HC go-ahead for offline exams in colleges, varsities

 HC go-ahead for offline exams in colleges, varsities

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

26.01.2022

Bhopal: A division bench of MP high court on Tuesday allowed offline exams in colleges and universities of the state with the presence of 50% of the students in a day. With this, the court disposed of a petition filed by a law student from Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, seeking a direction to hold online exams for college and university students in the wake of the third wave of Covid.

Deputy advocate general Swapnil Ganguly, who appeared on behalf of the state government in the case, told the court that students infected by Coronavirus would also be given a chance to appear in the exams two weeks after the exam date under complete Corona protocol.

President of Law Students' Association in Rani Durgavati University, Vishal Baghel, in his petition contended that the university had decided to organise exams in offline mode towards the end of the last year because the Corona cases had dropped drastically then. But, the situation has completely changed now. We are amidst the third wave of Coronavirus. Cases of Coronavirus are spiralling. In such a situation, holding exams offline won't be advisable. Under pressure from the stu-dents' unions, the university administration postponed the exams which were slated to begin from January 20 but it has only been postponed by a week. The exams will be taken through offline mode by January 27, which is risky for the health and lives of the students. He prayed the court to direct the university administration to hold exams online.

The division bench of chief justice R V Malimath and Justice Purusendra Kaurav had asked the deputy advocate general to take instructions in the matter from the state government.

Ganguly on behalf of the state government told the court that the exams would be held in offline mode and with the presence of 50% of the capacity students. Students, who have Corona infection, would also be given a chance to take the exams later on. Following arguments from both sides, the court allowed the state government to organise college/university exams offline and disposed of the petition.

9,845 MBBS seats up for grabs this year

 9,845 MBBS seats up for grabs this year

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SruthySusan.Ullas@timesgroup.com

26.01.2022

Bengaluru: Karnataka will have 9,845 MBBS seats for academic year 2021-22, an increase of 500 seats from last year.

As per the list of the consolidated seats shared by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, there are 2,200 seats available in deemed universities, 3,050 in government medical colleges, 650 in private universities and 4,045 in private colleges. In all, there are 62 institutions where students can pick seats from.The new government college in Chikkaballapura — Chikkaballapura Institute of Medical Sciences — has 100 seats on offer. Director of medical education Dr PG Girish said it is likely the new college in Chikkamagaluru will get approval, taking the number of seats to over 10,000 this time. “Appeals on new colleges in Yadgir and Haveri are also pending,” he added.

There is an increase of 500 seats compared to last year. The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Medical Colleges in Bengaluru and Kalaburagi have added 25 seats each to make a total of 125. Khaja Bandanawaz University, Faculty of Medical Sciences added 50 seats to reach150.

The new medical college in Chikkaballapura added  another 100. GR Medical College and Research Centre and Jagadguru Gangadhar Mahaswamigalu Moorusavirmath Medical College have150 seats each.

The seat matrix is yet to be notified on the KEA website. Of the total 9,845 seats, as many as 2,520 will be available through all-India quota counselling.

The remaining 7,325 will be offered through the counselling process conducted by Karnataka Examinations Authority.

The National Medical Commission had rejected the approval of four new medical colleges in the state. If permissions are given in time for further rounds, Karnataka will cross around 10,000-seat availability for the first time.

Now, renew your driving licence sitting at home

 Now, renew your driving licence sitting at home

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Christin.MathewPhilip@timesgroup.com

26.01.2022

Bengaluru: In a major relief to motorists across the state, driving licence can now be renewed without visiting Regional Transport Offices.

The transport department on Monday made four more DLrelated services (Sarathi) contactless/faceless. They are: renewal, issuance of duplicate one, change of address and name in licence.

With these four new services, 10 DL-related services are now contactless. Services like issuance of learners licence (LL), change of address in LL, DL extract, issuance of duplicate LL, issuance of international driving permit and change of name in LL have been made contactless from November 1, 2021, in the state.

Rajender Kumar Kataria, principal secretary, transport department, who was instrumental in making these services contactless, said: “Contactless services like renewal of DL will benefit lakhs of vehicle owners across the state. They can avail these services from the comfort of their home and pay fees online. Very soon, citizens will need to visit RTOs only for driving physical tests and fitness certificate (FC) renewal. All other services will be contactless/faceless,” he said. Kataria said the CM has shown special interest in making these services faceless.

Transport department records show 23. 5 lakh applicants across the state availed LL in 2019-20 and 17. 7 lakh in 2020-21. Similarly, 6. 9 lakh applied for renewal of DL in 2019-20 and 6. 2 lakh in 2020-21. Officials said those who want to avail faceless services will have to authenticate with Aadhaar-based e-KYC (paperless offline verification).

At present, six vehicle-related services (Vahan) have been made contactless — change of address in registration certificate, composite fee for national transport permits, hypothecation addition, hypothecation continuation, issue of duplica-te RC and issue of NOC. Most still prefer offline mode Transport department records show 1,01,998 applications were received through e-KYC for DLrelated services (Sarathi) between November 1, 2021 and January 22, 2022. Of this, 96,985 applications were disposed of. A majority of the applications — 1,01,444 — were for LL. However, most Sarathi applicants are still using offline mode (non-e-KYC). A total of 1. 5 lakh applications were received through non-eKYC during the same period.

It’s the same for Vahan services as well. While Vahan portal received only 2,460 applications through contactless mode, RTOs got 74,226 applications through offline mode between November 1, 2021 and January 22, 2022.

Besides tackling corruption and touts at RTOs, contactless services are also aimed at reducing crowding during the pandemic. However, some motorists said few RTOs still reject applications citing small errors. “Some officials insist on visiting RTOs for reasons best known to them. These contactless services are a good move, but they should be monitored at a higher level to ensure people get these benefits without having to pay bribe or facing delays,” said a motorist.

