'Medical Practitioners Must Be Protected From Onslaught Of Frivolous Complaints': Madras High Court Issues Guidelines For National Medical Council

'Medical Practitioners Must Be Protected From Onslaught Of Frivolous Complaints': Madras High Court Issues Guidelines For National Medical Council: The Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed an order dated May 4, 2021 of the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) suspending a gastroenterologist by observing that principles of natural justice were

Medicos wrap up Rhapsody with fashion show, DJ night

Medicos wrap up Rhapsody with fashion show, DJ night

Vivek Singh Chauhan TNN

Lucknow:28.10.2021

MBBS students of 2020 batch Simple Singh and Aryan Arora, along with their seniors from 2019 Sanya Dikshit and Siddhant Aggarwal, were conferred with Mr and Miss Rhapsody awards on the third and final day of the three-day annual cultural festival of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) on Wednesday.

The festival had to be cancelled for the past two years: in 2019 due to anti-CAA protests and in 2020 due to Covid.

This year, Rhapsody finally got its colour, and students joined with twice more enthusiasm.

The festival adorned with the colours of passion, fun, adventure, art, and skill culminated with a DJ Night, which students enjoyed immensely. The highlight of the final day was the selection of Mr and Miss Rhapsody and the fashion show ‘Allure’, in which around 300 students, along with 40 teachers, participated.

Medicos in diverse and trendy attire gave tough competition to fashion models. A ramp walk and question round followed in which participants gave spontaneous answers to judges to win the title.

Over three days, students exhibited singing, dancing, acting, and other talents. Along with this, competitions like poster making, skit, and medi-quiz were organized.

T colleges ignore NAAC tag, put education quality under lens

T colleges ignore NAAC tag, put education quality under lens

No Accreditation For About 90% T Colleges

State To Study Reasons, Guide Institutes

Preeti.Biswas@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:28.10.2021

With only 11% of higher educational institutions in Telangana being accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the council has now asked the state higher education department officials to take up an internal survey to know the reasons for not initiating or accelerating the accreditation process.

The NAAC had conducted a state-wise analysis of accredited higher education institutions in Telangana and released a report on October 26 in Bengaluru.

The report indicates that of the 1,976 colleges in Telangana, only 141 have a valid accreditation. Of these, 35 are government colleges, 19 are grant-in-aid colleges and 87 are private or self-financed colleges. Nationally, 21% colleges are NAAC accredited.

The NAAC accreditation assesses institutions on teaching, learning and evaluation, research and innovations, infrastructure and learning resources, student support and progression, governance and management, helping students to gauge quality of education in an institute. Based on the performance in each aspect, institutions are awarded grades A+, A, B++, B+, B, C and D.

While other states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala fare much better, Telangana is yet to make a mark.

Officials from the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) said there was no resistance among college managements to undergo NAAC assessment.

“Lower percentage of accredited colleges in Telangana is due to various shortcomings, especially in rural areas. Based on NAAC findings, we would try to understand the limitations of colleges and universities and accordingly work with them. We have also decided to financially help institutions in preparing NAAC documentations,” said R Limbadri, TSCHE chairman.

The NAAC officials said as the accreditation process was voluntary earlier, many did not come forward in the last many years.

“Now that the NAAC accreditation has been made mandatory to seek funds under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan scheme and other central schemes, many colleges are in the fray. Massive handholding is required to encourage institutions for accreditation,” said NAAC director SC Sharma.

As per NAAC figures, more than 200 colleges from Telangana are now at various stages to secure NAAC accreditation.

Students move out of T for better courses

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:

Poor quality of professional courses in Telangana has led to a gradual migration of students to neighbouring states, with several seats left vacant in courses such as engineering, management, BEd and law among others As per the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) report, more than 1.34 lakh engineering seats, 8,299 B Pharmacy seats and 33,632 management seats had no takers between academic year 2015-16 and 2018-19.

