TSBIE deploys committee to approve advertisements of junior colleges
Hyderabad: A five-membered committee has been announced by the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) to look over advertisements proposed by private junior colleges.
The board, on Monday, mandated that those looking forward to advertising their students and publishing any other advertisement must first take the approval of the committee, comprising senior officials from the Intermediate board.
The move has been initiated to rule out the allegations of corporate junior colleges giving out misleading advertisements over the top ranks by students in entrance tests such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) UG to lure parents and students into their institutions.
Secretary of the board, Navin Mittal has announced that the committee will monitor the culture of advertisements and will also set a code to be followed by the private junior college managements.
Senior officials from the board to join the committee will include the controller of examinations, joint secretaries for exams, administration, and academic and Public Relations Officer (PRO).
Mittal briefed that private college managements must first submit their applications to the committee along with the advertisements to the PRO for approval following which the committee will then scrutinize the content of submitted advertisements, make necessary suggestions (if required), and then approve it for publication.
The European parliament has approved a series of proposals to overhaul the EU asylum system in a bid to end a years-long deadlock over the issue.
Voting in Strasbourg, MEPs approved plans on the distribution of refugees and migrants across the bloc, screening of people at the EU’s external borders and giving non-EU nationals long-term residence permits after three years of legal stay in a member state.
The votes open the way for MEPs to negotiate the final laws with EU ministers. All sides have pledged to aim for an agreement by April 2024 – before the European elections later that year.
After seven years of deadlock over the issue, lawmakers who will be involved in the negotiations suggested this could be the last chance to create a truly common European asylum system.
“If we miss this chance to make it right, I am very pessimistic about having any other chance to make it right and that will be an extremely, extremely disappointing, extremely sad, extremely counterproductive kind of a message,” Spanish Socialist MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar told reporters before the vote.
Tomas Tobé, a Swedish centre-right MEP, said the EU was at a crossroad. “Either the political deadlock continues … or we will see the situation where member states will act independently and we will have more problems ahead of us.”
The crunch point is approaching as the EU grapples with the largest number of people seeking to come to Europe via irregular routes since 2016. The EU border agency Frontex reported 330,000 irregular crossings at the EU’s external borders in 2022, a 64% jump on the previous year and the highest since 2016.
After more than 1.2 million people fleeing war and persecution sought refuge in the union in 2015, triggering a political crisis for EU leaders, the European Commission proposed mandatory quotas of asylum seekers to be distributed around the bloc. But member states failed to back the idea. While Mediterranean states, such as Greece, Italy and Spain, insisted on mandatory relocation, central European countries, such as Hungary and Poland, refused to accept such a plan.
Under a new European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU executive revised its ideas in September 2020, proposing that member states opposed to mandatory relocation could instead take charge of returning people denied asylum in the EU to their country of origin. The EU typically returns about 29% of people denied asylum to their home country and is seeking to boost this number by striking deals with governments in the Middle East and Africa.
The European parliament argues that a country that refuses to take in asylum seekers during a crisis situation should be obliged to make financial contributions to frontline countries – an idea that was fiercely opposed and ultimately blocked by central Europe, led by Poland and Hungary’s nationalist governments, during the last round of failed talks.
With the support of the European parliament’s largest groups – the centre-right, centre-left and centrists – that proposal, along with the other negotiating positions, passed with comfortable majorities of about three-quarters of MEPs present on Thursday.
But EU member states have made little progress on the most controversial aspects of the draft laws, the shared management of asylum seekers during normal times and crisis situations. EU governments have, however, fixed a common position on tightening up screening on asylum seekers at the external border.
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MEPs have also called for tougher monitoring of human rights abuses at the EU’s frontiers, in response to numerous reports of illegal pushbacks and beatings.
At the same time, sea crossings are claiming more lives. The International Organization for Migration said last week that 441 people died trying to reach Europe via the central Mediterranean route between January to March 2023, the deadliest first quarter since 2017. With more than 20,000 people having died on this route alone since 2014, the UN agency said it feared these deaths have become “normalised”.