Mini-buses ideal for B’luru roads: CM

Bengaluru: Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday asked the transport department to start procuring more mini-buses for Bengaluru. Saying that they are ideal for public transport in the city due to its narrow roads and heavy traffic, Bommai said the department must start inducting more of them. He also asked transport minister B Sriramulu to start converting the existing bus fleet to CNG. Last year, GAIL had promoted CNG conversion for Bengaluru Urban and Rural bus services.

Car plunges 40ft, 7 medical students killed

 Car plunges 40ft, 7 medical students killed

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Soumitra Bose & Balwant Dhage

TNN

26.01.2022

Nagpur/Wardha: Seven medical students returning from a birthday celebration were killed in Maharashtra's Wardha around midnight on Monday when their car plunged 40ft from a bridge in-

to the dry, rocky bed of the Badhari river along DeoliWardha Road. State BJP MLA Vijay Rahangdale's son Avishkar, a first-year MBBS student, was among the dead.

All seven victims were students of Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences at Sawangi in Wardha. It took a nightlong operation for their bodies to be retrieved from the wreckage, the police said.

PM Narendra Moditweeted his condolences to the bereaved families on Tuesday and announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for each life lost in the tragedy.

Barring Avishkar, whose father is the MLA from Tirora in Gondia, the rest of the deceased were from Bihar, UP and Odisha. They had travelled to Yavatmal, around 69km from Wardha, in intern Neetesh Singh's car to celebrate first-year student Pawan Shakti's birthday. The accident occurred on the return journey, around 20km before Wardha.

GU to hold convocation online on Sat

 GU to hold convocation online on Sat

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26.01.2022

Ahmedabad: Gujarat University will hold its annual convocation ceremony online on Saturday. Chief minister Bhupendra Patel will deliver the keynote address of the event. Education minister Jitu Vaghani will also be present, the university said in a media statement.

A total of 49,527 students will be conferred degrees and more than 200 students will be awarded medals at the convocation. The entire event will be held online. This means students will be able to participate in the ceremony online. Gujarat Technological University, the state’s largest varsity, will hold its annual convocation ceremony in person on January 27. The chairman of Zydus Cadila is set to be the chief guest.

. TNN

School students in TN must learn other Indian languages, says Guv Ravi

 School students in TN must learn other Indian languages, says Guv Ravi

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

26.01.2022

Chennai: Stressing the need for school students in Tamil Nadu learning other Indian languages, Governor R N Ravi said depriving students of knowledge of other Indian languages was unfair to all. He also emphasised on improving the quality of education in government schools and restoring the once-enviable reputation of universities.

In his Republic Day address on Tuesday, Ravi underscored the importance of Tamil language, and added: "Itis also important thatour school students learn other Indian languages like students in other states. Depriving our students of knowledge of other Indian languages is unfair to all. Besides fostering brotherliness and bettermutual appreciation, a linguistic intellectual and cultural cross-pollination willenrich all of us and also open several opportunities for our harmonious growth,” he added.

Pointing out that improving the quality of education in government schools is the crying need of the time, he said, the negative differential in the educational outputs between the government and private schools is worrisome.

"Before the introduction of NEET, the share of students from government schools to the seats in government medical colleges was hardly 1%. Thanks to the affirma-tive action of 7. 5% reservation for Government school students that the number has improved significantly. However, there is urgent need to improve the quality of education also in the Government schools," Ravi said. “In higher education too, we mustwork hardto restore the once enviable reputation of our universities,”he added.

Governor also paid rich tributes to freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu including Veeramangai Velu Nachiyar, Veerapandia Kattabomman, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi.

Admissions to top med colleges: CBSE students hold advantage

 Admissions to top med colleges: CBSE students hold advantage

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Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

26.01.2022

Chennai: CBSE students hold advantage over state board board students in getting admissions to top state medical colleges this year.

Among the top 1000 rank holders in the MBBS merit list for government quota seats released on Monday, 579 are CBSE students, 27 from other boards such as ISCE and 394 from the state board, according to the data provided by the directorate of medical education. This means that a majority of seats from top government colleges including Madras Medical College (MMC), Stanley Medical College, Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) would go to CBSE students this year. However, among the applicants, state board students constitute 64% while CBSE students account for 34% and other board studentsadd up to 2%.

"It will give a huge advantage to CBSE students in admission to top colleges as students within top 1000 ranks join colleges like MMC, KMC, Stanley Medical College, Madurai Medical College and Coimbatore Medical College," said Manickavel Arumugam, a students counsellor.

After reducing all-India quota seats and 7. 5% seats reserved for government school students, MMC has 197 seats, KMC has 117 seats while Stanley Medical College has  196.

"CBSE students are better prepared and their exam pattern encourages them to score more in NEET. State board students are yet to come out of the fear of entrance exams. Teachers should give them confidence and change their mindset. Syllabus revision for state board is also yet to reflect on NEET scores," he added.

Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said state board students lack access to proper coaching compared to CBSE students.

"Students from affluent sections of the society alone are able to do well," P B Prince Gajendrababu, general secretary of State Platform for Common School System, said.

TN offers to take in AIIMS students

Tamil Nadu has offered to take in AIIMS Madurai students in Government Ramanathapuram Medical College, which will begin admissions for the first batch of undergraduate medical students for 2021batch in the upcoming medical counselling. “The college has facilities to accommodate 150 students, but it has the permission to admit just 100 students this year. We have told the centre that we can admit 50 more students who are admitted to AIIMS Madurai on this campus,” health minister Ma Subramanian said. The state, he said, is awaiting a reply from the centre.

TNN