Madras univ to incubate 10 startup ideas

Madras univ to incubate 10 startup ideas

Chennai:26.02.2021 

Higher education minister K P Anbalagan on Thursday launched the Entrepreneurship and Career Hub Innovation and Incubation Centre at Madras University to foster entrepreneur ventures.

Students from various departments presented their ideas to the minister, vice-chancellor S Gowri and other officials.

The centre will incubate 10 startup ideas from the postgraduate students and research scholars.

“Seed funding support of a maximum of ₹10 lakh would be made available to these students along with incubation space and mentoring support,” university officials said.

Electronics and material lab, wet chemical lab, biological lab and digital film making lab are being set up as part of the entrepreneurship hub initiative. TNN

Sudden Covid-19 curbs create confusion, crowds at airport

NEW SOPs

Sudden Covid-19 curbs create confusion, crowds at airport

Passengers Caught Unawares, Several With Negative Covid Report Refuse To Give Samples On Arrival

Times News Network

26.02.2021 

A late night order from the state government on Wednesday making tests for Covid-19 mandatory for passengers who arrive from abroad caused some confusion among travellers at Chennai airport as many were not aware about the need to give samples even when they have a negative RT-PCR test result. Only those from the UK were being tested so far.

Caught unawares, a few people who landed from the Middle East did not believe that they need to pay for another test at the airport and refused to give samples as they were carrying Covid-19 negative certificates. The airlines and travel agents too had not informed the passengers about the change in rules.

There was confusion among passengers, airlines and travel operators because testing and quarantine protocols for people arriving from countries other than the UK were different in Chennai when compared to other metro airports so far. While Mumbai had imposed tests and compulsory quarantine following the state government order much earlier, Chennai let people, except those from the UK, walk out after showing a Covid-19 negative certificate.

And when the rules were made stringent by the government on Wednesday, the wordings of the order – copied from a Union government instruction, issued a couple of days ago, but without additional explanations – put the authorities in a fix.

The order said international passengers coming/transiting from flight originating from the UK, Brazil, South Africa, Europe and Middle East will have to undergo test on arrival and cannot exit until the result is negative. However, the same order also mentions that people travelling/transiting via Europe (other than UK) and the Middle East will be allowed to exit/board connecting flights after giving their samples for the test.

Health secretary J Radhakrishnan clarified it is mandatory for passengers from the UK, Brazil and South Africa – countries where the new strain is wreaking havoc – to wait for RTPCR results. “They will be allowed to board connecting flights or exit the airport only after they test negative. Passengers from the Middle East or other parts of Europe can give the samples and exit. If samples test positive, we will initiate standard procedures of treatment and containment measures,” he said.

“A flow chart has been given by the authorities. That makes work easier for airlines and airport officials. The airlines have started to update the advisory for Chennai on their websites and travel agents too have started to inform the arriving passengers,” said an official.

More tests mean 300 to 400 passengers will have to wait at the terminal for four to six hours. AAI has readied a huge hall as a waiting area for passengers as the airport started to test UK passengers from the first week of this month. “Three to four flights arrive in a day. There are not enough schedules because these are ‘air bubble’ or Vande Bharat flights,” said an official.

Fine for medical college, social service for pupils

Fine for medical college, social service for pupils

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:25.02.2021 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday imposed Rs 5 crore as fine on a private medical college in Unnao for granting admission to students in violation of the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations but allowed the 132 students to complete the MBBS course on a condition that they will do community service for two years after becoming doctors.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat said Saraswati Medical College admitted 132 students without seeking a nod from the Director General Medical Education, UP, but said cancelling their admission at this stage would not serve any useful purpose as they have already completed the second year of the course.

“Intentional violation of the regulations by the college while granting admission to 132 students... can’t be condoned. The petitioner-college is directed to deposit Rs 5 crore in the registry of this court within a period of 8 weeks from today,” the SC said.

The court also directed the college not to recover the amount from the students in any manner. It directed the National Medical Commission to constitute a trust to manage the fine to extend financial assistance to needy students seeking admission to medical colleges in UP.

SAVING FUTURE

Using AI, NTA identifies 56 JEE (Main) crooks

Using AI, NTA identifies 56 JEE (Main) crooks

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:25.02.2021 

Employing AI algorithms on face comparison to detect impersonation, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has identified 56 candidates from the February cycle of JEE (Main) 2021, whose images match with some of the 20,000 top-ranked candidates of the exams in 2019 and 2020 despite differences in other credentials.

The agency has alerted the test centres and images as well as identification documents of these candidates during entry for the exams are being collected. According to ministry of education (MoE) sources, details of these candidates would be shared with the institutions so that they are not granted admission if impersonation is proved.

The first of the four cycles of JEE (Main) 2021 commenced on February 23. The first day was for architecture and planning papers, while Wednesday was the first day of engineering papers. A total of 6.6 lakh candidates have registered for this cycle.

Cases of alleged impersonation have been found in JEEMain and NEET (UG) earlier and as recent as October 2020.

“This is the third year NTA is conducting the computerbased JEE (Main). We have been hearing that some of previous years’ toppers would impersonate, score high and help secure a seat for someone else. Therefore, NTA decided to improve the system and alert institutions of such fraud. So it decided to monitor candidates,” said a ministry official.