Experts admit that admissions in Telangana dropped as the exodus to deemed-to-be-universities and private universities in neighbouring states increased in the past few years.

“The deemed-to-be-universities are more innovative in curriculum. There is a huge pool of courses to choose and exposure is also higher. Therefore, they are in high demand compared to local institutions,” said DN Reddy, former vice-chancellor of JNTUH.

Vacancies and no research major challenges

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:

Vacant teaching positions, poor upkeep of institutions and no research in Telangana’s institutes have been identified as major challenges by NAAC.

“In almost all universities, a large number of faculty positions are lying vacant. The process of filling of vacancies for teaching and non-teaching staff has not been taken up. Consequently, the faculty student ratio as well as cadre ratio is low and there is dearth of permanent faculty,” read the report.

It said that even in colleges, there are very few permanent staff members and there needs to be a drastic improvement in faculty cadre ratio. Experts said that lack of faculty members has a cascading effect on the quality of education at large.

“When there are not enough faculty members, quality of teaching takes a backseat. Existing staff gets overburdened with many other responsibilities due to which neither are they able to take up enough research work nor are they able to guide enough PhD scholars,” said DN Reddy, former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad.

In addition to this, poor industry linkages and feedback mechanism, academic audits etc are among the other challenges that have been identified hindering the quality of education in higher institutions in the state.

Travel cos cautious on booking tickets to US

Travel cos cautious on booking tickets to US

Sudipta.Sengupta@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:28.10.2021

Lack of clarity over Covaxin’s validity among USA-bound travellers, has put city tour agents on guard. Worried about the fate of these passengers — and the repercussions for their business — most of them are steering clear of accepting requests for ticket bookings from people vaccinated with two shots of Covaxin. This, despite their desks being flooded with enquires from prospective flyers.

“We are getting a lot of calls from people who have taken Covaxin and want to travel to the US. At least 50% of our enquires comprise such travellers,” said Abdul Majid Faheem, Travel Agents Federation of India (Telangana and AP chapters).

Flyers hoping issue will be solved soon

“But we are not being able to entertain their requests because we are told they will not be allowed entry. If they get into trouble, it will adversely impact us as well. It’ll also become chaotic if we have to cancel them last minute,” added Faheem.

The confusion has been created by the World Health Organisation delaying its emergency use license (EUL) to Covaxin. WHO’s technical advisory group met recently and decided to ask for more data from Bharat Biotech before issuing the license.

TOI spoke to a number of airlines and travel agents across the country who said there was no clarity on whether a Covaxin-vaccinated person can travel to the US if he/she has a negative RTPCR test result.

“We hope this issue is resolved soon as there is a tremendous demand for the US at the moment and we do not want to lose out on business,” Faheem said.

Agrees Rajeev Kale, president and country head (holidays, MICE, visa) at Thomas Cook (India). According to him, reopening of the US borders and acceptance of doubly vaccinated Indians has created high demand from Hyderabad and Telangana.

“We are receiving not just queries, but also booking requests from customers who already have valid visas,” he said adding, “While we continue to receive interest from customers vaccinated with Covaxin shots too, we await approval from the US authorities before we are able to go ahead with such bookings.”

The uncertainty has left travellers in a dilemma. “I was hoping to spend Christmas with my extended family in New Jersey. I really hope the authorities clear this Covaxin issue before Christmas,” said Manikonda resident, Arjun Rao, who took his second Covaxin dose in June.

“We are also hoping for positive news for customers who are doubly jabbed with Covaxin to be allowed to travel soon,” said Daniel D’Souza, president and country head, SOTC Travel.

Ayodhya pilgrimage part of govt scheme

Ayodhya pilgrimage part of govt scheme

Pilgrim Programme To Resume In A Month

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:28.10.2021

The Delhi cabinet headed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday approved the proposal to add Ayodhya as one more pilgrimage destination under the Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana that was started in mid-November 2019. The Delhi government-funded pilgrimage to various religious destinations was on hold due to the pandemic, but it will be started within a month.

