GRH dean directed to perform postmortem on accident victim

TNN | Mar 6, 2020, 04.30 AM IST

Madurai: Madras high court has directed doctors of the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) to perform postmortem on a person who succumbed to injuries in a road accident and hand over the body to his family members. The court said this after taking cognizance of the fact that the body was not handed over to the family as police officials did not give requisition for performing postmortem.

Justice G R Swaminathan passed the order while hearing a plea moved by the victim’s son, S Abilash, seeking for a direction to the Madurai city police officials to give requisition to the dean of GRH for performing postmortem and hand over his father’s body.

The judge observed that the petitioner’s father, Selvaraj, who was doing business at Bengaluru met with an accident on February 23 when he was riding his two-wheeler. He was admitted in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) and thereafter shifted to a private hospital.

He was discharged from the private hospital and admitted to the GRH on February 29. Selvaraj, who was in a comatose condition passed away on March 4 at 5pm and his body is kept in the mortuary.

The judge observed that the postmortem was not performed as the inspector of police of Madhichiyam police refused to give requisition stating that the accident did not take place within their jurisdiction. When the petitioner approached the jurisdictional police station at Karnataka, the inspector of police stated that the petitioner’s family did not lodge any complaint immediately after the accident took place and the death did not take place with their jurisdiction.

“The body of the petitioner’s father is still in mortuary. The petitioner and other members of his family are anxious to perform the final rites. I can understand the agony and pain of the petitioner’s family. This is not a matter in which one can adopt a technical approach as it appears to be a case of natural death,” observed the judge.

Taking cognizance of the submission by the petitioner’s counsel stating that no claim would be made against the police in Madurai in the future and the stand of the police, the judge directed the dean to make arrangements to conduct postmortem and hand over the body to the petitioner’s family on Thursday itself.

MD and MS admissions: Jipmer begins online registration

TNN | Mar 5, 2020, 05.59 PM IST

PUDUCHERRY: Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) has begun online registration for admission to doctorate of medicine (MD), master of surgery (MS) and master of dental surgery (MDS) courses (June session) and post-doctoral fellowship (PDF) and post-doctoral certificate (PDC) courses (July session). The institute will close online registration for all courses at 5pm on April 9.

The institute will hold entrance examinations online to select candidates for admission into MD, MS, MDS, PDF and PDC courses on May 16.

The candidates appearing for MD, MS and MDS entrance examinations can download their hall tickets from Jipmer website www.jipmer.edu.in from 11am on April 28 to 8am on May 16 while the candidates appearing for PDF and PDC entrance examinations from 11am on April 29 to 8am on May 16.

The institute will publish the merit list of candidates on or before May 26. It will verify the certificates of the candidates who cleared MD, MS and MDS entrance examinations on June 10. It will hold the first counselling tentatively on June 11 and will announce the date of last counselling later.

The institute will verify the certificates of candidates, who cleared PDF and PDC entrance examinations, on June 9. It will complete all admission-related formalities for all the five courses by June 29 and issue admission letters on June 30. The courses will commence on July 1. The institute will close admissions into all five courses on August 31.

Jipmer offers MD courses in 19 specialities, including anesthesiology, anatomy, forensic medicine, nuclear medicine and radio diagnosis and MS courses in five specialities including obstetrics & gynaecology and orthopaedic surgery. It offers MDS courses in two disciplines - orthodontics & dentofacial orthopaedics and oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Jipmer offers PDF courses in eight disciplines, including cardiac electrophysiology and pacing and obstetric medicine, and PDC courses in 11 disciplines, including critical care (anesthesiology) and diabetology.

Top court awards family pension to second wife who took care of hubby
Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:06.03.2020

A five-year-old fight for family pension between two wives of a deceased Sikkim government servant ended with a surprising result in the Supreme Court, which validated the man’s second marriage during subsistence of his first marriage and entitled the second wife to receive family pension.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Naveen Sinha upheld the validity of the second marriage as the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956, was enforced in Sikkim only from May 1, 1989, two years after the government servant married for a second time. It also found that the man had exclusively nominated the second wife as the recipient of family pension as she took care of him during illness.

One Ram Chandra Nirola had married Tulsa Devi and had two children, who are adults now. During subsistence of the first marriage, Nirola married Radha on May 9, 1987, and had three children with her.

In 2008, he executed a settlement deed dividing moveable and immoveable properties between the two wives before his retirement on May 30, 2009. He died on April 13, 2015. The first wife wanted a share of the family pension but was denied. She moved the SC after losing her case in the high court.

Writing the judgment for the bench, Justice Sinha said, “The deceased was exclusively taken care of by Radha during his illness, including the expenditure incurred on his treatment. In view of the statutory rules, it is not possible to accept the argument that Radha was nominated only for purpose of receipt of family pension and per force was required to share it equally with Tulsa Devi.”

Full report on www.toi.in

85% seats in new med colleges will be for TN students: CM

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Namakkal:06.03.2020

Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said 85% of seats in the 11 new government medical colleges will be given to students from TN, while the rest will be admitted under the all-India quota.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony for a government medical college to be built at ₹338.76 crore at Nallipalayam in Namakkal on Thursday, the chief minister said, “Students from the state who clear Neet will also be eligible under all India quota.” All candidates have to clear Neet to be eligible to get into medical colleges. While 15% of seats are given to the Centre for admission under the all-India quota, admission for 85% seats takes place through single window counselling done by the state selection committee. These seats are given to students from TN.

On DMK chief M K Stalin’s comment that the new medical colleges would be of no use to students from the state as students from other states would enter these colleges by clearing Neet, EPS said Stalin was spreading wrong information.

