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New Indian Express
5 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
YSRCP leader Jagan Reddy demands free re-evaluation of SSC exams, urges action against HRD Minister Lokesh
VIJAYAWADA: YSRCP president and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy lambasted the TDP-led NDA government over irregularities surfaced in the evaluation of recently announced SSC examinations. Demanding free re-evaluation of answer sheets and a pause on admission to institutions based on SSC results, he sought action against everyone responsible, including HRD Minister Lokesh. Accusing the government of failing to evaluate answer sheets properly and ensure transparent results, impacting 6.14 lakh students, Jagan, in a post on the social media platform 'X', pointed out that errors led to lost admission opportunities in institutions like IIIT and Gurukul Junior Colleges. He also alleged that the current dispensation has rolled back the educational reforms introduced by his government, including Nadu-Nedu (school infrastructure), Amma Vodi (financial aid to mothers), English-medium education, TOEFL classes from Class 3, and CBSE/IB curricula, harming the students' global competitiveness. The issue has sparked outrage online, with users sharing stories of students losing IIIT seats due to evaluation errors.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Recounting of SSC answer sheets reveal evaluation lapses in over 11,000 papers in Andhra Pradesh
Visakhapatnam: The revaluation/recounting process of class X (SSC) answer sheets, initiated by the Andhra Pradesh school education department, has preliminarily uncovered discrepancies in the evaluation of as many as 11,175 papers. Marks were increased between one to five in 8,863 papers and between six and 10 in 1,506 papers. More than 10 marks were increased in the remaining papers. The corrections reported so far have highlighted significant shortcomings in the evaluation process. Consequently, several students have already reported improved marks and, in some cases, have passed the examinations as a result of the recounting and re-evaluation. According to officials, a total of 64,251 applications for reverification and 2,112 for recounting were received from 34,709 students. The results for 47,484 of these scripts were released on May 16, and the official announcement regarding the release of remaining revaluation marks is yet to be made. This issue came to public attention after a meritorious student from Bapatla district was declared failed in the examiniation. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Writing in English Doesn't Have to Feel Hard Grammarly Learn More Undo Emani Tejaswini, who studied at ZP high school in Kolluru of Bapatla district, scored an average of 95 marks out of 100 in five out of six subjects. She was initially awarded only 23 marks in social studies, and was declared to have failed the examinations. Her parents and teachers were shocked. However, upon re-evaluation, her marks in social studies were corrected to 96, raising her total to 575 (out of 600). Initially, Emani's parents expressed concern that, due to these developments, they had missed the deadline (May 20) to apply for the IIIT programme. However, govt later clarified that students who were unable to apply due to recounting-related issues would be allowed to submit their applications along with their revised mark sheets. Dr KV Srinivasulu Reddy, director of govt examinations department, said that a preliminary investigation revealed that these errors occurred as a result of the omission of one or more rows in the four-row marks entry method used during this year's evaluation. "Students will be allowed to submit their applications to the IIIT programme with the revised mark memos. The department is taking this matter seriously, and disciplinary action is being initiated against the assistant examiners and special assistants found responsible for these errors," he said. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed his dissatisfaction over the error, which caused undue distress among several students. He instructed the relevant departmental officials to ensure that affected students do not face any obstacles in getting admission to intermediate courses. "Strict action must be taken against the officials and staff responsible, and a detailed report should be submitted immediately. The need of the hour is systemic reform to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future," Naidu said. Former education minister and opposition leader in the Legislative Council, Botsa Satyanarayana, said that several students who had been declared to have failed the SSC exams, ended up receiving up to 90 marks after applying for reverification. "Have we ever seen such a situation before? As many as 66,000 applications came for re-evaluation/reverification of answer sheets. This clearly indicates that the evaluation was carried out with utter negligence," he added.
