Police crack down on mask violators

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Chennai:

04.01.2022

Amid Omicron variant threat, the city police have planned to book face mask violators in public places. The city police had banned people from visiting the beaches to celebrate New Year on December 31 and January 1, with entry and exit points blocked. Despite this, scores of people gathered and roamed along with the platform of the beach.

The Marina Beach witnessed a few thousand footfalls on Sunday.

The police teams comprising three inspectors of police and 15 other police personnel have been inspecting places where the public has been gathering to check for those who are roaming without a face mask. The police are asked to slap fresh cases against these violators under Sections 269 (whoever unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) of IPC and Section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

TNN

Dog bites girl in city apartment, pet owner held

 Dog bites girl in city apartment, pet owner held

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Chennai:

04.01.2022

A nine-year-old girl suffered grievous injuries after she was attacked by a German Shepherd dog in Nolambur. The pet owner, a 43-year-old woman, spent four days in jail before being released on bail on Sunday.

V Saraswathi, a Class IV student was walking in DABC Mithilam, an apartment complex on Sriram Nagar Main Road on December 28 when the pet of another resident of the complex attacked her. The pet owner was walking the dog when it broke lose. Scared of the dog, Saraswathi ran, and the canine chased her, biting her more than a dozen times. The girl was taken to a nearby hospital.

Nolambur police registered a case and arrested Vijayalakshmi, the owner of the dog, the day after the incident.

Blue Cross helps cops with CCTV footage

Vijayalakshmi was booked under Section 289 of IPC (causing danger to human life due to an animal). Later a magistrate court granted her bail.

Police, quoting doctors, said the girl returned home from the hospital on Saturday. Meanwhile, Blue Cross of India volunteers provided police CCTV camera footage that showed the dog had chased and bitten the girl after she panicked and ran, and that Vijaya had rushed to the girl’s rescue. Police said the dog, which has been kept in a shelter, would be handed over to the corporation sanitary inspector on Tuesday for medical tests.

 

Omicron tally nears 2k with 176 new cases

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

04.01.2022

India’s Omicron tally rose to 1,889 on Monday with 176 fresh cases even as a spurt in new infections pushed Rajasthan to the fourth-worst affected state after Maharashtra, Delhi and Kerala. Rajasthan reported 53 fresh cases, the second highest in the country on Monday after Maharashtra, which added 68 more cases to its tally. Rajasthan has pushed Gujarat to the fifth place in the Omicron tally.

Kerala added 29 cases on Monday while Gujarat and Karnataka reported 16 and 10 cases, respectively. For the second consecutive day, Delhi did not report any Omicron cases. With 68 new cases, Maharashtra’s tally grew to 578, which accounts for nearly 31% of India’s total cases. Of the total confirmed cases, 259 have already been discharged.

In Rajasthan, 43 of the 53 fresh cases were reported in Jaipur. While the state’s tally grew to 174, a health department official said 88 patients have already been discharged from hospital. Gujarat’s 16 cases took its tally to 152. Only 67 of these are active cases as 85 patients have recovered.

 

No Monday dip: India records 36,000 cases, a 115-day high

Infections See Nearly 6-Fold Rise In 1 Week

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Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

04.01.2022

Despite a substantial dip in testing on Sunday, daily Covid-19 cases in India continued to rise, with Monday’s tally likely to cross 36,000 to a 115-day high. By late Monday night, the day’s case count stood at 35,565, with data from three states not yet available. Based on the trends of the last few days, the final tally is likely to be at least 36,500. The previous time the country had recorded a higher single-day case count was on September 10 last year, when over 37,868 cases were reported, as per TOI’s Covid database.

Daily cases invariably dip on Mondays due to lower testing and detections over the weekend. This is the first time in over four months that the case count has defied this trend. The last time this happened was on August 23. Cases had risen on that Monday because of a huge dip the day before due to the Raksha Bandhan festival.

This Monday, the national test positivity rate (TPR) jumped to over 4. 15%, from 3. 11% a day earlier, as the num- ber of tests fell by nearly 20% on Sunday to around 8. 9 lakh.

Monday was the seventh consecutive day of rising cases in the country. During this period, infections have risen nearly six times, up from 6,242 cases last Monday.