The chief minister promised to construct a barrage across river Cauvery at the cost of ₹65 crore to tide over water crisis in Namakkal and Karur districts. Union minister for state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey and deputy CM O Panneerselvam also participated in the function. The CM laid foundation stones for eight other projects, inaugurated a government arts and science college in Senthamangalam and a seven-storey building constructed at ₹155.80 crore on the government medical college hospital premises at Sanapiratti in Karur district.

‘Indian astronauts can fight space blues with yoga’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:06.03.2020

Yoga could be an integral part of the daily routine of the Indian astronaut who is sent into the space in the next two or three years, Indian Space Research Organization former chairman K Kasturirangan has said.

With India’s plans for human space mission — Gaganyaan — a new dimension needs to be created with respect to medical education that involves understanding and dealing with physiological and psychological effects on human beings in space and to adopt the necessary counter measure, he said to young doctors, nurses and paramedics at the 32nd annual convocation of the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University here. The convocation was declared open by the chancellor and TN governor Banwarilal Purohit.

The convocation was held on the university campus for the first time. Students, graduates, doctors, paramedics and professors attended the event.

Kasturirangan said in space human beings face micro-gravity conditions that affect flow of body fluids and body mass. Although the cardiovascular system adapts to the new environment, an astronaut in space experiences 3.2% of average bone loss after nearly 10 days of weightlessness, primarily through the excessive secretion of calcium and phosphorus in urine. The loss of calcium in urine may produce stones in the bladder which may cause severe pain. Counter measures include onboard exercise with treadmill and ergometer, he said. India’s spaceman Rakesh Sharma, he said, found benefits in yoga to beat the blues in space. “We need to create specialized courses as well as institutions to impart education with necessary simulation and training infrastructure for our future astronauts,” he said.

Kasturirangan gave away the degrees and awards to 724 students, including 328 medical, 84 dental, 58 AYUSH and 254 in allied health services. In addition 16,866 were given the degrees in absentia. The university will give away 130 endowment medals and cash awards to students. There are 62 endowment gold medals, 8 endowment silver medals and 60 university medals.

He urged young graduates to combine ancient Indian wisdom with modern science.

Earlier, BARC former chairman R Chidambaram spoke about artificial intelliegence in medicine. A match between debating campion Harish Natrajan and a female voice AI system nicknamed Ms Debater proved how the machine can never win against human without emotional intelligence.

“We have robotic surgery in India, but I don’t expect to see an independent doctor robot to emerge in the foreseeable future,” he said. He, however, said machines had a large role to play in the medical field.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit confers a degree on a student of MGR Medical University during the 32nd convocation here on Thursday as former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan looks on

Anna University moves up 24 places in QS rankings

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:06.03.2020

Anna University has moved 24 places to 373rd rank in engineering technology category in the QS World University Rankings.

It is the only state university to feature on this list, which features institutes such as IITs, IISc Bangalore and University of Delhi.

IIT Madras moved seven places to 88th rank in the same category and is the fourth best institute in engineering and technology category. IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kharagpur bagged the top three ranks at country level.

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), has been ranked in the bracket of 401-450 in the rankings and was holding placed 11th in engineering and technology category at all India level.

Anna University's research output has been rated as “very high”. The university secured more points for two indicators of its research output, including a score of 72.7 for H-index citation and 76.5 for citations per paper.

“Our score for citations per paper is equal to top IITs like IIT Madras and IIT-Guwahati. But we need improvement in academic reputation,” said M K Surappa, vicechancellor of Anna University.

Professors of the university said if it receives the Institute of Eminence (IoE) status, it could invest more on cutting-edge research in emerging areas and can improve its ranking in the coming years.

After shortlisting Anna University for IoE status, the MHRD has sought the letter of commitment from the state government in August last year. But, state government is yet to give its letter of commitment to give its share of funds for Anna University to attain eminence status. The university would receive up to ₹1,000 crore and more autonomy from MHRD.

If Anna University receives Institute of Eminence status, it could improve its rankings

WB starts talks on one ticket for bus, train, metro

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:06.03.2020

A common ticketing system for suburban trains, metro rail and buses in Chennai may finally take off.

On Thursday, World Bank initiated a meeting between officials of Southern Railway, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) and Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) to lay the groundwork for a common ticketing system.

A senior official said this was part of a plan to have a common card for all modes of transport in every major city in India. Along with this, the World Bank also wants a seamless connectivity between all modes of transport, with digital boards showing all timings. For instance, Dr MGR Chennai Central station should have timings of the next metro train leaving Chennai Central towards airport, Washermenpet and St Thomas Mount and the metro station should have timings for the next bus and suburban trains.

This development comes at a time when a similar plan under the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) floated by the Tamil Nadu government has not taken off.

Official sources who were present at the meeting said the preliminary focus was on collection of primary data of the type of passenger flow. “World Bank has asked us to collect data on how many commuters leave suburban trains and take buses and how many take metro. We have been asked to map this data on a real-time basis. However, we don’t have the resources to do this,” said a senior official who was part of the meeting.

Senior railway officials who have been part of unified ticketing discussion in the past said Southern Railway’s commercial wing has shown great interest in bringing out such a card for the past seven years. However, the finance department wants exact accounting procedures to be followed. For example, it has stated that money accrued by railways from a multi-modal passenger should be deposited in railways account on the same day; but other agencies have objected to it as the accrual will only come after a day or two.

“However, these are minor issues which can be resolved in this digital age very easily,” a railway official said.