The Hindu
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Government-purchased chip design tools used for lakhs of hours in universities
The Union Government's ChipIN Centre has driven lakhs of hours of circuit design training by students at the top electrical engineering institutes, according to data published by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). In 2022, the Union Government announced that it would be licensing Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and provide free access to these tools to startups and academia, under the Design Linked Incentive scheme and the Chips to Startups scheme. Anuj Grover, an associate professor at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Delhi, said that the government had paid 'through its teeth' to obtain these licenses, with great benefits for students. EDA tools from one company, Cadence, were used by IIIT students and researchers for more than 31,000 hours in April, according to MeitY's data. 'Both graduate and Ph.D students at IIIT are designing 'small circuits … that would go into chips' using these tools,' Dr. Grover said. These tools give students an advantage when they enter the industry, as most firms making chips also use EDA tools by the same vendors — Synopsys, Cadence, Keysight and Siemens. 'At internships his students undertake,' Dr. Grover said, 'IIIT students were put to work directly, while students from other institutes were given time to learn the EDA tools.' IIIT was previously purchasing a limited number of licenses even before ChipIN stepped in, as the institute has established courses in the subject. Dr. Grover said, 'The scarcity of licenses beforehand led to a small number of students being able to concurrently use the software. And costs for the licenses exceeded more than ₹10 lakh a year.' The government has given these 'EDA tools to 240 universities,' Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said at an event in April. At a separate occasion, while launching the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, Mr. Vaishnaw again pointed to the effort, saying that a visiting Japanese delegation was 'surprised at the extent of democratisation' of these tools. It's not just IITs and IIITs that are using the EDA software — the data shows, for instance, that the Vellore Institute of Technology clocked more than one lakh hours of tool use from Synopsys in April alone. Dr. Grover said that while open source tools did exist, ChipIN gave them access not just to the tools, but access to dedicated tech support for them, which is included in the licenses the government obtained. The tools are a 'vital step towards generating industry-ready manpower and a self-reliant chip design ecosystem in India,' M. Hari Hara Sudhan, correspondent at the Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology in Coimbatore, told The Hindu. He added that the Chips to Startup programme was 'inculcating the culture of entrepreneurship among students and researchers.'
New Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Science
- New Indian Express
95.86% candidates clear AP ICET
VISAKHAPATNAM: A total of 95.86% of candidates qualified in the AP Integrated Common Entrance Test (ICET)-2025. According to the results released by the Andhra University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. GP Raja Sekhar, in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday, out of 37,572 applicants, 34,131 candidates appeared for the entrance examination held on May 7 in two sessions. Of these, 32,719 candidates qualified. The examination was conducted across 94 test centres, including 93 in Andhra Pradesh and one in Hyderabad. Among the 34,131 candidates who appeared, 15,863 were male and 18,268 were female. A total of 15,176 male candidates qualified, recording a pass percentage of 95.66%. Of the female candidates, 17,543 cleared the test, with a slightly higher pass percentage of 96.03%. Manoj Meka from Visakhapatnam secured the first rank with a top score of 197.914 marks. Dwarakacharla Sandeep Reddy from YSR Kadapa secured second rank with 179.5174 marks, followed by Sakala Krishna Sai from NTR district with 178.5175 marks. Valluri Sairam Satvik from Hyderabad attained the fourth rank with a score of 175.6945 marks. Ravuri Madhurya from Guntur, the only female candidate in the top five, secured fifth rank with 175.4529 marks. Sheik Bashirunnisa from Anakapalli ecured sixth rank with 175.3132. Valipi Ajay Kumar, who secured the seventh rank in the ICET 2025 with 174.1794 marks, completed his in Computer Science from IIIT, Sri City during 2018-2022. He is currently preparing for UPSC and APPSC competitive examinations. Hailing from Tirupati district, his father works as a head constable at the Gajulamandyam Police Station. Notably, Ajay secured the 1st rank in the Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) region. The AP ICET-2025 was conducted by Andhra University on behalf of the APSCHE to facilitate admissions into MBA and MCA courses across the state. Taking to X, HRD Minister Nara Lokesh wrote, 'Congratulations to all the students who qualified in AP ICET 2025! 32,719 out of 34,131 students qualified (95.86%). My best wishes for your bright academic future!!'
The Hindu
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Kadapa Collector inspects MGNREGA works after MP's complaint
Kadapa Collector Sridhar Cherukuri inspected a number of ongoing works pertaining to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) in the district, on Friday. Inspecting the works at Vempalli mandal along with District Water Management Agency (DWMA) officials, he interacted with the workers and appealed to them to make use of the scheme. The work sites included water harvesting ponds for sweet lime orchards, where Mr. Sridhar learnt the farm management practices adopted by the orchard owners. The Collector apparently made a visit to the sites after receiving a complaint from Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy on the widespread corruption and irregularities in the implementation of MGNREGA works in the State. In the complaint, Mr. Reddy had accused the TDP-led alliance government of 'systematically subverting' the scheme and resorting to large scale financial fraud, thus leading to exploration of vulnerable labourers. The MP also brought to the notice of the Collector the issue of fake job cards to non-existent or politically-linked individuals by ignoring and threatening genuine job seekers, digital manipulation of attendance records by uploading the same photographs across multiple muster entries with different names, releasing wage payments for the works that have never executed based on forged documents and without proper ground verification. . The Collector later inspected the IIIT campus in Idupulapaya and offered prayers at the famous Gandi Anjaneyaswamy temple.