Stephanie Pope, an expert in EU asylum policy at Oxfam, said the votes were a significant step, but she was not hopeful of a better asylum system. “A lot of the proposals in the pact were pretty much a race to the bottom when it comes to the protection of human rights and the right to asylum and not much has changed in that regard,” she said.
“The key sticking point, and the root of a lot of the ongoing human rights violations against refugees we’ve seen for years now is the lack of an effective responsibility sharing mechanism between member states.
“Push backs and the violence we are seeing at borders are an unacceptable symptom of this failure to agree on responsibility sharing between member states.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Tamil Nadu Governor and Chief Minister have been at loggerheads.
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu assembly on Monday adopted a resolution urging the Union government and the President to ‘fix a time frame’ for the Governors to give assent to bills that were passed by the House.
The resolution was moved after suspending certain provisions of rule 92(7) and 287 of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly. The special resolution which needs 3/4th of the votes to be moved in the House was allowed by the Speaker with 144 of the 146 members in the house voting for it.
The AIADMK walked out of the House while BJP MLAs, C. Saraswathi and M.R. Gandhi voted against the resolution.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin while moving the resolution lashed out against the Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi and said that the Governor was making it a habit to speak against the state government whenever the Prime Minister was in the state or when he (Stalin) was in New Delhi.
Stalin, while speaking in the House, said, “I don’t want to give a point-by-point rebuttal to the Governor and make the House a political forum. But we can’t remain mute spectators, if the Governor attempts to disturb the House with political intent.”
He also said, “Two resolutions had to be moved against the Governor in a single budget session. Governor has created the compulsion by acting with political intent. Those who must realise it must realise it. This will be the day for realisation. Governor is not ready to be a friend of the people of Tamil Nadu.”
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said, “I will not say that the Governor does not know the Constitution. But his political loyalty has superseded his loyalty to the Constitution. Hence he is publicly criticising the policies of the government in violation of the Supreme Court orders.”
San Francisco: Meta-owned WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out a new feature — “approve new participants” in group settings for some beta testers on Android and iOS.
With this feature, group administrators will be able to manage how the approval of new members works in their groups, according to WABetaInfo.
In particular, when the option is enabled, anyone trying to join a group will be subject to approval by an administrator.
Moreover, the report said that the feature could offer more control over who joins the group — by toggling the approve new participants option, group admins will now be able to approve or reject new participants when they join the group, even if they have used a group invite link.
In addition, this could also help admins limit the large number of requests they receive from people who want to join a subgroup of their community.
This feature will roll out to even more beta testers over the coming weeks, the report mentioned.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp is reportedly developing a new feature — “silence unknown callers” — which will allow users to mute calls from unknown numbers while still showing them in the calls list and notification centre.
The new feature is currently under development on WhatsApp beta for Android.
Moldova’s parliament has approved the formation of a pro-western government led by the new prime minister, Dorin Recean, amid continuing economic turmoil and allegations of Russian meddling.
Recean, 48, was nominated by President Maia Sandu to replace Natalia Gavrilita, whose government resigned last week amid a series of crises in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sandu repeatedly accused Russia of trying to destabilise Moldova and on Monday accused Moscow of plotting to topple the country’s leadership, stop it joining the EU and use it in the war against Ukraine.
Her comments came after Moldova’s intelligence service reported last week that it had identified “subversive activities”, after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv had intercepted a “plan for the destruction of Moldova” by Russian intelligence.
On the streets of Chișinău and other cities, tensions have ratcheted up amid a string of unusual incidents. Moldovan airspace was temporarily closed after authorities spotted an unidentified flying object near the northern town of Soroca, and missile debris from Russian airstrikes on neighbouring Ukraine has fallen inside Moldova’s borders.
Even an annual march by veterans of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan, where about 13,000 Moldovans fought, caused disquiet amid lingering concerns that the country could get drawn into the conflict in Ukraine.
“It will soon be a year since I woke up hearing bombs [from neighbouring Ukraine],” said Svetlana, 37, a seamstress from a Chișinău suburb. “I try to avoid watching the news now, otherwise I can’t sleep at night. My mother used to like Putin and now she prays for his death every day.”
