No takers for nearly 20,000 engg seats in Karnataka

BANGALORE: Has supply outstripped demand in engineering education? Or have students have become picky when selecting a college? Nearly 20,000 seats have gone abegging this year, leaving empty classrooms across 187 colleges in Karnataka.

The speed at which engineering colleges were opened in the state has not kept pace with demand for BE courses. This year, only six colleges - all in Bangalore - have filled up all their seats. The number of vacant seats filled through Common Entrance Test conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority has shot up from 3,925 in 2009 to 8,067 this year. According to the Department of Technical Education, the total number of vacant seats is 19,652 for 2010-11.

"Except for a few reputed colleges in Bangalore, there's hardly any demand for seats in rural colleges. Despite opposition from several quarters, the government gave its approval for nine private colleges this year. The admission in the majority of colleges has been pathetic," Panduranga Shetty, vice-president, Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association, told STOI.

VSM Institute of Technology, Nippani, which opened this year, managed to fill only 18 of 300 sanctioned seats. At the Chikkaballapur-based Achutha Institute of Technology, only 50 of 300 seats were taken.

M S Shivakumar, principal, Atria Institute of Technology, Bangalore says the fall in demand for branches like information science, civil engineering, silk and textile technology has added to the demand-supply mismatch. "The market demand has a direct impact on students' choice. Civil engineering, for example, has very few takers this year. The number of vacant seats in information science, and electrical and electronics is also high," he said.

At Bangalore's Alpha College of Engineering, 50% of computer science seats are vacant. At PNS Institute of Technology for Women, admission to some courses has been in single digits.

neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which account for more than half of the total engineering seats in the country, are also facing a grim future. In Maharashtra, nearly 22,000 engineering seats across 311 colleges were vacant and Andhra Pradesh has 43,000 vacant seats this year.

EMPTY CLASSROOMS

* In 2008, only 2,266 engineering seats were not filled through CET

* In 2010, vacant seats have gone up to 8,067

* Comed-K has 17,552 BE seats but total admission is 6,842

* Almost all seats in five evening engineering colleges have been taken this year

toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com

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Akki wants Rs 27cr for 'Once Upon' sequel

It seems Salman Khan isn't the only one in Bollywood demanding pay hikes; Akshay Kumar is trying to be a better khiladi at this game .

But Akki overdid it a bit recently and he may have blown his chances of playing the dreaded underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Ekta Kapoor's sequel to Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai.

Balaji Telefilm's head honcho, Ekta Kapoor offered Akshay to step into Emraan Hashmi's shoes in the second part of Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai.

Says a source close to the film, "Ekta wants to take the sequel of Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai to the next level. She felt that Akshay would be ideal for playing Dawood Ibrahim's role.

She likes the way Akshay acts and feels that he has a lot of potential for playing challenging roles."

But it turns out that the actor is not doing the project despite what Ekta feels about him. Grapevine has it that Akshay asked for a whopping sum of Rs 27 crore from Balaji for his role in the film.

He was told that it would be difficult to generate profits if he was paid this large a fee.

Akshay was then asked if he would reconsider the situation and reduce his fee. It seems Balaji is still waiting for a revertal on that. After that discussion, Balaji and Akshay never arrived at a negotiation.

Rumour also has it that Akshay wanted Balaji to sell the film to a corporate, so they could incur ready profits. But so far Balaji has never involved a corporate giant in their projects, so this did not work out either.

However, all's not lost. Akshay's name is apparently still being considered for Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Part 2 at the Balaji office. But if Akki chooses to ride his high horse, he stands a chance of losing the film.

Agreed, it's fashionable to make big-budget films nowadays. But if actors' fee skyrocket at this rate, it is bound to affect the quality of cinema. That actors are consistently bleeding productions houses dry is a fact the entire industry is grappling with.

While films in Bollywood continue to lose money, will actors develop a conscience and cut down a little on their remuneration? Only time will tell. In the meantime, Akki seems to have lost out on a relatively challenging role.

Besides Ekta Kapoor, Akshay too remained unavailable for comment. Acting pricey, Akki?

