier has 280 aircraft currently in its fleet and operates over 1,400 daily flights. TNN

For a bride, man loses ₹1 lakh to blackmailers

For a bride, man loses ₹1 lakh to blackmailers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Rajkot:20.11.2021

The desperation to get a match for his marriage resulted in a 34-year-old man from Jamnagar falling into a trap of blackmailers who extorted Rs 1.5 lakh from him.

The victim Harshad Aghara, who lives in Jodiya taluka, was lured with the promise of finding him a bride by three persons who later clicked his nude photos and threatened to lodge a rape complaint against him.

According to a complaint lodged with Kuvadva Road police station, Aghara said he had received a video call from a woman who identified herself as Zeenat alias Bebi Makwana. She, however, told Aghara that she had dialled his number inadvertently and apologized too. However, she continued to lure him and Aghara told her that he was searching for a woman to get married. Zeenat promised to find a match for him.

On November 15, she called him to meet a prospective bride at a flat in Rangila Society in Navagam Anandpar outside Rajkot city. Zeenat started talking with him and made him strip nude.

As Aghara got nude, two other accused, Viha Katariya and Hansa Aghola, suddenly came there and identified themselves as uncle and aunty of Zeenat. They accused of Aghara of trying to seduce and rape Zeenat and threatened to lodge a complaint. He was also beaten up and the trio demanded Rs four lakh. They finally settled in Rs 1.5 lakh and made Aghara to arrange money through a courier. Aghara was released after he paid them Rs 1.5 lakh.

Man gets teacher’s job, ₹80 lakh 30 years after topping merit list

Man gets teacher’s job, ₹80 lakh 30 years after topping merit list

Mohammad.Anab@timesgroup.com

Dehradun: 20.11.2021

In 1989, following an advertisement in a newspaper, then 24-year-old Gerald John applied for the post of commerce teacher at CNI Boys’ Inter College, a government-aided minority educational institute in Dehradun. However, despite clearing the interview and topping the merit list, he didn’t get the job.

In 1990, the Farrukhabad resident moved the Allahabad HC. After Uttarakhand was carved out of UP in 2000, the case was transferred to the HC in Nainital. When he turned 55, theUttarakhand HC ruled in his favour in December 2020 — ordering him to be appointed in the school as well as a release of Rs 80 lakh as compensation. Of this, John was paid Rs 73 lakh by the Uttarakhand government a few months back but the remaining Rs 7 lakh, which is to be paid by the UP government, is still due. Being the senior-most teacher, John is also the acting principal of the school now.

Reminiscing about his long fight, he told TOI that he was quite taken aback when despite clearing the interview and topping the merit list, he didn’t get the job. “When I asked authorities why I was rejected, I was told the candidate needed to have stenography skills to be selected. Stenography was not mentioned as one of the required criteria in the job listing. I suspected that the candidate who got the job had connived with authorities. That’s when I took the matter to court.” In 2007, a single bench of the Uttarakhand HC ruled against John. He challenged the verdict in Supreme Court. Ex-Union minister and lawyer Salman Khurshid took up his case and fought it for free. “He saw it as a genuine case and since both of us are from Farrukhabad, he didn’t take any fee. The case stayed in SC from 2007 to 2010. The court said the case had merit and asked us to appeal for it in front of a double bench of the HC instead of a single bench.

Ten years after the case moved back to Uttarakhand HC, a double bench ruled in John’s favour in December 2020. In January this year, John was appointed the Commerce teacher for classes 11 and 12 at the CNI Boys’ Inter College. In April, after the principal retired, he was also made the acting principal.

AFTER A LONG WAIT: In January this year, Gerald John was appointed as the Commerce teacher for classes 11 and 12 at the CNI Boys’ Inter College in Dehradun. After the principal retired in April, he was made acting principal

HC: Submission doesn’t mean consent for sex

HC: Submission doesn’t mean consent for sex

Kochi: 20.11.2021

Consent for sex cannot be presumed just because a girl or a woman is in love with a man, the Kerala high court has held.

It also explained the difference between consent and submission and said helplessness in the face of inevitable compulsion can’t be considered consent.

“There is gulf of difference between consent and submission. Every consent involves a submission but the converse doesn’t follow. Helplessness in the face of inevitable compulsion cannot be considered to be consent as understood in law. Exercise of intelligence based on the knowledge of the significance and the moral effect of the act is required for consent. Merely for the reason that the girl was in love with the accused, it can’t be presumed that she had given consent for sexual intercourse,” Justice R Narayana Pisharadi said.

The court was considering an appeal filed by a 26-year-old man who forced his lover  (17) to elope with him by threatening that he would commit suicide in front of her. He took her from Kayamkulam to Alappuzha and then to Bangalore. After raping her in a Bangalore hotel room, he took her to Goa and raped her there too. He had sold her gold ornaments on the way to make money. The girl had deposed that he had forcibly undressed her and raped her in Bangalore. After returning to Kayamkulam a week later, he gave Rs 50 to her and sent her away with a promise to marry her. By then, police had registered a missing case on the girl’s father’s complaint. It was later converted to a rape case. The HC upheld his conviction for rape. TNN

With 22cr unused vax doses, govt may allow commercial exports

With 22cr unused vax doses, govt may allow commercial exports

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 20.11.2021

The government may soon give a major push to export of Covid vaccines with states and UTs having stocks of more than 22 crore unutilised doses, a top official source said.

While the government recently resumed supplies to Covax, it is now also considering allowing commercial exports.

The health ministry recently gave permission to the Serum Institute of India to export one crore doses of Covishield through Covax — an international vaccine-sharing alliance supported by GAVI, the World Health Organisation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

India has also resumed supplies to Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh and Iran, almost eight months after it stopped exports in the wake of rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

“The production of the vaccine is swiftly increasing. The country will soon have a surplus supply of vaccine. What are we going to do with it if we do not allow exports?” the source said.

A total of 30 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been delivered in November, whereas only 8.8 crore doses have been administered in the month so far. In December, supplies are expected to increase further. Around 31 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin are scheduled to be received in December, while an additional two crore doses of Cadila Healthcare’s ZyCoV-D are also expected by the end of the year.

Besides, new jabs like Biological E’s Corbevax are also expected to come up for emergency use authorisation in December.

On the other hand, the consumption pattern is not expected to witness any significant rise with over 81% of the adult population already covered with at least first dose. This would also mean the demand for new vaccines will be very limited, unless they are approved and used as a third dose or for use in children. While vaccination is now largely driven by the coverage of the second dose, it will move according to schedule. Around 42% of the adult population in the country is now fully vaccinated with both doses.

Fully vaxxed woman dies of Covid

Fully vaxxed woman dies of Covid

Bhopal: 20.11.2021

A second Covid-19 death in Madhya Pradesh in less than a week — after a lull of over three months — came as an ominous sign on Friday at a time when Covid curbs have been lifted across the state.

The victim, the wife of a Bhopal based radiologist, was fully vaccinated, as is her husband, who recovered and has been discharged from hospital. The couple had tested positive on November 14 and was admitted to AIIMS-Bhopal the next day. The woman, a 54-year old, died early Friday.

“She had no comorbidities, apart from slight obesity. On November 11 and 12, she and my brother had a mild fever. They gave their samples on November 13 and tested positive on November 14. At the time of admission, she had 70% lung infection,’’ the radiologist’s brother, who is also a doctor, told TOI. TNN