Maharashtra continued to post the highest number of daily cases among states, with 12,160 new infections detected on Monday, a slight rise from the previous day’s tally of 11,877. Mumbai logged 7,928 cases, a slight drop from Sunday’s number. Bengal posted 6,078 new cases, a marginal drop from the previous day's count of 6,153. With reduced testing, the state's TPR zoomed to 19. 59% from 15. 93% on Sunday. Goa reported an even higher TPR of 26. 43%, rising nearly 16 percentage points in a day as cases surged from 388 on Sunday to 631. Delhi cases numbers spiked to 4,099, up 28% from the previous day's tally of 3,194.

Amid these soaring numbers, the death toll from the virus has not been rising much. India recorded 77 deaths on Monday, a marginal increase from 58 on the preceding day. Taking old deaths reported on Monday into account, the toll rose by 118, with data from three states yet to be counted.

What's current status of NEET Bill in Tamil Nadu, ask students

What's current status of NEET Bill in Tamil Nadu, ask students

The future of the bill, which says that medical admissions in the State would happen by considering class 12 marks only, remains uncertain as it is still lying in the governor's office.

Published: 03rd January 2022 06:55 AM

Candidates queuing up for NEET counselling. (File photo| Radhakrishnan, Express)

By Binita Jaiswal

Express News Service

CHENNAI: In September, when the Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021, was passed in the State assembly, the DMK government raised the hope of many demanding the scrapping of NEET. However, in the last three months, there has been no progress in the matter.

The future of the bill, which says that medical admissions in the State would happen by considering class 12 marks only, remains uncertain as it is still lying in the governor's office and yet to be forwarded to the president for his assent. Amid all this, the students preparing for NEET and their parents are waiting for clarity regarding the implementation of the bill.

"To help me prepare myself better for NEET, my father switched my school from State Board to CBSE board last year. Now I am in Class 10. The government should at least give some clarity on whether we will get an exemption from NEET or not. If yes, I can happily go back to the State board school and save my parents’ money," said K Srikanth, a student undergoing NEET coaching at a centre in Velachery.

Parents, too, are equally worried. "The bill was passed, it made newspaper headlines and then the government forgot about it. It should be made clear whether the bill should be implemented from this academic year or not. This ongoing confusion is definitely affecting the children," said Shipra Venkateswaran, mother of a student.

Academician and former vice-chancellor of Anna University, E Balagurusamy, feels the move was nothing more than a political gimmick. "Scrapping of NEET in the State was a poll promise made by DMK and they fulfilled it by passing the bill without examining its practicability. The students should not get into all this and religiously prepare for NEET," said Balagurusamy.

The anti-NEET bill was passed on September 13 and then it was forwarded to the governor's office. RN Ravi assumed the office of the governor on September 18 and since then it’s lying in his office.

General Secretary for State Platform for Common School System, Prince Gajendra Babu, had filed an Right to Information (RTI) plea to know the current status of the bill and the governor’s office replied the file was under consideration. "There has been an undue delay. We urge the governor to send the bill to the president as soon as possible," said Babu.

Political gimmick?

Academician and former vice-chancellor of Anna University, E Balagurusamy, feels the move was nothing more than a political gimmick

Bengaluru income tax officer sends unique New Year calendars and greeting cards

Bengaluru income tax officer sends unique New Year calendars and greeting cards

Meet D Kumaresh, a government official, who loves blending arithmetic and creativity to create brain-teasing New Year calendars and greeting cards.

Published: 03rd January 2022 12:04 AM 

Bengaluru Income Tax officer D Kumaresh 

By Sanath Prasad

Express News Service

BENGALURU : If your New Year resolution was to get the better of the pandemic or to keep fit, here is D Kumaresh, whose resolution every year is to distribute New Year calendars and greeting cards. Mind you, this is not like any other regular calendar or greeting card.

It is a game of arithmetic with some brain-teasers and some titbits that appear informative and surprising. However, this year Kumaresh, who works in the Income Tax department in Bengaluru, has dedicated his eight-page creative to music maestro Ilaiyaraaja and the COVID warriors.

