5 saffron extremists including a Mangalurean are key suspects in Gauri Lankesh murder

Mangaluru, Feb 26: Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL) Managing Director Mohammed Nazir on Wednesday said that 13 Schools in eight wards, here, will be upgraded under the Area Based Development (ABD) of the Smart City Mission (SCM).

Mr. Nazir, in a statement, said that the Schools selected include Government Higher Primary School Car Street, Bastigarden, Neereshwalya, Hoigebazar Lower Primary School, Government Practicing HS, Balmatta Primary School, Balmatta Secondary School, Bunder Higher Primary School (Urdu), Bunder Government High School (Urdu) and Bolara East Government Primary School.

These Smart Schools will have IT-enabled interactive teaching and learning tools, computer labs and open reading plazas.

Bengaluru, Jul 10: Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu on Thursday said that the government is planning to increase number of COVID-19 testing labs and technicians in the state.

Speaking to news agency, Sriramulu said, "We have 72 labs where COVID-19 tests are conducted. They are under pressure with increased number of tests. When lab technicians are quarantined, it gets difficult to complete work. So we are considering to increase number of labs and technicians."

Speaking on the community transmission of COVID-19 in Bengaluru, he said, "The experts are already deliberating over the issue of community transmission. According to me the community spread has not taken place yet."

Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Madhu Swamy said that the government is calling for foreign investment for which Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been hired by the state government.

Speaking to the reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Swamy said, "We call for foreign investment in Karnataka for which we need an agency who has to coordinate, who has to bring outsiders in Karnataka to invest in the state. For that we have hired a company by name Boston consulting Group(BCG) we will be paying them Rs 1 crore for twelve months."

Bengaluru, July 10: The Karnataka government has decided to hold examinations only for the final semester students of undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) in various universities of state and promote other semester students to the next level without holding any examination.

The decision was taken to safeguarding the students' interest as well as academic career of lakhs of students during the time of Covid-19 pandemic. The significant move by the Higher Education department was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan who is also the minister for Higher Education.

The DCM announced that the examination for final semester UG and PG students will be conducted as per the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the end of September 2020.

As per the latest decision, all students who are either at the beginning or middle semester of their UG and PG courses will be promoted to next semester without any examination. The state government further made it clear that the latest decision would only be applicable for this academic year--2019-20.

The students will be promoted to the next semesters based on academic performances during the previous assessment.

Giving details of the decision, Dr CN Ashwath Narayan told media persons that the decision was taken in the interest of the students. "Keeping in mind the safety of students during Covid-19 pandemic times, the government has taken the decision. We have also discussed with education experts, former Vice Chancellors before arriving at this decision," he said.

The DCM also revealed that Governor Vajubhai Vala who is the Chancellor of all the universities has also given his consent for the decision. Students can call up on the department helpline 080-22341394 for any academic queries.

How will students be promoted?

The students who are pursuing UG and PG courses at mid semester levels will be evaluated internally based on their academic performance along with the marks scored during the previous semester or year.

"Based on this comprehensive evaluation, we will promote the students to next semester. But for the first semester students, they will be promoted entirely based on internal evaluation on academic performance," the Deputy Chief Minister explained.

In case if the students wish to improve their marks further, they can take the exams separately later. This apart, students with backlog subjects have also been allowed to carry those subjects further into the next semester subject to only the present academic year.