Is getting TDR refund easy?

To the esteemed Railways and IRCTC authorities 

Following is the text sent to IRCTC care and refundcoachinger@gmail.com along with some appropriate attachments but no concrete help could be received. Any help and even a clue where to escalate it would be highly appreciated. 

 Dear Sir/Madam

On 30 Dec 2023, we (myself, wife and son)  was to travel from New Delhi to Kanpur Central by Sealdah Rajdhani on my reverse trip of my LTC to Ahmedabad. In the morning while I was in the flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi, I received an SMS saying that the train would be late by 3 hours and 15 minutes. Looking at the weather, it was quite probable that there would have been further delay. Hence, I booked another ticket for us on IRCTC Tejas. Meanwhile I asked @RailwaySeva  twitter handle on Twitter (X) regarding what to do for my Sealdah Rajdhani ticket. I was advised to file a TDR before the actual departure of the train. Hence, I filed a TDR successfully around 4:30 PM when I was in the IRCTC Tejas train. So far so good. We reached Kanpur Central by IRCTC Tejas which was also late by around an hour or so. Sealdah Rajdhani was actually late by much more than the announced 3 hours 15 minutes from Delhi on than day.  So far so good.

 

However, after 94 days of waiting for my refund from TDR, I got a mail from IRCTC customer care that my case of TDR was REPUDIATED stating the reason that passenger had travelled. The fact is that we travelled by IRCTC Tejas (ticket attached). We did NOT travel by Sealdah Rajdhani. I have no comments regarding how come as per chart it is showing us to have travelled.

IRCTC customer care helped to reopen the case. there was a hope upon seeing some progress on it online but finally it was again repudiated giving the same reason that as per chart passenger had travelled. 

My sincere request to you is to do a full review of my case. There is something severely wrong somewhere. You can convince yourself that it would have been impossible for us to travel both by Tejas as well as Sealdah Rajdhani on 30/12/2023. Kindly help me get back my refund for the ticket of Sealdah Rajdhani by which we did NOT travel and for which I filed TDR following all rules meticulously. If this is beyond your power, then please let me know where to escalate this case. I have no problem in approaching the highest level since my case is fully genuine.

 

Also, it is my earnest request with folded hands, before making a final unilateral decision, please let me know if there is any more details which you require, and which may change the course of your thinking that we travelled by Sealdah Rajdhani on the date. You can check the charts of IRCTC Tejas on 30/12/2023 to verify that we travelled on that train.

 

Last, but not the least, please acknowledge the receipt of this mail and also a timeline in which I may expect your favourable response.

 

 

 

 

 

Turnitin Repository – What you need to know and care

Turnitin Repository – What you need to know and care 

These days students are submitting their theses. Before submitting, they want to check it for similarity. Many instructors do so for their students. While others have created a class for their students to directly check. Nothing wrong so far. But the problem is that the instructors forget to check their assignment inbox settings. There is a setting "submit to:" which is by default set to "Standard Repository"  

Now, once the students work is checked under this setting, it is submitted to Turnitin repository. After this, when the PPD cell checks the thesis, it compares against the student's own work and produces high similarity (like 90%).  

Steps to take if you have inadvertently run the similarity check without proper assignment settings: 

1. Do NOT delete the submission. It only adds an extra step in resolution.  

2. Instead, in the Assignment Inbox, select the submission, click the “Delete” drop-down, and select “Request for permanent deletion.” 

After step 2, change the assignment settings to “submit to: NO REPOSITORY”. 

In case when you try to request for permanent deletion, the system flashes that the document is not in the repository, please do the following: 

This is because earlier your assignment setting was set to “submit to: standard repository” and you checked the submission in that condition. Later you realized the problem and changed the setting to “submit to: no repository.” Turnitin does not allow to send a request for permanent deletion if the setting is to “submit to: no repository.” 

1. Change the assignment settings to submit to the standard repository 

2. Send request for permanent deletion (it should allow now) 

3. Change the assignment setting back to submit to NO REPOSITORY 

What is the use of the setting “submit to: standard repository”? 

Published research papers, and other such material which have reached final stage are submitted to standard repository so that it is added to the database against which future checks are made. Thus, any person copying from your original work will be flagged in his similarity report.  

What is (my) Microsoft Account? Why do I care?

This is a compilation of urgent and helpful information regarding (your) Microsoft Account based on questions I am frequently asked.

