Saudi based Islamic bank enters India, first branch in Gujarat

Bengaluru, Jan 8: The Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to adopt a no-fail approach for Class 7 examinations for government and private schools following the state syllabus.

The report card of a student doesn’t carry ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ remark, but points to his or her strengths and weaknesses in each subject in the exams, which will now be called Common Evaluation Exam.

The quality cell of the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (which conducts SSLC exams) will prepare question papers, which will be evaluated at the district level by government and private schoolteachers. The Class 7 exams will be held in March.

The Common Evaluation Exam follows the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) currently practised under the Right to Education Act. “The formative and summative assessments (tests, projects and quizzes) will be held as usual,”KG Jagadeesha, commissioner of public instruction, said.

Edu dept to launch helpline by March

For the March exam, summative assessment 2 will be held with half the syllabus. Other modalities (exam duration and total marks) will be announced next week,” said KG Jagadeesha. The CCE system will continue for classes 8 and 9. The government hopes the exam and subsequent interventions in classes 8 and 9 will boost students’ confidence for crucial board examinations.

Minister S Suresh Kumar said, “More than an exam, it’s an evaluation of a child’s knowledge. The Belagavi division has done something similar. The Kalaburagi zone found mathematics and science were areas of concern; language was an issue in Urdumedium schools.” The minister said zilla panchayat CEOs have observed that intervention should start from class 8. “Keeping this in mind, we’ve started necessary preparation for class 7 exam ,” he added.

The education department will start a helpline by March for students, teachers, school managements and educationists to 11 raise problems on day-to-day issues.

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday demanded that the Karnataka government announce a "special package" for unorganised sector workers, street vendors and autorickshaw drivers, among others, all daily wagers whose lives are affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. "..a special package needs to be announced to this section of people, this is the demand," Siddaramaiah, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, told reporters here.

Alleging that the government has failed to control the spread of coronavirus, he said it is the government's responsibility to take care of the basic needs of those from the unorganised sector, whose lives have been impacted by the lockdown. "It is the duty of the government and they should do it immediately. The package should also be announced. I will hold discussions with leaders of other opposition parties like JD(S), CPI, CPI(M) and BSP in this regard and also on trouble faced by farmers," he added. Alleging discrimination in supply of food packets and ration kits, Siddaramaiah said it was being supplied properly only in constituencies represented by BJP legislators.

"Politics is being played out in supply of food materials to the needy, keeping corporation elections in mind.... We don't want to do politics at this point in time as there is lockdown. If things continue to be the same after the lockdown ends, we will protest on the streets," he said.

Siddaramaiah on Tuesday interacted with representatives of auto rickshaw and cab drivers, street vendors, barbers, unorganised workers organisations, among others, to understand the difficulties faced by them during the lockdown and to know whether help from the government has reached them. He said most of them don't have work and it has become difficult for them to lead their normal lives.

They raised several issues like auto and cab drivers being unable to pay road tax and EMI, he said, adding that he would write a detailed letter to the Chief Minister in this regard The former Chief Minister pointed out that there is about 21 lakh registered organised workers, 1.32 crore lakh unorganised workers and also agriculture labourers in the state.

"Among organised workers only 12.5 of the 21 lakh are said to be getting Rs 2000, that too from the Employees Welfare Fund, while others could not get any money, citing reasons like they have not renewed it," he said.

On the other hand, unorganised sector workers don't get money and were also not getting proper food or ration kits, he alleged Though the labour department claimed that it was supplying one lakh food packets and 1.5 lakh ration kits, as also corporations, there were leakages and it was not reaching the beneficiaries properly, he said.

May 6: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.