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Jewish conductor wants Wagner freed from Nazi link (USA TODAY)

By Colleen Barry, Associated PressMILAN — Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim says the perception of Richard Wagner is unjustly influenced by the fact he was Hitler's favorite composer, infuriating a Holocaust survivors group which blasted the argument as a "moral failure.""We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight," Barenboim told reporters Friday. He is conducting Wagner's "Die Walkuere" for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan next week.

"I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet. ... This perception of Wagner colors for many people the perception of Wagner."

Barenboim said Wagner, who died in 1883, was politically on the left and could not have foreseen the Nazi Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews during World War II.

He said the point is not to forget the horrors of the Holocaust, but rather not to be influenced by perceptions.

Barenboim, a Jew born in Argentina, has long been a champion of Wagner's artistic merits. He angered many Israelis when he played some of the composer's music in Israel in 2001.

The conductor's comments angered a leader of a Holocaust survivors group.

Barenboim's comments "sadly represent an act of moral failure and (are) a disgraceful abandonment of solidarity with those who suffered unspeakable horrors by the purveyors of Wagner's banner," Elan Steinberg, from the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in a statement sent by e-mail.

"The unofficial Israeli ban placed on Wagner was a symbolic act of defiance against hate," Steinberg said.

The statement added that "nobody suggests that Wagner's music not be played. But the public Jewish refusal to do so was a powerful message of indignation to the world that exposed Wagner's odious anti-Semitic ideas and those who championed them."

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'Dabangg' Sonakshi in a bikini!

You know you have arrived when your morphed pictures become hot searches on the web and news channels debate endlessly over your so-called dare bare act. But Sonakshi Sinha, who has nurtured the image of a traditional Indian beauty for herself, is far from amused.

Doctored photographs of Sonakshi in a bikini have been floating on the internet, superimposed on the cover of a men's magazine. The original cover has Sonakshi in one of her most sensuous photo shoots yet, but nothing like the striped bikini which caught the fancy of several media channels, including a magazine, which published an article speculating on why the demure and conservative daughter of the BJP leader chose to shed her clothes for the raunchy shoot.

An upset Sonakshi, who has been vocal about not acting in any steamy scenes in Race 2 (Mumbai Mirror, December 7), tweeted her disapproval of the article, forcing the magazine to publish an apology, but it was too late.

The fake magazine cover had already become one of the most sought-after links on the web and TV channels were having a field day flashing it.

Sonakshi's mother Punam Sinha blames her daughter's detractors for the fiasco, "We're shocked by the levels to which our detractors are willing to fall. The face is Sonakshi's from Dabangg. But the body certainly doesn't match. This is an attempt to belittle our family."

While she has nothing against anyone posing in a bikini, the harried mother, wife of BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha says there were certain preconditions for Sonakshi's Bollywood foray and sticking to certain dress codes was part of it. She says angrily, "Sonakshi is a young girl who can carry off anything if she wants to.

But if she doesn't want to dress in a particular way, please understand that and leave her alone." In several of her interviews Sonakshi has said she would never pose in a bikini.

Subi Samuel, who shot the young actress in a couple of revealing outfits for the magazine, says, "We shot in a studio, but the truth is she is not the kind of girl who would wear bikinis.

Sonakshi is an extremely sweet and conservative girl who holds on to certain traditional principles. I don't think she needs to wear a bikini to seek attention, especially after being a part of the biggest hit of the year."

When contacted, Vivek Pareek, editor of the magazine said, "We work with top photographers and everyone is aware that we don't morph our pictures except tweaking background sometimes."

The magazine is not contemplating any legal action against the unknown person behind the fake cover.

Meanwhile, other than the angry tweets, the Sinha girl has not made any comments on the issue yet.

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AU seeks mediation in Ivory Coast (BBC)

5 December 2010 Last updated at 01:39 GMT The BBC's John James in Abidjan says the situation remains unstable

The African Union says it is sending former South African President Thabo Mbeki to Ivory Coast to help mediate the current political crisis.

Laurent Gbagbo and opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara have both sworn themselves in after claiming victory in a presidential run-off.