 

Q. What is (my) Microsoft Account? Why do I care?

Microsoft Account is a single sign-on account which connects all your Microsoft Apps and services. Just like your Google account is a single sign-on account for Google Drive, Gmail, Google Meet etc., your Microsoft Account is a single sign-on account for Exchange Online (mail), SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Apps and Teams etc. If you have been using the Office 365 services at IIT Kanpur since 2019 or later, your email id [username@iitk.ac.in] is (one of) your Microsoft Account(s). Note that this is your Computer Centre account too. Your Microsoft account password need not be the same as your CC password. There are practically no restrictions for your MS Account password – it can be any combination of letters, numbers and (special) characters, including spaces. So your password can be a sentence of your choice – easy to remember yet complex to crack!

You can further strengthen your MS Account security by opting for MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication). Once you opt for this, you may choose any one or multiple MFA authentication methods [Authenticator App, Phone(call/text) or alternate Email]. Recommended option is Authenticator app, and/or Phone. We recommend installing Authenticator App on your mobile, and whenever you sign in on a new device, you will have to approve it on Authenticator.

The answer to the second part of the question will be evident once you read the entire document.

Q. What is a personal Microsoft Account and a “Work or School” Microsoft Account?

If you ever created Hotmail or outlook.in or live.com email account, it is your personal Microsoft Account. But this is not all. Anyone can create his/her personal Microsoft Account, which can be any email address, for example, your Gmail or Yahoo mail address too.

The url where you can create a Microsoft Account (personal) is: https://account.microsoft.com/account

“Work or School” Microsoft Account is administered by the institution of which the user is a member. Hence those who have their account created on the IITK subscription to Office 365 (details are provided on CC home page under Information link), have their IITK email address as their “Work or School” Microsoft Account.  If you had already created a Microsoft Account with your IITK email address earlier than 2019, then that is your personal Microsoft Account. The same is also your ”School or Work” Microsoft Account. To distinguish between these two account types and to provide the subscribed services, the Microsoft service to which you login will prompt you with a dialog box asking whether you want to login to your personal account or Work or School Account. You need to choose the Work or School Account if you want to use the IITK provided office 365 facilities.

 

Q. What else does my Microsoft Account provide?

If you purchase a new laptop or PC, you will need to sign in with a Microsoft Account (it can be personal or “Work or School”). The corresponding MS account stores some vital information about the computer, including the Bit-locker key (in case it is a Windows Professional computer) This is very important. If your Windows crashes or the computer develops any problem, the hard disk will not be readable on any other computer unless you provide the correct 48-digit numerical password which would be stored in your Microsoft account (personal or “Work or School”). Note that if your new computer came with a preinstalled Office product, the license information would be saved in your MS account you use to login for the first time.

In case of personal MS account, the bit-locker key is accessible to the user on the MS account page (https://account.microsoft.com/account) on the devices tab. Similarly, any Office Product purchased along with your laptop will be visible under “services and subscriptions” tab.

   

Q. What are the best practices for Microsoft Account for faculty, staff and students of IITK?

It is recommended to always have a personal MS account and use this account as the first MS Account to sign in on a newly purchased computer, so that the settings specific to your personal computer and office products are always with you.

In order to use the Microsoft 365 services suite available to all faculty, students and staff at IIT Kanpur, you can sign-in to the office products using your “Work or School” Microsoft account.

 

Save your BitLocker Key

 

Save your BitLocker key

If you have bought a new Windows 10 computer or you have a Windows 10 computer up to five years young, this email is for you.  This does not apply to Home editions.

From quite some time manufacturers like Dell and HP by default put the BitLocker drive encryption ON. With this encryption, if your hard drive or laptop gets stolen, no one can read the data. That is the good part. However, this also means that if there is any small defect in your drive and your computer does not boot up, there is NO WAY you can get your data back unless you have saved your BitLocker recovery key.

Your BitLocker recovery key is automatically saved in your Microsoft account for you, if you did create yourself. Most of the times the vendors do it for the customers and they themselves forget the credentials.

In case you do not find the BitLocker option as shown in the below screenshot, then either it is turned OFF or your computer does not have the feature. So you can ignore the rest of the write-up.

Step 1 -Right click on BitLocker encrypted (C:) drive (from This computer)  and select “Manage BitLocker”.

