Indian dress to replace ‘British gown’ in convocations

To shun British legacy on dress code, MP government will introduce a ‘Bhartiya Paridhan’ for convocations of universities of the state.

Opposing convocation dress code which comprises a gown and a mortarboard (cap) being used for a long time, MP government has taken a decision to introduce Indian dress code for convocation.

The dress may be a combination of modern and Indian dress, said sources.

Higher education minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya had asked vice chancellors in October to introduce Indian dress for the convocation. The minister was also giving the convocations a miss due to the reason.

A committee of vice chancellors was formed to decide the dress code.

The committee head and vice chancellor Sangeet Shukla said, “The government wanted to end the British legacy in convocation ceremony. The focus is on Bhartiya Paridhan (Indian traditional dress) which will be suitable for both male nd female students.”
“As the convocation is a prestigious moment for every student so we will introduce a dress which is liked by students. The dress is being designed by fashion designers which will be a combination of modern and traditional Indian dresses. The fabric may be silk. We are also discussing what can be design of the cap,” said Shukla.
A section of members of committee has given an option of Kurta, Pyajama with jacket. Barkatullah University vice chancellor MD Tiwari said, “We have given an option of Kurta, Pyajama with jacket but the final decision will be taken by the committee.”

“The different option of dresses will be presented in a meeting of committee of vice chancellors on March 20. We will present different options in front of governor OP Kohli in a meeting of standing committee scheduled to be held on April 17 to finalise a dress code. From the next academic session, the dress code will be introduced,” said Ashish Upadhyaya, principal secretary, Higher Education.

The debate over convocation robe started in 2010 when former environment minister Jairam Ramesh shrugged off the robe in a convocation ceremony of IIFM in Bhopal. Ramesh termed it as a ‘barbaric colonial practice’.

Later, revenue minister Umashankar Gupta also raised the issue.

Rare surgery to remove neck cyst

19-year-old girl undergoes procedure

A rare endoscopic procedure was done on a 19-year-old girl recently to excise cyst from her neck.

The patient had thyroglossal cyst, a congenital condition.

“The girl had a cyst and the tract which connects the gland to the tongue had thickened, making it difficult for her to swallow. Thyroglossal Cyst is a rare condition causing the patient to have a round swelling in the neck.

“The thyroid gland below (thyro) and is connected by a long tract to the tongue above (glossal). These cysts need to be removed as there can be infection or cancer if left untreated,” explained J.S. Rajkumar, chief laparoscopic surgeon at Lifeline Hospitals.

Avoiding a scar

The usual treatment for such cysts is to slash the neck, and remove it. But it leaves a long scar in the neck, and sometimes two cuts are required, leaving unsightly scars. The doctors wanted to avoid the scar and decided to make minor incisions near the aerolas in the breast.

“We decided to be innovative as we already have the experience of having done 60 thyroid removal surgeries. We decided to excise the cyst through a procedure known as endoscopic sistrunk. We removed the central part of the hyoid bone too,” Dr. Rajkumar explained.

Luckily for the girl, the results of the biopsy of the tissue and bone removed were negative for cancer. Dr. Rajkumar said the occurrence of such cysts was not rare.

We decided to excise the cyst via a procedure called endoscopic sistrunk

J.S. Rajkumar,

Laparoscopic surgeon, Lifeline Hospital

Minister seeks NEET exemption

Concession sought only for quota seats in government and private medical colleges, says Minister

Making a fresh attempt to convince the Centre to grant assent to Tamil Nadu’s Bills to conduct medical admissions on the basis of the Plus Two scores of aspirants, State Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan met Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi on Friday.

The meeting came even as the CBSE issued a circular announcing three more NEET centres in the State —Namakkal, Tirunelveli and Vellore — thereby raising apprehensions that Tamil Nadu may not be exempted from admitting medical aspirants solely on the basis of their NEET scores.

Mr. Vijayabaskar told The Hindu over phone, “We explained to Mr. Nadda that the exemption for MD/MS seats under the service quota, which comprises 50%, would ensure rural service sector is not affected. The students get two marks for the service as an incentive. The students could continue to take the NEET but the existing system will not be affected.”

According to him, the State was seeking permanent exemption from NEET in MBBS/BDS courses only for State government quota seats in government and private medical colleges. “We are not asking for exemption for admission to deemed universities and management quota seats in private medical colleges. We explained this to Mr. Nadda,” he said.

“We explained to the Minister that while around 3.70 lakh students appear for the exams under the science stream in the State board, the number of students taking the competitive exam under CBSE is just a tenth of this number,” Mr. Vijayabaskar said.

The Union Health Ministry would give its opinion to the Ministry of Human Resources and Development. Meanwhile, the Law Ministry had been apprised of the bills the State government had passed, the Minister said.

The CBSE said there had been a 41.42% rise in the number of candidates registered for the test this year. A total of 11,35,104 students have registered for the examination as against 8,02,594 last year.

Mar 25 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Man hangs himself before retiring to help son get 

govt job

Vellore: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





A 58-year-old office assistant (OA) at the Katpadi Block Development Office in Vellore dis trict of Tamil Nadu commit ted suicide by hanging him self at his workplace on Friday , police said.

Mahalingam of Old Katpadi ended his life to help his son get a government job on compassionate grounds, police said. He was to retire within a week.

The Katpadi police recovered a suicide note from his shirt pocket. In the note, Mahalingam had stated that he was in a state of depression. He alleged that his colleagues were responsible for his death.

