Zameer meets Muslim leaders ahead of budget

Hubballi, Feb 16: Rs 72,000 crore investment proposals were received at the Invest Karnataka meet, here on Friday, for the states northern region, said an official on Saturday.

"About 50 foreign and domestic firms have proposed to invest Rs 72,000 crore in the northwest and northern regions of the state and a dozen companies signed agreements with us," state Industries Department Secretary Gaurav Gupta said.

Rajesh Exports, Bengaluru-based group, signed an agreement to set up a manufacturing unit at Dharwad to rollout electric vehicles and make lithium ion batteries.

"Rajesh Exports proposes to invest about Rs 50,000 crore for manufacturing electric cars and lithium ion batteries for the domestic and overseas markets. It will generate about 10,000 jobs," said Gupta.

Similarly, Sonali Power has signed a pact with the state nodal agency (Udyog Mitra) to set up a solar power plant at Davangere at a cost of Rs 4,800 crore, which will generate 2,100 direct jobs.

Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa claimed several firms had come forward to collectively invest Rs 1 lakh crore since the BJP government came into being in July 2019.

"Many Indian and foreign firms will sign agreements with the state government at the 3-day Global Investors meet in Bengaluru on November 3-5," Yediyurappa said at the 'Invest Karnataka' meet.

Noting that Karnataka was rich in natural and human resources, especially in high-tech and skilled workforce, Yediyurappa said investment opportunities were plenty in aerospace, automobiles, machine tools, electric vehicles and bio-technology besides information technology.

"About 40 global firms expressed interest to invest in the state at a roadshow held at Davos, Switzerland, on the margins of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet on January 23," he said.

Under the new industrial policy, the state government will set up clusters to make toys at Koppal, textiles in Bellari, solar equipment at Kalaburagi and farm machinery at Bidar.

"We are committed to make North Karnataka a power house of industries for the region's development, with Hubballi-Dharwad as the growth hub," Yediyurappa said.

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.

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 31: The Kerala government

on Tuesday rejected concerns of community spread of novel coronavirus in the state in the wake of the second death of a patient here who had no travel history or reported contact with any infected person.

Setting aside the concern, Health Minister K K Shylaja said the deceased man, a native of nearby Pothancode, was already suffering from several other health issues including high blood pressure.

The 68-yearold man died at the government medical college here, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Kerala to two, the government said.

"We have got information that the deceased man had come in contact with some persons arrived from the Gulf. As he was very sick and was not in a position to speak, we could not collect details from him directly," she told reporters here.

"So we had to collect such details from his relatives now. As per preliminary assessment, it was a case of contact spread. So, as of now, there is no need to get panic about the community spread," she said

The possibility of death was high among patients, aged above 60 years and suffering from other diseases like heart ailments or diabetics, she said.

"That's why we are giving strict directions to the elderly people to remain in homes and avoid contact with infected persons, " the minister said.

However, the minister directed those came in contact with the deceased person to remain in self-quarantine and inform the authorities if they developed any infection symptoms.

In both the coronavirus deaths in the state, the deceased persons were aged and were suffering from other diseases, she added.