Mr Ouattara was initially declared the winner but the result was overturned in the incumbent's favour.

The AU has warned the crisis could have "incalculable consequences".

In a statement, the organisation rejected "any attempt to create a fait accompli to undermine the electoral process and the will of the people".

It called on all parties to "show the necessary restraint and to refrain from taking actions which will exacerbate an already fragile situation".

Several countries and international organisations - including the US, UN, France and the IMF - have backed Mr Ouattara as the true winner of last Sunday's run-off.

Conflict fear

The AU has not said when Mr Mbeki is likely to travel to Ivory Coast, but the BBC's John James in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, says his arrival is being widely discussed.

The crisis has already led to unrest on the streets of the capital

When he was president of South Africa, Mr Mbeki helped to mediate a peace deal in Ivory Coast.

But he was seen by the opposition as being uncomfortably close to Mr Gbagbo.

It is difficult to see what scope there is for Mr Mbeki to mediate, says our correspondent, as both men are adamant that they legitimately won the poll.

The fear is that if he fails to find a way out, rebel groups in the north who support Mr Ouattara will take up arms in protest.

Mr Ouattara was declared the winner by the Election Commission on Thursday, but on Friday, its ruling was overturned by the Constitutional Council, which is led by an ally of the incumbent, Mr Gbagbo.

Mr Gbagbo, who has the backing of the head of the country's armed forces, was sworn in for a third term in office at the presidential palace on Friday afternoon.

He repeated the accusations of fraud that had led the Council to discount large number of ballots in the north, where Mr Ouattara's supports is strongest.

"You think that you can cheat, stuff ballot boxes and intimidate voters and that the other side won't see what is going on," Mr Gbagbo said.

He also said he had noted "serious cases of interference" in recent days, referring to international disapproval of his return to power.

"We didn't ask anyone to come and run our country. Our sovereignty is something I am going to defend," he said.

'Brief episode'

But within hours, Mr Ouattara, a former rebel from the predominantly Muslim north of the country, was himself sworn in, at an Abidjan hotel guarded by UN peacekeepers.

He said the election had been "historic" and that he was proud of it, but that the last few days had been "difficult".

"But it's just a brief episode - I want to tell you that Ivory Coast is now in good hands," he said.

Mr Ouattara immediately re-appointed Guillaume Soro as his prime minister. Mr Soro had tendered his resignation in Mr Gbagbo's administration just hours earlier.

Mr Soro - who is the head of the New Forces rebels in the north - has warned that overturning the results threatens to derail attempts to stabilise and reunify the country after the 2002 war.

The political crisis has led to protests on the streets of the country's main city of Abidjan, with opposition supporters saying Mr Gbagbo's investiture amounts to a coup d'etat.

At least four people have been killed in election-related clashes in Abidjan this week.

Ivory Coast has closed its borders and stopped broadcasts of international news media into the country. An overnight curfew remains in place over the weekend.

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Rain to keep pummeling SoCal, sparking flood fears (AP) (Yahoo!)

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Third woman claims WikiLeaks founder seduced her

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is at the centre of sex assault allegations by two women, is said to have seduced a third right from under her boyfriend's nose in Sweden.

Assange, 39, allegedly walked away with the girl, who had arrived with the American journalist, as they all dined together at a Stockholm restaurant.

An American revealed that he had gone out to dinner at Stockholm's Beirut restaurant with the WikiLeaks Swedish co-ordinator, the co-ordinator's girlfriend, and the journalist and his English girlfriend.

The journalist claims Assange ignored him and instead focused intently on his girlfriend, even following her out for a cigarette.

"When they hadn't come back after 45 minutes I went to see what was happening. They were standing very close together a little way down the street, and Julian was whispering in her ear," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

He later saw the two walking hand in hand, and when he challenged Assange, "he dropped into a classic fighter's pose, with his fists up".

"Assange seemed to take pleasure in humiliating me," he added.

The incident had taken place just two days before he had sex with Miss A, one of his two accusers, and five days before he bedded the second, Miss W.

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