Ayodhya is the latest addition to the list of Jagannath Puri, Ujjain, Shirdi, Amritsar, Vaishno Devi, Dwarkadhish, Tirupati, Rameswaram, Haridwar, Mathura and Bodh Gaya. Kejriwal said he wanted to help the elderly fulfil their fervent yearning to complete pilgrimage to these religious places.

Over 35,000 people have availed of the scheme till now. The CM said all officials were working constantly to make necessary arrangements for the purpose. “It gives me immense pleasure to inform the people of Delhi that we have approved a monumental proposal in today’s cabinet meeting by adding Ayodhya as another destination under the Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojna. The elderly who have the desire to visit Shri Ram Lalla at Ayodhya will have their trip facilitated by Delhi government for free,” added Kejriwal.

The entire expense of leaving from home until returning, including travelling by airconditioned trains, stay in AC hotels, meals and local travel, would be borne by Delhi government. “The elderly can take someone as an attendant to help them in their journey. The attendant’s expenses will be covered too,” said the CM.

“For the last couple of years, we had halted the scheme due to Covid-19 for everyone’s safety. But now that the situation has improved considerably, we will resume it. All officials are tirelessly making efforts to ensure that within a month or so trains to the listed shrines are resumed. Soon, you will be able to begin registration. I hope that everyone who avails of the scheme and goes on the tirth yatra has a fulfilling and comfortable trip,” Kejriwal said.

Eligible people can apply online at https://edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in to benefit from this scheme. They can also apply by visiting the offices of the divisional commissioner, area MLA or the Tirth Yatra Committee. Candidates are selected by a draw of lots.

Delhi govt-funded pilgrimage to various religious destinations was on hold due to the pandemic

3 5 THOUSAND PEOPLE AVAILED OF SCHEME TILL NOW

Online frauds continue unabated: 60-year-old duped of ₹99k for refund of ₹640 in app wallet

Online frauds continue unabated: 60-year-old duped of ₹99k for refund of ₹640 in app wallet

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal:28.10.2021

A 60-year-old man searching for a customer care number for an online payment on the internet, however, fell in the trap of online fraudsters. The accused allegedly siphoned Rs 99,000 from his bank account on the pretext of refunding just Rs 640 that were deducted from his online wallet. The accused sent the victim a link asking him to download a remote access over his smartphone, hacked his mobile phone and siphoned money from his bank account. The victim reported the matter to the cyber-crime branch where a zero FIR was registered and the case was transferred to Habibganj police.

Investigation officer SI Vivek Sharma said that complainant Sanjay Gadkari, a resident of Sarita Complex in Shivaji Nagar, wanted to get refund of Rs 640 in his online payment wallet. He received a call from an unidentified man who asked him to download an app on his phone and asked him for the OTP. As soon as Sanjay told him the OTP, Rs 98,897 were deducted from his bank account. Subsequently, he reported the matter to police.

In another online fraud case registered at Misrod police station on Tuesday, complainant Vanshika Jaiswal, 21, a resident of Jatkhedi, who wanted to sell her bicycle online, received a call from the accused who sent Re 1 online to her after taking her account details and then siphoned Rs 20,049 from her bank account.

Medical edu principal secy asked to appear before court

Medical edu principal secy asked to appear before court

Bengaluru:28.10.2021

The high court has directed the principal secretary of the medical education department to appear before it regarding the delay in operationalising the Institute of Gastroenterology and Organ Transplant on Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute premises.

The division bench called the delay “deliberate” and gave the direction while hearing a contempt petition by MN Umesh, a Bengaluru advocate. During the hearing, the court was told that although the institute was made functional on July 5, 2021, it cannot be made operational unless a sanitisation exercise is done that requires at least two months.

“We fail to appreciate as to why the institute was not sanitised till date and why they are waiting for the court to allow them time to sanitise the institute. The conduct of the authorities concerned is highly deprecated,” the bench said. TNN