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The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Monday sought an urgent hearing in the Supreme Court (SC) regarding its plea against a High Court order directing it not to declare the NEET-UG 2021 results. The HC directed the NTA to conduct a re-examination for two aspirants whose question papers and OMR sheets got mixed during the examination at a centre in Maharashtra. The Bombay High Court on October 20, 2021, directed the NTA to hold fresh exams for the two aspirants and declare their results along with the entire NEET-UG 2021 results. NEET-UG 2021 was conducted on September 12, 2021, for admissions to undergraduate medical courses and colleges. The incident of the test booklet and OMR sheet mix up took place at the examination centre between aspirants Vaishanavi Bhopali and Abhishek Shivaji. Upon hearing this, the HC ruled that they should be given a fresh opportunity to reappear for the exams. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana was informed about the urgency of the matter by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NTA, saying that the declaration of the results is halted due to the order of the high court. The court asked the law officer to mention the case before the bench that has been hearing these cases, and on being told that the matter was a fresh one, the bench agreed to consider an urgent listing. “The declaration of the results of the NEET exam has been stayed at the behest of two students. I am requesting the hearing tomorrow,” the law officer submitted before the bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli. “We will see,” said the bench. The NTA, in its appeal, said that the NEET (UG), 2021 Examination for more than 16 lakh candidates was conducted on September 12, and due to the high court’s order, it has not been able “to declare their results even though the same is ready for declaration”. “The delay in declaration of Result of NEET (UG) 2021 will affect and further delay the subsequent process of admission to Undergraduate Medical Courses i.e. MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS, BUMS and BHMS Courses,” it said in the plea. The high court also directed that the NTA “shall give 48 hrs clear notices to the Petitioners about the date of examination and the centre allotted to the Petitioners”. Source: The article has been published by Indian Express with edits from the ArdorComm News Network Team.

The UPSC Civil services exam of India is considered one of the toughest exams in the country and demands a lot of patience, perseverance, proper guidance, and hard work. While one can get the appropriate advice from the currently serving officers, it helps a lot in clearing the aspirant’s vision. While many civil servants have shared their study plan, notes, and tips to crack the exam in the past few years, many of these officers have also been using social media platforms to get an enormous reach. Also,few other officers have created groups and communities to extend the helping hand towards these aspirants. A joint initiative, “Being IFS,” was launched in 2019,a platform to answer all the queries related to the civil services exam and to give the right strategy. The platform provides one-to-one communication to the students. IFS officer Ankit Kumar launched this platform. The other civil servant officers gaining immense popularity on social media and sharing their knowledge and suggestions to students are IFS officer Parveen Kaswan with 320K followers on Twitter, IPS officer Lakshay Pandey, and 2015 Topper Tina Dabi as one the most followed Civil Servant officer. IAS and PCS officers are also coming ahead and extending a helping hand towards the underprivileged and remote area located aspirants. Source: theindianexpress.com

Now students who have qualified for the International Olympiads can get direct admission to IIT. They won’t be required to clear JEE Advanced entrance test. IIT Kanpur made this announcement, which reportedly claims to give entry to students who have participated in Internationally renowned Olympiads, who are eligible to get direct access based on their performances in the competition. It is justified that students who crack an international Olympiad go through complex preparation and selection processes. Students who will qualify for the Olympiad exam can apply directly for admission in their preferred subjects. However, the final acceptance of this new decision is yet to come from the head of departments of IIT. However, this latest entry for the admission system is introduced by IIT based on principal agreement. Hence there is no such guarantee regarding admission of these students yet. Source: News18.com

Delhi Varsity released its third cut off list in terms of the admission process. The marks cut off for the third round of admission in the undergraduate courses has declined by 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent only. However, the cut off of practices with a higher demand from the students saw no such changes in their cut-off rates. The BA (Honors) Economics course in Hansraj College and Lady Shri Ram College, and Hindu College has expected admissions at a cut off of 99 percent. On the other hand, the courses have already closed for entry in Janki Devi Memorial College, Kalindi College, Kamla Nehru College, Kirori Mal College and Miranda House. Simultaneously the Indraprasth College for Women has set a cut off rate at 98 percent for admissions in the BA (Honors) Economics, and Rajmas colleges has a cut of 98.75 percent for the same course. In terms of the cut-off race, Shri Ram College of Commerce remained on top with a cut off 99.50 percent. class=”socc”Source: economicstimes.com

