In a first, no seats vacant at IITs in 2019: HRD Ministry
New Delhi: In a first, no seats have been vacant this year at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country, according to HRD Ministry officials.
"There have been a total of 13,604 undergraduate admissions in IITs this year with nil vacant seats. This is the first time ever to fill all seats in all IITs leaving no vacant seats which has been achieved by proactive cooperation of all IITs," HRD Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam said.
Last year, 118 seats in all 23 IITs were vacant.
Then HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had attributed the vacant seats to students not showing interest in certain disciplines.
Noticing the number of seats lying vacant in the premium institutes as rising trend in the five years, except in 2014, the HRD ministry had in 2017 set up a panel which made several recommendations to address the issue.
According to the ministry data, of the nearly 11,000 seats across the IITs, a total of 274 seats remained vacant from 2013 with IIT BHU recording maximum vacancies.
The Indian School of Mines (which was upgraded to the status of an IIT in 2016) recorded 23 vacancies each in 2016 and 2017.
The IIT-Kanpur and the IIT-Hyderabad had all their seats taken between 2013 and 2017, while the IIT-Delhi recorded zero vacancies between 2013 and 2015.
In 2016 and 2017, the IIT-Delhi had two seats vacant in each year. As far as IIT-Bombay is concerned, it had all its seats filled in 2013, 2014 and 2015, while had two vacancies in 2016 and one in 2017.
"In order to minimise the vacancies in IITs, NITs and other Centrally-Funded Technical institutions (CFTIs), the HRD ministry had constituted a committee to recommend suitable measures," a senior ministry official said.
The committee recommended the institutions may review seats in each discipline based on employment opportunities, national requirement, available infrastructure and scope for future.
"The committee also suggested streamlining the counselling process by having multiple rounds as well as taking other pro-active measures such as launching helpline to facilitate students in making choices," the official said.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
