After Airtel, Voda Idea raises call, data rates

After Airtel, Voda Idea raises call, data rates

24.11.2021

Beleaguered telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Tuesday announced an increase in mobile call and data tariffs across plans by 18-25% for prepaid customers with effect from November 25, the move coming a day after a similar move by Bharti Airtel. Vodafone Idea increased the minimum value of recharge by 25% for 28 days to Rs 99 from the existing Rs 79. Market leader Reliance Jio is yet to announce a revision in mobile rates, though analysts and the broader industry expects it to happen soon. TNN

Colleges struggle to make room for students

Colleges struggle to make room for students

Sukshma R & Ragu Raman TNN

Madurai/Chennai:24.11.2021

A day after the higher education department directed all colleges to conduct physical classes for all students, universities and colleges across the state are trying to find ways to accommodate more students on campus while following Covid-19 protocols.

Though the state government removed the shift system, professors and principals said it would be difficult to maintain social distancing inside classrooms and hostels when institutions call full strength back to campus. With most first year students unvaccinated, there is also concern of mixing them with vaccinated students.

Anna University is mulling ways to accommodate all students on campus and hostels following the government order.

“We may allow 30 to 40 students per classroom and will accommodate more than one student per room in hostels. After finalising the details, we will call first year students to campus,” said vice-chancellor R Velraj. The university is already conducting physical classes for second and third year students while online classes are going on for first year students. Final year students finished their classes entirely in physical mode in the current semester.

Madras University is also renovating hostels to accommodate more students. “We have informed all colleges to conduct physical classes for all students. First year PG students will join physical classes after completing their induction programme in online mode,” said S Gowri, vice-chancellor.

Colleges in Chennai like Women's Christian College issued circulars asking all students to attend physical classes. A professor from the college said they will make sure there is no crowding inside the campus.

In Madurai, colleges like Thiagarajar College of Arts and Science and The American College said they would call students back to campus. “We won’t have much of an issue in case of space. The syllabus for this semester will be continued in the physical classes,” said Davamani M Christober, principal of The American College. D Pandiaraja, principal of Thiagarajar College of Arts and Science, said they will revise the syllabus and conduct the exam according to the government’s directive.

Colleges with higher student strength are a little worried about holding all classes offline. But college managements say they can only follow what the government says and it might not be possible to have only a restricted number of students in a classroom and that relaxation is needed.

Students meanwhile also expressed some concerns over Covid-19 vaccination and hostellers also being affected.

“First year students have to come to the campus without being vaccinated. We just wanted this semester exam to be held online. We could have then proceeded to have offline exams from next semester without any delay or confusion. Hostel students who stay in distant areas still have to attend online classes only,” said a second year UG student who took part in the recent protests against offline exams

15 districts see marginal rise in Covid cases

15 districts see marginal rise in Covid cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:24.11.2021

Fifteen districts including Chennai reported a marginal increase in new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, when the state reported a drop to 741 cases from 750 on Monday. There were 13 deaths that took the cumulative toll since March 2020 to 36,401. At the end of the day, after 808 patients were discharged from the state registry, there were 8,536 patients seeking treatment for the viral infection.

While Coimbatore (119) reported the maximum number of new cases in the state, Chennai reported 114 new cases compared to 110 on Monday.

The sharpest increase was reported from Vellore. The district reported 15 cases compared to 10 on Monday. At least 22 districts reported fewer than 10 cases each, while Tuticorin reported zero new cases.

Active cases were the highest in Chennai and Coimbatore ( both at 1274) on Tuesday. While Erode had 830 patients, Chengalpet had 659 and Tiruppur had 555. All other districts reported fewer than 500 active cases. T,enkasi (9) and Theni(10) had the least number of active cases in the state.

Of the 13 deaths, there were three each in Chennai and Coimbatore, two in Tiruppur and one each in Trichy, Thanjavur, Kancheepuram, Sivaganga and Villupuram.

Meanwhile, 3.5 lakh people took the Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday. This pushed the dosage tally at government vaccination centres to 6.4 crore. Since May 1, 27.2 lakh doses have been administered in private vaccination centres.

No deaths in Pondy for 2nd day

Puducherry:

The Union territory of Puducherry did not report any Covid-19 death for the second consecutive day on Tuesday and the death toll remained at 1,870. Puducherry headquarters has the maximum fatalities with 1,463 followed by Karaikal

(250), Yanam (108) and Mahe  (49). The fatality rate of the infection remained at 1.5%.

TNN

Anna university to charge 18% GST for migration certs

Anna university to charge 18% GST for migration certs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:24.11.2021

Anna University on Tuesday announced that all candidates applying for migration certificates, certificate verification and seeking photocopy of answer sheets need to pay 18% GST as the university adopted the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. "The services which are part of the curriculum are exempted under GST. All other services are taxable as per GST Act 2017," a circular from controller of examinations said. Students who graduate need to pay GST for provisional certificates, consolidated mark statements, grade sheets and degree certificates. They also need to pay the tax for getting duplicate certificates of grade sheets, provisional certificates and consolidated marksheets.

There will be no GST on examination fees, revaluation fees, transcript fees and degree certificate, rank certificate of current students.

"The beneficiaries are requested to pay the GST as mentioned above along with the regular fees prescribed for each item," the circular further said.

Professors from the university said the GST council wanted the university to collect tax for all services.

Earlier, speaking to reporters after inaugurating a book exhibition, Anna University vice-chancellor R Velraj said the university will form a committee to review the revaluation fees following representation from the students. The university is collecting ₹700 per answer sheet for revaluation.