The official said after registration, NTA matches the images of candidates with those of previous years’ toppers. “There may be repeat candidates but their details will remain the same. However, based on AI algorithms, we found that there are 56 such candidates whose image matches with someone from the top 20,000 of either 2019 or 2020 exams, but their credentials were different,” said the official.

Barring the images, other details such as the candidate’s name, date of birth or father’s name don’t match with the previous years’ high scorers.

Thereafter, NTA conducted a manual verification. NTA sources said a day ahead of the exams, it alerted the centre officials where these 56 candidates were scheduled to take the test. The centres were asked to take live images and identification documents at the time of entry. At the end of the exams, these are to be passed on to the NTA headquarters.

A ministry official said the institutions can verify with NTA during admission. “Post declaration of results in May, NTA is likely to pass on these cases to the institutions for verification. If the images in the registration form, admit card do not match with the candidate, necessary action can be initiated,” he said.

₹100 may be new normal for petrol in high VAT states

₹100 may be new normal for petrol in high VAT states

Sanjay.Dutta@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:25.02.2021 

Soon, Rs 100 could be the new normal for a litre of regular petrol in states with high VAT and cess, unless fuel taxes are reduced or the oil-producing countries raise production sharply from April.

Three Wall Street banks — Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America — have in the last two days forecast oil at $70/barrel in the next few months and even a spike to $75 thereafter. What is worse, Goldman said even an OPEC+ decision to raise output would not calm prices as supply would still lag behind demand.

Petrol recently topped the Rs 100 a litre-mark in some cities of Rajasthan and MP on sustained oil price rally and high taxes. In a sign of things to come, benchmark Brent crude on Wednesday stayed put above $65/barrel. India’s crude purchase cost too rose to $63.90 on Tuesday (there is a day’s lag) from $62/barrel on Monday.

The mix of crude bought by Indian refiners usually costs $2-3 less than Brent and the gap narrows as price rises. So at $70/barrel of Brent, India’s crude cost would be $68/barrel, marking an increase of $6-7 from the current average. Industry insiders said every dollar increase in crude price pushes up petrol price by 55 paise per litre and diesel by 60 paise in Delhi, the reference market, which taxes fuels moderately.

So at $70 of Brent, petrol would become costlier by a minimum Rs 3.30 a litre in Delhi, assuming other conditions remain unchanged and retailers dutifully pass on the impact. Diesel price would rise by Rs 3.60. The increase would be steeper in states with high VAT/ cess like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and MP.

Such an increase will push regular petrol price beyond Rs 100 a litre in Mumbai and many cities across states with high VAT and above Rs 95 in others. Diesel prices too would hit Rs 90 level. In Delhi, petrol would cost over Rs 95 and diesel Rs 85.

The only hope for consumers lies in the central and state governments reducing fuel taxes or the OPEC+ grouping of oil producing countries deciding to raise output at its meeting next week. Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal are the only states that have reduced VAT/cess ranging between Re 1 and Rs 7. The Centre has refused to cut excise duty. Both taxes make up over 60% of retail prices and amplify the impact of rising crude.

Goldman Sachs had on Monday said oil would hit $70/barrel in the April-June period and spike to $75/barrel in the July-October quarter (calendar year) on faster rebalancing of the market.

On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America echoed the view by raising earlier projections by $10 by saying oil prices would average $60/barrel this year and spike to $70 in between.

TN shifts out DGP over sex harassment complaint

TN shifts out DGP over sex harassment complaint

Selvaraj.A@timesgroup.com

Chennai:25.02.2021 

Days after an SPrank woman IPS officer lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him, the Tamil Nadu government shifted out special DGP (law and order) Rajesh Das and kept him without a posting.

The government also constituted an inquiry committee headed by Jayashree Raghunandan, additional chief secretary, planning and development department. Das, who was in Coimbatore on the PM’s security duty on Wednesday, was recalled and replaced by additional DGP K Jayanth Murali.

Travelling to Delhi? Ensure you have a negative RT-PCR report

Travelling to Delhi? Ensure you have a negative RT-PCR report

Jamal.Ayub@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:25.02.2021 

Travelling to Delhi from Madhya Pradesh? From Friday, those travelling to Delhi from MP would need a negative RT-PCR report to enter India’s capital city. On Wednesday, the Delhi government made the test mandatory for travellers from Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. The directive would be valid until March15.

Travel plans of many people planning to come to MP and then go to Delhi are expected to be postponed or cancelled. MP’s positivity rate has also increased in the past week. Government officials going to Delhi for official work would also have to undergo the mandatory test.

MP is amongst 12 states that, in the last one week, have reported more than100 average daily new cases. During the past week, 270 average daily new cases were reported in MP. The state ranks seventh in the tally of 12, after Gujarat (287), Punjab (356), Karnataka (396), TN (449), Kerala (4,135) and Maharashtra (5,858) in the average daily new cases over the past one week.

The Delhi government’s announcement came as a surprise to many in MP’s health department. The announcement came less than 12 hours after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said ruled out direct relation between the surge in cases in Maharashtra and some other states and mutant strains, N440K and E484Q.

ICMR DG, Dr Balram Bhargava, clarified that these two virus strains have been detected in other countries too and are not specific to India. Moreover, they have been found earlier in some states in India.

The new rule will come into effect from February 26