He stated that one of his colleagues had abused and humiliated him recently , police said. He had borrowed loans and was not able to repay it, besides his son did not get a proper job, the police said, quoting the suicide note.

Mahalingam had stated that he decided to end his life hoping that the government would provide assistance to his family to repay the loans that he had taken.

Police sources stated that Mahalingam's service would end on March 31 and a retirement function had been organised. He was depressed as his son did not have a proper work. “We suspect that he committed suicide to help his son get a government job on compassionate grounds,“ said a police officer privy to the investigation.

The police shifted the body to Government Vellore Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. Mahalingam is survived by his wife Amuthavalli, two daughters and a son.

Mar 25 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Committee to probe financial irregularities at 

Madras Univ

Siddharth Prabhakar

Chennai:





Rs 47 Cr Said To Have Been Illegally Trasferred

A four-member committee will probe the alleged irregularities in the transfer of `47crore from other funds for paying salaries and building contracts at University of Madras, higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal has said.

The committee will comprise a joint secretary-level officer and at least two syndicate members, he told TOI.

Paliwal made the assurance on the panel at Tuesday's syndicate meeting where finances for 2016-17 were tabled.Of the `47 crore diverted, `14 crore was used to pay salaries, while there was no explanation for the remaining `33 crore. Paliwal heads the three member vice-chancellor convener committee which has been discharging the duties of the vice-chancellor.

“Whether due process was followed in transferring the funds from different heads to make payments is under question,“ he said. The develop ment comes a year after the university's Senate resolved to have a judicial inquiry into the transfer of `5 crore from a UGC grant meant for a nanoscience centre to pay a builder.

This was a violation and was done due to the dire financial situation, registrar P David Jawahar had admitted to TOI. He said he would have to face an inquiry , but said he acted on the directions of `senior officials' The inquiry is yet to be conducted as the Senate resolution didn't reach the syndicate. Professors forum of the university petitioned the Governor and higher education department on the issue.

Paliwal also directed professors to file a detailed petition on allegations of irregularities in appointing registrar in-charge, head of the Institute of Distance Education and 40 college governing council members of affiliated colleges.. All these were allegedly made without the syndicate's approval. “We shall look into the allegations and take strict action if there is any merit,“ Paliwal told TOI.

The university's finances are in a mess due to the construction of multi-storied buildings costing crores on Guindy and Taramani campuses, said a senior IAS official who was in-charge of the higher education portfolio recently .

Mar 25 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Health min meets Union ministers over NEET





While Tamil Nadu could not impress upon the Centre to exempt itself from a national-level common entrance test for admissions to postgraduate medicaldental seats, state health minister C Vijaya Baskar said he was hopeful of getting at least an interim relief from the common test for MBBS.

On Friday , Vijaya Baskar and a team of officials met Union health minister J P Nadda and Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi to urge them to recommend the two bills passed by the state legislative assembly exempting itself from NEET, for presidential assent. “ We clearly told them that we will conduct counselling based on NEET for management quota seats in selffinancing colleges and all seats in deemed universities.We wanted exemption only for government colleges and state quota seats in self-financing colleges. He did not yet assure us of anything, but said the Centre will consider,“ he said. The Union law minister had told Vijaya Baskar that he would wait for a recommendation from the health ministry before assessing the legal provision for exemption.

The Tamil Nadu directorate of medical education, he said, will soon call for applications to more than 2,000 postgraduate medical and dental seats for admission through counselling based on NEET scores.

Mar 25 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Getting a US visa now gets tougher

Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington:





The process of getting an American visa, strenuous at the best of times, is likely to get more painstaking following fresh directives from the Trump administration to its consular officials worldwide to identify “populations warranting increased scrutiny“ for enhanced vetting.

In a series of four cables sent out by the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, United States missions across the world have been instructed to convene working groups of law enforcement and intelligence officials to “develop a list of criteria“ to identify such groups.

One criterion appears to be if the person has travelled to or lived in territory controlled by the so-called Islamic State.Such a loosely defined yardstick could affect lakhs of Indians who visited or worked in countries such as Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Such applicants, one of the cables enjoins, need to be subjected to enhanced vetting, including scrutiny of the applicant's travel history, addresses, and work history for 15 years, and all phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles used in the past five years.

While some experts feel the new directives will not substantially add to the scrutiny already in effect, addition of red-flagged travel spots and social media scrutiny could add to the time taken to process the visas, particularly since the state department advisories put the onus on consular officials to institute enhanced vetting.

“Consular officers should not hesitate to refuse any case presenting security concerns,“ secretary Tillerson wrote in the cables. The language is no different than that used by previous administrations but the focus on social media could make the job of consular officials more difficult, causing them to err on the side of caution.

“Ultimately , most visa applicants are unlikely to see much change from previous visa adjudication practices as a result of these cables.Consular officers already closely scrutinised applicants for potential security threats. However, the cables do illustrate a renewed focus on the vetting of visa applicants by the DOS, including the potential review of visa applicants' social media, Maryland-based Murthy law firm, which processes visa and immigration issues, said in a cautious advisory.

Probe hate crimes against desis: Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in US Congress, expressed concern over a series of hate crimes against Indian-Americans and asked the justice department to investigate all violent acts motivated by bigotry to promote a pluralistic society. “It's always dangerous to our people and our community when you have these violent hate crimes that are motivated out of bigotry,“ Gabbard said. PTI