Four teenagers drown during lake party

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.

Bengaluru, May 31: The coronavirus related fatalities in Karnataka rose to 49 with the death of a 47-year-old woman while 141 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Saturday taking the infection tally to 2,922, Karnataka minister S Suresh Kumar said.

Among the fresh cases, 90 are inter-state passengers, he told reporters.

The deceased woman from Bidar was admitted on May 24 and died on May 28 at a designated hospital in Bidar, Kumar, minister for primary and secondary education and spokesperson for Covid-19 in the state, said.

The woman was diagnosed with influenza like illness with a history of paralysis and was bed-ridden besides having hypertension and convulsions, Kumar said.

According to him, the total cases include 997 discharges, 1,874 active cases, 49 Covid-19 deaths and two non-Covid related deaths.

Of the total active cases, 15 are in the ICU, he added.

The new cases comprise 33 in Bengaluru, 18 in Yadagir, 14 in Dakshina Kannada, 13 each in Udupi and Hassan, 11 in Vijayapura, 10 in Bidar, six in Shivamogga, four each in Davangere and Haveri, three in Kolar, two each in Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and one each in Belagavi, Chitradurga, Tumakuru and Bengaluru Rural, the health department said in its bulletin.

The minister said the government has issued an order regarding relaxation of curfew on Sundays.

According to the order issued by Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, there will not be any curfew on Sundays throughout the day following requests from people.

As per the previous order, curfew was from 7 am to 7 pm on Sundays.

Bengaluru,  Apr 30: As many as 30 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Karnataka from April 29, 5:00 pm to April 30, 5:00 pm, taking the total number of cases to 565, informed the State Health Department on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,718 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 33,050 in the country.

A total of 630 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, as per the latest data provided by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.