Canada’s first Hindu minister creates history

Tracking The Diaspora

Canada’s first Hindu minister creates history

WHILE PERSONS OF INDIAN ORIGIN WIN ACCOLADES, SOME RACIST ELEMENTS MAR THE JUBILATION

Toronto:27.10.2021

Canada’s first Hindu cabinet minister Anita Anand made history on Tuesday by becoming the country’s second-ever woman defence minister by replacing fellow Indo-Canadian Harjit Sajjan as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled his new cabinet. Sajjan will be the new minister of international affairs.

Another Indo-Canadian woman Kamal Khera, the 32-year-old MP from Brampton West, also took oath as minister for seniors, taking the number of Indo-Canadian women ministers in the Trudeau cabinet to three. The sitting Indo-Canadian woman minister Bardish Chagger, who held the ministry of diversity, inclusion and youth of Canada, has been shuffled out.

These Indo-Canadian women are among six women ministers in the new cabinet. Trudeau demoted Sajjan for failing to address the allegations of sexual misconduct in the Canadian military and rewarded Anand and Khera for their work during the pandemic. Anand has been praised for her work as procurement minister and Khera, a registered nurse, for going back to work as a health-care provider at the peak of the pandemic. A three-time MP since 2015, Khera has also served as a parliamentary secretary to the ministers of health and international trade.

Anita was born in 1967 in Nova Scotia to Indian parents, who were both medical professionals. Her mother Saroj D Ram came from Punjab and father S V Anand from Tamil Nadu. Anita, who is on leave as a professor of law at the University of Toronto, was picked up as minister of public service and procurement by Trudeau in 2019 after her election as MP from Oakville near Toronto. She assisted the Air India Inquiry Commission with extensive research. The commission investigated the bombing of Air India Kanishka Flight 182 on June 23, 1985, that killed all 329 people on board.

Before Anand, Canada’s only woman defence minister was former Prime Minister Kim Campbell who held the portfolio for six months from January 4 to June 25 in 1993. AGENCIES

Minister of National Defence Anita Anand with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Unvaxxed staff can face jail term: Delhi govt dept

Unvaxxed staff can face jail term: Delhi govt dept

Sidhartha.Roy@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:27.10.2021

Ten days after nearly two lakh people employed by Delhi government were barred from working without getting at least one shot of an anti-Covid vaccine, various departments have started issuing stern orders to employees. One department “clarified” that non-compliance of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) order can attract action, including prison term of up to a year.

The DDMA had issued an order on October 8, mandating employees in departments, autonomous bodies, PSUs, local and educational bodies under the Delhi government, to at least get the first vaccine dose by October15. Unvaccinated employees were not allowed to attend office on October 16 and were told that the period of absence from duty till they get at least one dose, would be treated as “on leave”. The decision was taken in a meeting of the DDMA on September 29, 2021, aimed at ensuring 100% vaccination of all government employees, frontline workers, healthcare workers, teachers etc, who have frequent interaction with the public.

One man infects 8 in Bhopal; probe ordered

ACTIVE CASE TALLY 40

One man infects 8 in Bhopal; probe ordered

Jamal.Ayub@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:27.10.2021

A single Covid patient in Bhopal is said to have infected eight others, leading the health department to probe the role of the private hospital and patient’s relatives. It is alleged that the patient’s Covid status was reported only after four others in the family tested positive.

Overall, 11 new cases were reported in Bhopal on Tuesday, taking the active case tally to 40. Two of them needed hospitalization and the rest are in home isolation.

According to sources, last week a Govindpura resident tested positive for Covid-19 in a private hospital in Ayodhya Nagar. It is alleged that infection control protocols were breached by the patient and the hospital, and his Covid status went unreported.

The health department and district administration connected the dots on Monday when four members of the family were diagnosed with the infection. Health officials swung into action and began testing people in the locality and the family’s close contacts. On Tuesday evening, four of his neighbours also tested positive.

The contact trace count of patient zero of this cluster is now eight. Two of them are under 25 years of age, and two aged 50 and 58. Among the others are three men and a woman in their late 30s. Their condition is being monitored. Patient zero continues to be hospitalized.

₹8L income bar for EWS not over-inclusive, Centre tells SC

₹8L income bar for EWS not over-inclusive, Centre tells SC

New Delhi:27.10.2021

Facing questions from the SC over the rationality for fixing an income limit of Rs 8 lakh for EWS quota, which is the same for OBCs, the Centre said the determination cannot be a mathematical formula, suggesting the matter be left to the government, reports Amit Anand Choudhary.

Stating that the criteria was on the basis of the Sinho commission report, which had in 2010 suggested that the creamy layer benchmark for OBCs be adopted for EWS, the Centre said setting different limits on the basis of cost of living and per capita income was not feasible.

Checks to ensure only needy avail EWS benefits

Allaying the apprehension that the Rs 8 lakh limit is too high for people from the general category — which does not suffer from social and educational backwardness that are grounds for OBC reservation — and would result in over-inclusiveness, the Centre said there are other checks to ensure only needy people avail the EWS benefits in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions.

Responding to the court’s query on why the same income limit be applied across the country despite a rural-urban divide and different per capita income in different states, the government indicated that a certain subjectivity might be inevitable and said, “The determination has to be made on broad probabilities and it is impossible to achieve perfection/mathematical precision”.

“It is submitted that the principle of fixation of Rs 8 lakh as a criteria for determination of EWS as also for determination of creamy lawyer in the OBC category is rational and in keeping with Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution. The exercise conducted to determine the creamy layer for the purpose of OBC reservation would be equally applicable for determination of EWS category,” the affidavit said.