He further said the syllabus for the first year students has been trimmed to reduce the burden. More than one lakh books have been displayed in the exhibition. The university asked the faculty members, research scholars and students to recommend engineering and non-engineering books for the library.

Tamil Nadu lost 14 lakh mobile phone subscriptions in September

Tamil Nadu lost 14 lakh mobile phone subscriptions in September

People Find It Hard To Keep Multiple SIMs

Yogesh.Kabirdoss@timesgroup.com

Chennai:24.11.2021

Mobile phone subscriptions in Tamil Nadu fell by about 14 lakh in Tamil Nadu in September. Nationally, all states recorded a significant drop in two crore wireless subscriptions in just a month. The difficulty in sustaining multiple numbers due to mandatory recharge tariff and return to offices after the second wave of Covid-19 are attributed as key reasons by telecom experts. With telecom operators announcing a fresh hike in tariffs, the numbers are likely to crash further.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest report on telecom subscriptions shows a net reduction of 14 lakh wireless subscriptions in Tamil Nadu, from 8.29 crore in August to 8.15 crore in September. Tamil Nadu including the Chennai telecom circle lost the third highest number of wireless subscriptions after Mumbai and Kolkata telecom circles. Except for Bharti Airtel, all other telecom operators reported a decrease in customer base in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the highest declines in a single month in recent years.

This has also cut the teledensity by around 1%. Currently, Tamil Nadu has a teledensity of 107.2%; it was more than 108% in June. Teledensity is based on the number of telephone connections (fixed lines and mobile phone subscribers) per 100 inhabitants within a geographical area. Official telecom sector sources say a SIM card is deactivated if not recharged for three months continuously.

On the other hand, wireline subscriptions including fibrenet services in TN rose by 10,485 from August to September.

T Sadagopan, president of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Consumer Center, said retaining multiple numbers has become expensive because subscribers must spend a fixed amount every month. “So, people prefer one convenient number to avoid unnecessary spending on two SIM cards,” he added.

V K Sanjeevi, chief general manager of BSNL Chennai Telephones, said the decrease in wireless subscriptions was a regular phenomenon that would be compensated by the entry of new subscribers. “But, this time, a considerable number of subscriptions have fallen within a month across the networks and it needs to be studied.”

Two express trains to resume

Two express trains to resume

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 24.11.2021

Two express trains linking Chennai and Mumbai with Salem will resume after the Railway Board gave its approval.

According to a press release, train No. 22158 Chennai Egmore – Mumbai CSMT Tri-Weekly Superfast Express will leave Chennai Egmore on Saturdays, Mondays and Thursdays at 06.20 hrs on and from December 4and reach Mumbai CSMT at 05.50 hrs the next day.

Train No. 22153 / 22154 Chennai Egmore – Salem – Chennai Egmore Tri-Weekly Superfast Express train will leave Chennai Egmore on Thursdays, Saturdays and Tuesdays at 23.55 hrs on and from December 2 and reach Salem at 06.10 hrs the next day.

Advance Reservation for the above Tri-Weekly Superfast Express Special Trains will open at 08.00 hrs on November 24 the release added.

Reservation opens on Nov 24

MBBS cut-off may dip by up to 10 marks for first time since NEET

UG MED SEATS UP

MBBS cut-off may dip by up to 10 marks for first time since NEET

1,500 Additional Medical Seats At 11 New Colleges Is Affecting Cut Off Marks: Experts

A Ragu Raman & Pushpa Narayan | TNN

24.11.2021

Cut-off for MBBS admissions in Tamil Nadu is likely to come down by at least 10 marks in various categories in 2021 making the process easy despite a marginal improvement in performance by TN students in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). This is because the number of undergraduate medical seats – both in government and private sector – have gone up.

This is the first time the cut-off has dropped since 2017. This year, 235 TN students scored more than 650 marks in NEET compared to 205 last year, according to National Testing Agency data. The number of TN students who scored above 500 was 5,148 in 2021 against 5,240 in 2020 and those who scored above 450 was 8,319 in 2021 against 8,316 in 2020.

“The difference is not stark enough to impact the cutoff,” said students’ counsellor Manickavel Arumugam. “But the additional MBBS seats this year will make all the difference. The open category cut-off for government medical colleges may come down to 585 from 598 in 2020. Likewise the cut-off for other categories including BC and MBC also will come down by up to 15 marks.”

The 11 new government medical colleges in TN will add 1,450 MBBS seats to the seat matrix. In addition, the Coimbatore government medical college will admit 200 students in 2021 – 50 more than in 2020. In addition, at least three self-financing medical colleges, a private university and deemed universities have been permitted to start undergraduate medical programmes.

Several top scorers from TN are now eyeing seats in central institutions such as AIIMS and JIPMER. “I thought it was best to study in a college closest to home. But my nephew now has scored more than 600. So he is exploring the option of studying in AIIMS in other states,” said S Senthil Kumar, who works for a pharmaceutical company.

If more toppers choose seats from the all India basket, cut-off could fall further, experts say. “But they may not get the college of choice unless they score high. The cut-off for top institutions like Madras Medical College will be high because there is no change in the number of seats there,” said Nandhini V, who coaches students for NEET.

The cut-off for government school students, under the special 7.5% quota, is unlikely to come down, says Dr Prasad Mane, secretary of Kilpauk Medical College Alumni Association which trains government school students for NEET. “Of 1,500 government medical seats, around 100 will be added to 7.5% special reservation. So, it will not bring down the cut-off drastically.”

However, more government school students may join private colleges under special reservation as the government has promised to pay their fee. Last year, 400 government students joined MBBS under special reservation.