Centre to decide on conducting Class 12 exams on Sunday

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Centre to decide on conducting Class 12 exams on Sunday

To reduce uncertainty among students, the Central government will take a decision on Sunday over proposals for the conduct of exams for Class 12th and entrance examinations for professional courses.

The decision will be taken in a high-level virtual meeting with Education Ministers, Education Secretaries and Chairpersons of State Examination Boards and all stakeholders of the States and Union Territories (UT), Ministry of Education said on Saturday.

The meeting will be chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in presence of Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

In view of the prevailing situation, almost all the state education boards, CBSE and ICSE have postponed their Class 12 examinations, 2021. Similarly, the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other National exam conducting institutions have also postponed the entrance exams for admissions to professional courses.

As the conduct of Class 12 examinations impacts upon state board exams and other entrance exams across the country, and to reduce uncertainty among students it is desirable that a considered decision based on inputs of different state governments and UT administrations is taken about Class 12 CBSE examinations in the interest of all the students across the country.

In a letter written by the Union Education Minister to states and UTs, he has stated that the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education and CBSE are exploring options regarding the conduct of examinations, keeping in mind the safety and security of the students and the teachers.

The Department of Higher Education is also deliberating upon the finalization of the dates of examinations for institutions of higher learning.

The letter has noted that Covid-19 pandemic has affected various areas including the education sector, particularly the board exams and entrance exams.

Sonia writes to PM over scarcity of black fungus drugs

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Sonia writes to PM over scarcity of black fungus drugs

After the government asked the states to declare Mucormycosis (Black Fungus) an epidemic, Congress Parliamentary party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the scarcity of Liposomal Amphotericin-B injection and the disease not being covered under Ayushman Bharat scheme.

In a letter to the Prime Miniater, Sonia Gandhi said, “The government has asked the states to declare Mucormycosis an Epidemic under the Epidemic Diseases Act. This means that there must be adequate production and assured supply of essential medicines to treat it and cost free patient care for those in need of treatment.”

“I understand that Liposomal Amphotericin-B is absolutely essential for the treatment of Mucormycosis. However, there are reports of its acute scarcity in the market. Further the illness is not covered in Ayushman Bharat and most other health insurance products,” she said.

She urged the Prime Minister to take immediate action to bring relief to the large number of patients being afflicted by Mucormycosis.

Her remarks came after reports that several patients are complaining about the scarcity of the injection.

Several states have declared Mucormycosis an Epidemic in last few days.

CBI gives clean chit to Lalu Prasad in DLF bribery case

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CBI gives clean chit to Lalu Prasad in DLF bribery case

In relief to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founder Lalu Prasad, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given him a clean chit in connection with a bribery case involving DLF.

According to CBI sources, the central probe agency had initiated a preliminary enquiry for corruption against Lalu Prasad and the real estate developer DLF group in January 2018. The CBI PE was to probe over the allegations if the DLF Group, eyeing rail land lease project in Mumbai’s Bandra and upgradation of New Delhi Railway Station, had bribed Lalu Prasad, a former railway minister with a property in an upscale South Delhi’s New Friend Colony.

The source said that it was alleged that AB Exports, an alleged shell company, had bought a property in New Friends Colony for nearly Rs 5 crore in December 2007 while its actual circle rate was Rs 30 crore at that time. The transaction for buying the property was allegedly funded by DLF Home Developers and routed through Lexis Infotech and a few other shell companies.

However, in 2011, Tejashwi Yadav, and Lalu Prasad’s daughters – Chanda Yadav and Ragini – allegedly bought over AB Exports for a mere Rs 4 lakh by transfer of shares. Thus the property of New Friends Colony was transferred to them. The source said that the CBI had also probed the role of Praveen Jain and Amit Katyal, who executed the transactions between the DLF Group and RJD leader.

The CBI source said that the “PE has been closed as no case has been made out of the allegations”.

According to sources, the clean chit to the RJD leader was given by Rishi Kumar Shukla before his retirement from the top post. Lalu Prasad was granted bail by Jharkhand High Court in April this year in a Dumka treasury case, which is linked to Bihar fodder scam case. He was accused of withdrawing over Rs 3 crore from the treasury. Before granted bail, Lalu Prasad spent more than three years in jail

Taekwondo team misses Oly qualifiers due to goof-up by IOA body

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Taekwondo team misses Oly qualifiers due to goof-up by IOA body

India’s four-member taekwondo squad missed an Asian Olympic qualifying tournament in Jordan due to lack of awareness of a 14-day quarantine rule. The two-day tournament concluded on Saturday in Amman.