To celebrate the year 2022, the New Year greetings also consist of the 22 popular islands of Andaman and 22 interesting facts about the number 22. For someone who has been working on different sets and designs of greeting cards and calendars since 1993, working on this piece took just 30 minutes.

"It was very monotonous and boring to see the same set of greeting cards and calendars every year. I love mathematics and I decided to give the New Year greeting cards a twist with the play of numbers. I have worked on different themes every year, including a 2014 calendar dedicated to Sachin Tendulkar after his retirement in 2013," says Kumaresh, adding, "I do this as a hobby. I do not want to commercialise my creatives. So far, I have printed 1,000 copies of the 2022 greetings and calendars which I am distributing to close one."

Kumaresh starts work on this at the end of the year. As a tribute to Ilaiyaraaja this year, he has dedicated the calendar to the music maestro. Titled Maestro For All Moments, the calendar consists of dates that denote 31 different achievements and facts about Ilaiyaraaja.

"I have grown up listening to Raja sir's songs. I am a big fan of his keeravani raaga composition. I hope to visit him soon in Chennai and give him this piece," says the 57-year-old, who has created 100 calendars even going upto the year 2100. "The trick is to get the first and the last day of every month correct. The rest will automatically fall in place," he adds.

'The small intestine is about 22-feet long'; 'Dec 22, 1887 - Birth of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan'; 'Sikkim became the 22nd state in 1975' - here are 22 interesting facts about the number '22' that are printed on his New Year greeting cards. Not just that, inspired by his visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kumaresh has also listed the 22 popular islands of Andaman.

"The greeting card is a dedication to the COVID-19 warriors and also a tribute to Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and the late Gen Bipin Rawat," says Kumaresh, adding, "I start collecting moments that make news in November. My purpose is to spread awareness on many social and scientific information that can educate the society at large."

Interesting facts about the number 22

The atomic number of Titanium is 22

April 22 1970 : The first Earth Day is celebrated

Aug 22 1987: Madras was founded

Feb 22, 1732: George Washington, the first US President was born

Nov 22, 1963: American President John F Kennedy was assassinated

NAAC accreditation helps streamline higher education

 NAAC accreditation helps streamline higher education

Several colleges and universities throughout the country have recently received accreditation from NAAC

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c-Aditya.Wadhawan@timesgroup.com

03.01.2022

National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC) approved 21 institutions as a recommendation for accreditation this month. Since NAAC accreditation ensures the qualitative analysis of teachinglearning outcomes at the higher educational institutions (HEIs) and helps them evolve systematically, academics foresee a brighter growth.

Speaking to Education Times, Debabrata Das, director, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore that received NAAC A+ accreditation in the second cycle, says, “For achieving A+ accreditation, we focussed on upgrading the teaching-learning processes. Accreditation validates an institution’s programmes and courses of study. In the absence of accreditation, there would be no way to determine if the institution meets or exceeds minimum quality standards and also no means would be available to help students determine as to which institution to choose for enrolment. ”

The accreditations are also useful for employers to gauge the talent of the students. “The potential employers in the industry will have evidence regarding the quality of education received by their applicants,” says Das, underlining A+ Accreditation has compelled them to maintain a high-quality of teaching, research, industry and government partnership. “With an A+ grading, opportunities for research funding increase and that helps in building and facilitating better international partnerships in research and student exchange programmes. It increases enrolment, faculty recruitment and better placement opportunity. ”

Payal Mago, principal, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences, DU, which received A+ grade from NAAC, says, “The quality of teaching-learning outcomes in the college becomes systematic. To opt for NAAC, one needs to statistically evaluate the education under well-defined seven criteria of NAAC.

 These seven criteria are the moot points upon which the academic excellence of our colleges hinges. We also do our academic audit during NAAC accreditation, which is globally valid. ” “Educational institutions have to improve in the areas where they lag behind because NAAC accreditation cycle takes place every five years. For instance, in the first cycle of accreditation five years back, NAAC told us that our institution lagged behind in sports and the infrastructure was under-utilised on which we worked to improve,” she adds.

Najma Akhtar, vice-chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), that got A++ grade from NAAC, says, “We have improved our NAAC accreditation from A in the first cycle to A++ in the second cycle recently. NAAC accreditation streamlines the education system. ”