The drugs that have been in use for treating health issues like; diabetes, obesity and ageing can also be used to treat COVID-19, as per a finding by researchers of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal. It is being claimed that the existing drugs being used to treat diabetes, obesity, and ageing can also potentially be used to treat COVID-19. The review for the same was published to show biomolecular relationships among COVID-19, ageing and diabetes. Dr. Amjad Husain, Principal Scientist and Chief Executive Officer of the Innovation and Incubation Center for Entrepreneurship (IICE), IISER Bhopal, along with a researcher from the University of Arizona, have claimed that, as an add on to these drugs, some similar, natural existing biomolecules can be explored as a form of potential drugs for the cure of COVID-19. As an effect of COVID-19 can be seen severe in the case of aged people and people who have diabetes, all three conditions are related to oxidative stress and lowering the immune system, and complications that arise from these conditions lead to the onset of various other diseases. Since the time taken to discover new drugs can cost a lot, finding the relationship between effective medicine for other health issues and COVID-19 will help in treatment quickly. Source: ndtv.com

After the pandemic hit the world, while every sector is going through a rejuvenating and reopening phase, the education sector is all set to sail the same boat; academicians believe enrolling a higher number of international students can help improvise Indian B-schools performance in terms of global rankings as this initiative will bring more emphasis on things like Internationalization, foreign faculty, global lookout and students. India has not succeeded yet to be figured among top global places for study abroad. It has always been a matter of challenge to attract international students to Indian institutions for education. As a solution to this challenge, few of the centers of the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have come up with redundant seats in many of the courses especially for foreign student’s admissions. Concerning which recently, IIM Kozhikode announced 50 supernumerary seats for international students for their three full-time MBA programs: Post Graduate Program (PGP) MBA (20 seats), PGP in Finance (20 seats) and PGP in Liberal Studies and Management (10 seats). IIM Ahmedabad was among the first few institutes to launch supernumerary seats in two-year MBA courses. Source: theindianexpress.com

The Ministry of Defence, following the directive issued by the Supreme Court, will open the gates of Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) and Rashtriya Military Schools (RMS) for admissions for girl students. According to a statement by MoD, “According to an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, there is a requirement of authorising additional vacancies along with other associated infrastructure and administrative support. This is proposed to be carried out in two phases.” Entrance Exam for Admissions to Start from June 2022 Phase I – In the first phase of the admissions into the RIMC, the maximum capacity for girls will increase from 250 to 300. According to the plan, five new girls will be inducted every six months. It is expected that the increase in admissions may be affected due to the changes to the infrastructure and recruitment of additional staff to support the girl cadets. Based on the plan, girl students will be able to sit for the entrance exam in June 2022. The effective session is expected to start from January 2023. Phase II – In the second phase, the capacity for admissions will increase from 300 to 350. It means that 10 new girls will be admitted into the schools every six months. Hence, at the end of the expansion program, RIMC will have 250 boys and 100 girl students. RIMC is situated in Uttarakhand, Dehradun. Source: India Today

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, has launched the ‘Swechha’ programme under which they will distribute sanitary napkins to adolescent school girls free of cost to improve hygiene and health situation in government schools and colleges. According to reports, over 23 percent of girls miss their regular school days during their menstruation period because of the lack of hygiene facilities in the school. To improve this situation, the state government has also planned to improve toilets in government schools. Under the initiative, the state government will be distributing quality sanitary napkins to over 10 lakh students from 7-12 grades at the cost of Rs.32 crore. Students will be receiving 120 pads each year. The students will also learn about the proper disposal of sanitary pads, where separate dustbins and 6,417 incinerators will be provided under the Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) Programme. Reddy said, “The government initiated Nadu-Nedu and revamping all the toilets in 56,703 schools and hostels by constructing them with running water facilities. In the first phase, 15,715 schools have been renovated, and all the remaining schools will be completed by 2023.” Source: NDTV, Careers 360

The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi has established a ‘Centre of excellence on quantum technologies’ to research related fields. This center of excellence aims to synergy and coherence in the activities being carried outat the institute, and it will support the principal investigators to pitch in for more critical projects from DST and other funding agencies, as per the institute. Rajendra Singh, Head, School of Interdisciplinary Research (SIRe) and Lead PI, CoE on Quantum Technologies IIT Delhi, said, “In past 100 years, quantum physics has impacted the society in several ways.By exploiting the characteristics of quantum physics in light and materials, researchers were able to invent both the laser and the transistor. These inventions are based on technology as the whole computer, the internet and much more besides, which has helped shape our society so far to a considerable extent”. Source: Theindianexpress.com