“The taekwondo team couldn’t participate in Olympic qualification tournament in Jordan because the organising committee refused visa to the Indian team due to surge in Covid-19 cases in India,” a taekwondo coach told IANS.

The four-member national team was selected on May 7 in Lucknow but was not apprised of the mandatory two-week quarantine rule by the ad-hoc body that runs the sport in the country at the moment.

Kashish Malik (57 kg) and Margerettge Regi (67 kg) were selected in the women’s group, while Akshay Hooda (68 kg) and Navjeet Singh Mann (80 kg) were picked in the men’s section for the Asian qualifying competition.

“We were told on May 17, a day before we were supposed to fly to Jordan that there is a quarantine rule of 14 days for the Indian team. Since the competition was scheduled for Friday and Saturday, we had no chance to compete,” said a player selected in the India team.

In the absence of Taekwondo Federation of India (TFI), which has been derecognised by sports ministry since 2014 for not following the National Sports Code, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Indian Olympic Association-appointed ad hoc body — Team Taekwondo — had conducted trials in Lucknow.

Namdev Shirgaonkar, president of the ad hoc body, was reluctant to divulge the reason behind the goof-up.

“We tried our best to get the 14-day quarantine rule waived off but the Jordanian authorities did not agree,” said Shirgaonkar.

The competition in Jordan was organised in eight weight categories, including four in women’s section. Top two athletes in each weight category were eligible to win tickets for the Tokyo Olympic Games starting July 23.

Was in a state of shock when I tested positive, says Balaji

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Was in a state of shock when I tested positive, says Balaji

Chennai Super Kings [CSK] bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji said he was left in a daze and it took him “24 hours for the seriousness to sink in” after he contracted the Covid-19 virus during the postponed Indian Premier League [IPL].

Balaji was one of those who contracted the virus across four teams which led to the postponement of the tournament.

“Was I scared? Initially I could not express my feelings. I knew people were dying outside. It took me another 24 hours to sink in the seriousness of [the] issue once [my] family and friends started to message. I started to get worried. From the second day in isolation I realised I had to monitor myself, recording all the health data. I was obviously anxious,” said Balaji while speaking to espncricinfo.com.

The former India pace bowler was flown to Chennai from Delhi along with batting coach Michael Hussey, who too had contracted the virus.

“As I was isolating on my own, having tested positive for Covid-19, a thought crossed my mind: recovering from Covid-19, both physically and mentally, is like experiencing an episode of Man vs Wild,” he said.

Though Balaji said he doesn’t know where Hussey and he contracted the virus, one of the places where they could have caught it is believed to be Delhi’s Roshanara Club grounds where CSK had a practice session.

“Then I came to know that Michael Hussey, too, had tested positive. Till day we don’t know how or where we contracted the coronavirus. We had a very strict protocol within the bubble from [the] first week of March when CSK’s preparatory camp started,” added Balaji.

Recalling the day he realised he was down with the virus, the eight-Test and 106 first-class matches veteran said, “On May 2, I was feeling a bit of uneasiness. I had body ache and a mild nose block. I was tested the same day around mid-afternoon. By May 3 morning, I had tested positive. I was shocked. I had done nothing to breach the norms to endanger my and rest of the bubble’s safety.

“Along with me, after the May 2 testing, two others including Kasi Viswanathan [Super Kings’ CEO] and a helping staff member had also tested positive. To ensure it was a false positive, we were tested again the same day. I tested positive for the second time. Promptly, I was moved to another floor at the team hotel, separate from the rest of the Super Kings squad.”

Smart toilet to analyse stool for health problems

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Smart toilet to analyse stool for health problems

 Researchers are developing a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can be added to the standard toilet to help analyse patients’ stool and give gastroenterologists the information they need to provide appropriate treatment.

The new technology could assist in managing chronic gastrointestinal issues such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), indicates the study selected for presentation at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2021.

“Patients often can’t remember what their stool looks like or how often they have a bowel movement, which is part of the standard monitoring process,” said researcher Deborah Fisher from Duke University in the US.

“The Smart Toilet technology will allow us to gather the long-term information needed to make a more accurate and timely diagnosis of chronic gastrointestinal problems,” Fisher added.

The technology can be retrofitted within the pipes of an existing toilet. Once a person has a bowel movement and flushes, the toilet will take an image of the stool within the pipes.

The data collected over time will provide a gastroenterologist a better understanding of a patient’s stool form (i.e., loose, normal or constipated) and the presence of blood, allowing them to diagnose the patient and provide the right treatment for their condition.

To develop the artificial intelligence image analysis tool for the Smart Toilet, researchers analysed 3,328 unique stool images found online or provided by research participants.