In response to growing unease, police patrols have been stepped up and the interior ministry released an map of bomb shelters.
Valeriu Pașa, of the WatchDog thinktank, said that while Russia was unlikely to bring down the government, it could still sow further instability. “The risk of attempts of destabilisation is medium-sized. They may cause damages but not a total state overthrow,” he said. “The authorities will need to be more transparent in order to make people aware of the security risks.”
For many Moldovans, however, the day-to-day economic struggle is a more immediate concern. Inflation is at 30%, the highest in Europe, and the average monthly salary is just MDL 9,900 (£495). A recent survey showed that while 44% of the population was worried about war in Ukraine, 48% were concerned over high prices.
“I want them to let us live. We may not live well, but just let us live,” said Ecaterina Fieraru, 68, from Băcioi, a village near Chișinău. “A 1,000 MDL [£45] pension is hard to live off.” Even with her husband’s salary, Fieraru is only able to get by with help from remittances from her daughter, who has been working in a hotel in Italy for eight years.
Before 2022, the former Soviet republic imported almost all of its gas and electricity from Russia and Transnistria, a breakaway region in the east of Moldova where 1,500 Russian soldiers are stationed. As the two reduced supplies last year and the government bought energy from the west at higher prices, bills have shot up by as much as 600%.
With the help of financial aid from Europe and the US, the government was able to partly subsidise bills, but opposition parties have attempted to capitalise on economic concerns. The pro-Kremlin Șor and BECS parties have organised a string of demonstrations in which mainly elderly protesters have brandished signs in Russian and Romanian accusing the government of corruption and mismanagement.
The opposition has faced allegations that some of the demonstrators were paid to show up, but the economic crisis undoubtedly contributed to the falling popularity of Sandu’s government.
Recean, the new prime minister, has shifted focus from efforts to fight corruption towards reviving the economy and accelerating reforms for EU integration, after Moldova gained candidate status last year.
“We need a more active, rapid economic relaunch because we had a dramatic economic fall at the end of last year, and we require some balanced, intelligent policies to help business, while controlling inflation,” Pașa said.
Meanwhile, many Moldovans are emigrating, or considering it. “My mortgage used to cost me MDL 1,500 [£68] per month and now I’m paying MDL 8,500 [£386],” said Victor, 27. With a newborn at home, he struggles to cover his costs, working as a taxi driver in Chișinău. He blames the authorities for the increase in the bank rate from 6% to 19% within two years. “I think they just want us to leave the country.”
Others blame Russia for the economic crisis. “We need patience,” said Mihail Stegărescu, 65, a minibus driver. “Prices are high, but at least the government doesn’t kneel before Putin – the rise in the cost of living starts with him.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Ankara: Turkey will not approve Sweden’s bid to join NATO as long as it continues to allow Quran-burning protests, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that his country looks positively on Finland’s application for membership of the military alliance.
“Sweden! Don’t even bother to try. We cannot say ‘yes’ to your joining NATO as long as you continue to allow burning and tearing of my sacred book, the Quran,” Erdogan said in an address to Parliament on Wednesday.
“Our view on Finland is positive, but not for Sweden,” he added.
Ankara’s backlash against Stockholm’s NATO bid comes after the latter’s permission for recent protests involving Quran burning in the Nordic country, as well as the issue of extradition of people affiliated with anti-Turkey groups.
The Swedish police allowed a protest in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm in January.
Sweden and Finland submitted their formal requests to join NATO in May 2022, which were initially opposed by Turkey, an alliance member, citing their support for anti-Ankara Kurdish organisations and political dissidents.
A month later, Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) ahead of the NATO summit held in Madrid.
Under the MoU, Turkey agreed to lift its veto on the NATO bids by Finland and Sweden, which in return pledged to support Ankara’s fight against terrorism and address its “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly”.
The Turkish parliament has not ratified the Nordic countries’ NATO bids so far, citing that they have yet to meet Ankara’s requests.