Can’t force outside students to learn Kannada, says HC

Can’t force outside students to learn Kannada, says HC

State Gets Time To Reconsider Policy For Degree Course

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:27.10.2021

Students coming from outside Karnataka cannot be compelled to learn Kannada language, be it classical or functional, the high court on Tuesday orally observed, granting time to the state government to reconsider the issue.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi adjourned the hearing to November 10 vis-a-vis a petition challenging two government orders making Kannada a compulsory subject for degree students, following a request from advocate-general Prabhuling K Navadgi.

“With the understanding that the government will reconsider the issue, we adjourn the matter,” the division bench orally said. Earlier, the advocate general said people have to learn Kannada for employment purpose and they need not learn Kannada in a classical sense and he would get more instructions in the matter.

However, the bench queried as to how the state government can compel a student coming from outside to learn Kannada and added that the state government has to reconsider the issue and the court will grant time for the same. Senior advocate SS Naganand, appearing on behalf of the petitioners, told the court that the academic year had already commenced and students will have to make a choice.

Orders take away freedom to choose language: Petitioners

Samskrita taka) Trust Bharati , Bengaluru (Karna , - and three other institutions associated with the promotion of Sanskrit language/ study have filed this petition, challenging the validity of government orders dated August 7, 2021 and September 15, 2021, saying it goes against National Education Policy.

The petitioners have sought declaration to the effect that NEP 2020 does not impose any restriction upon the student to choose any particular language as part of the curricula for higher education. According to the petitioners, it will impede the admissions and rights of minority institutions, students and especially the teachers who are at the risk of losing employment as the options of choosing a language is now restricted.

They claim 1.3 lakh students and 4,000 teachers, who were teaching Sanskrit (600 teachers), Hindi (3,000 teachers), Urdu (300 teachers) and other languages (100 teachers), are going to be affected by this move of the government.

“The said orders take away the freedom to choose a language for study and makes it mandatory for all students in Karnataka to take up Kannada as a language in degree courses offered in all streams of science, commerce and arts. There is a restriction on the freedom of speech and expression enshrined under the Constitution. Though, Article 19(2) of the Constitution enables the state to impose restrictions upon the fundamental rights, the restrictions ought to be reasonable..,” the petitioners contended.

Further, they have argued that equating those students who have not studied Kannada at any point time till plus level with those who have studied Kannada is also equally opposed to Article 14 of the Constitution.

Gujarat to get 8 medical colleges in two years

Gujarat to get 8 medical colleges in two years

Move Will Add 1,200 MBBS Seats

Bharat.Yagnik@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:27.10.2021

Gujarat government is planning to set up eight new medical colleges in the state in the next two years. They will add 1,200 MBBS seats, representing about 21% of the total number of prevailing seats in Gujarat, said sources in the state’s health department.

Presently, there are about 30 colleges in the state with 5,508 seats for which the Admission Committee for Professional Under Graduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUGMEC) carries out the admission process. There are another 300 seats in the state under two deemed universities for which the admission is carried out at the college level. ACPUGMEC is not involved in this.

“The new medical colleges in Morbi, Godhra and Porbandar are expected to start in 2021-22. The inspection process by National Medical Commission (NMC) has been completed. The new medical colleges will add about 150 seats each,” said an official in the health department.

The state health department aims to start new medical colleges in Rajpipla, Navsari, Jam Khambhaliya, Botad and Veraval in the next academic year, he added.

State health minister Rushikesh Patel did not respond to calls and messages on his phone.

Gujarat government is working on a plan to ensure that there is one medical college in every district of the state. For this, the department will have to set up about seven additional medical colleges in districts that do not have a single college, said sources.

The proposal is in line with the Centre’s vision to have one college in every district of the country in the next 5 years.

The Centre has given nod to 157 new medical colleges in India since 2014 and has invested Rs 17,691.08 crore on these projects, the Union health ministry said recently.

On completion, nearly 16,000 under graduate medical seats would be added, it said. Of these, 6,500 seats have already been created with the functioning of 64 new medical colleges, said the government.

NMC, under the ministry of health and family welfare, is working on a plan to increase the total number of under graduate medical seats from about 82,500 to 1 lakh seats by next year , said sources. There are close to 550 medical colleges in the country offering MBBS courses of which 49% are government run and remaining are selffinanced and on public-private-partnership basis.

15.6% of global mgmt master’s degree holders are from India

15.6% of global mgmt master’s degree holders are from India

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:27.10.2021

Of the estimated 15 million people across the world, who are aged 20 to 34 and graduate management education (GME) master’s degree holders, 23.4 lakh (15.6%) are from India.

India is also among the top 10 countries, which include the US, China (Mainland), Brazil and UK, with the largest pool of GME master’s degree holders within this student-age population.

As per the first-ever global study of diversity in GME, conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and exclusively accessed by TOI, approximately 26% of all bachelor’s degreeholders worldwide studied in the fields of business, administration, or law.

In India, 28.5% of all bachelor’s degree-holders studied in these fields, of which the percentage of females (31.5%) in significantly higher as compared to males (24.5%). At master’s level too, these areas of studies remained more preferred choices with more than a quarter of graduates coming from business, administration, or law. The percentage of females (27%), however, is significantly lower than males (32.5%).

As per the study, India is the leader among its regional peers in the number of GME degree-holders and is also ahead in the number of students pursuing online management courses.

Full report on www.toi.in