All images were reviewed and annotated by gastroenterologists according to the Bristol Stool Scale, a common clinical tool for classifying stool.

Using a computationally efficient approach to convolutional neural networks, which is a type of deep learning algorithm that can analyse images, researchers found that the algorithm accurately classified the stool from 85.1 per cent of the time; gross blood detection had an accuracy of 76.3 per cent.

‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ music director Raam Laxman dead

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‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ music director Raam Laxman dead

Celebrated music composer for Bollywood and Marathi films Vijay Patil of the famed ‘Raam Laxman’ duo, passed away following a heart attack here early Saturday, his family members said. He was 79.

Patil suffered a heart attack, his son Amar informed, adding that his father had taken the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine recently.

As the Raam Laxman duo, Patil, along with his partner Surendra, had composed music for many top notch Hindi and Marathi films in the past over four decades.

They include blockbuster music for films like “Maine Pyar Kiya,” “Hum Aapke Hain Koun”, “Hum Saath Saath Hain”, “Agent Vinod”, “Taraana”, “100 Days”, “Hum Se Badhkar Kaun”, among others.

Top Bollywood personalities, including Lata Mangeshkar have condoled the demise of Patil — the ‘Laxman’ of the successful team of which ‘Raam’ (Surendra) passed away 45 years ago.

Sunny Leone is in the mood to play peekaboo

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Sunny Leone is in the mood to play peekaboo

 Green is in for Sunny Leone, as she gets into the mood for random peekaboo with fans in her new social media post on Saturday.

Sunny posted a boomerang video on Instagram wearing a floor-sweeping green frilled shoulder dress. In the clip, she does a quick peekaboo action, covering her face and then revealing it.

“Peekaboo,” she wrote as caption.

Sunny is currently in Kerala shooting the upcoming psychological thriller film “Shero”. The film is directed by Sreejith Vijayan and is scheduled to be released in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam.

The actress is all set to make her digital debut with the web series “Anamika”, helmed by Vikram Bhatt.

Jacqueline Fernandez’s quirky new post is all about ‘cat yoga’

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Jacqueline Fernandez’s quirky new post is all about ‘cat yoga’

A cat adds a quirky touch to Jacqueline Fernandez’s latest Instagram post on Saturday, where the actress is seen practicing yoga.

The video captures Jacqueline practices yoga in a medium long-shot frame, even as the cat flits in and out of the frame in the near end of the camera.

“Cat yoga,” wrote Jacqueline, along with the video clip.

The actress currently has her kitty full with films over the next few months. She co-stars with Akshay Kumar in “Ram Setu” and “Bachchan Pandey”, and returns with Salman Khan in “Kick 2”.

“Cirkus” casts her with Ranveer Singh while Jacqueline also features in the horror comedy “Bhoot Police”, with Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, and Yami Gautam.

NTPC Mouda’s river rejuvenation proj aids 150+ villages tide water crisis

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NTPC Mouda’s river rejuvenation proj aids 150+ villages tide water crisis

Country’s largest power generator NTPC’s project in Maharashtra’s Mouda has helped over 150 villages in and around its operational area to overcome water crisis through ground water rejuvenation.

As part of its CSR initiative, NTPC Mouda is supporting the Jalyukta Shivar Yojana project which has successfully managed to turn Mouda into a water-surplus tehsil.

This project was carried out by the Maharashtra wing of Art of Living along with aid from few other organizations and the State government.

Earlier Mouda, was one of the most water-deficient tehsils in Nagpur. The project which started in 2017 has covered more than 200 km in Mouda, Hingna and Kamptee tehsils. In the last four years, over 150 villages have benefited from it.

NTPC Mouda had contributed Rs 78 lakh for the fuel charges of machinery and equipment involved. For a similar rejuvenation project of 5 ponds over an area of 1,000 acres, an amount of Rs 1 crore is also being provided by NTPC Mouda.

Hari Prasad Joshi, Group General Manager (NTPC Mouda) said, “We are committed to the development of the nearby community and NTPC Mouda will ensure that it plays its part in doing so.”

The ‘Trap the rain where it falls’ technique involves the creation of ponds and nullahs throughout the stretch of the river so that rainwater can be held for a long period.

Earlier, the rainwater would run off the ground, but now the water gets sufficient time to percolate deep into the ground. This has led to a massive increase in groundwater levels.

Until a couple of years ago, the farmers in this area were struggling to get water for crops such as paddy, wheat and chilly during the pre-harvesting seasons. Now, the stored rainwater has come to their rescue and provided a new lease of life to their crops and improved income levels.

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