Step 2 - In the BitLocker Drive Encryption control panel for regenerating a copy of recovery key select “Back up your recovery key”.

 

Step 3 - For saving BitLocker recovery key we have 4 options. Choose the appropriate option to save your recovery key – save to a file, USB flash drive, or printing the key are the simplest method. Please note that anyone can use the recovery key to gain access to the drive, even if they don’t know the unlock password of your encrypted drive, so please do not disclose it to others.

Save to a USB flash drive: First we have to insert a USB flash drive in our PC, after that click on “Save to a USB flash drive”.

Now select the USB device from the list and click on “Save”.

A copy of BitLocker recovery key will be saved on your USB device as shown in below example fig.

Save to a file: For saving the recovery key as a .txt file on local drive select “Save to a file”.

Click on Save button to save the recovery key on your local as shown below.

Print the recovery key: To print the recovery key, select “Print the recovery key”.

 

Select the printer from the list and hit Print button to print the recovery key.

Warning regarding Flash Player /Java update prompts

ROUGUE FLASH PLAYER/JAVA UPDATES

Some malicious websites prompt you to update your flash player/Java via a dialog box as shown below:

OR this one:

If you proceed as suggested, you land up installing a malware instead of the genuine software.


Hence please install/update Java /Flash player only from the genuine web site of the creators of the software


For Flash Player: https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer
For Java: https://java.com/en/download/

Setup your IITK email account on your Android/iOS device in less than a minute

To setup your IITK mail account on your Android/iOS phone/tablet, you need to mention the incoming and outgoing servers. Many users are not familiar with the settings and find it difficult to configure due to lack of "auto-configure" feature. Moreover, you need some extra setting to make your "Sent Items" or Sent folder synced with the server. I am NOT discussing these settings here. Rather, I am sharing information about an App that does it all for you. Please leave your comments at the end of this article.

You need to do the following (common to Android/iOS):

It is presumed that you understand how to search and install an App on your Android/Apple phone

1. In Play Store search for myMail and install it. Alternatively, go to http://mymail.my.com/ and use one of the buttons, depending upon your platform - "Download on the App Store" or "Download on Google Play"
2. Next start the myMail application. You will find a screen as below. Choose "OTHER MAIL"

Type your iitk.ac.in email address and password. Please ensure that you are connected to internet either via GPRS or authentication free WiFi

In a few seconds it is complete (see screenshots below)

As a bonus this application offers you to signup for a "my.com" email address which is a mobile only, password less email service offering 150 GB of storage. It is worth having one.

VPN for IITK users on android mobiles

Although the text in this blog article is generally true for making an ssl vpn connection to any corporate/campus network which uses fortinet gateway, the settings shown here are specific for IIT Kanpur network

This blog article explains step by step how to establish a VPN connection to IITK network from outside campus on an android smartphone/Tablet. For other phones/tablets (Windows/iOS) the procedure would be quite similar.

Why do you need VPN connection?

When you are outside the campus, you need to connect your phone through VPN, if you want to browse some intranet site,  like Office Automation, OARS etc. Or you might want to connect to your office desktop through remote desktop client -  in this case also you need a VPN connection.

Prerequisites

You need to have the following:

1. An Android smartphone/Tablet (I have tested on version 4.2.1)
2. A 2G data network. Wifi or 3G recommended for Remote Desktop Connection
3. A preliminary knowledge about how to install an application on your Android Mobile/Tablet using Google Play Store

Step-by-Step procedure

1. Open "Play Store" and search for  "Fortinet"
2. Look for "FortiClient VPN" (The icon is a shield with a lock). OR directly open this link on your PC (log in with your google account first):Link for FortiClient VPN
3. Install this app with all default settings.
4. Now follow the screenshots below to configure it

Touch on "New VPN"

Type VPN Name as "iitk", choose "SSL VPN" and touch "Create"

Touch "Server"

in the "Server" field, type "gateway.iitk.ac.in" and touch OK

Now touch "Username"

Type your Computer Centre (IITK) username and touch OK. Next, fill up you password:

Touch the back icon on your android device. You will get the screen below

Touch "Connect" and on the upcoming screen touch "Login"

If you get successful connection, your screen will resemble the above screenshot. You can now check that you can browse to the Office Automation portal from outside campus.

You will be able to able to browse all intranet sites, do a telnet/ssh to CC servers, or even connect to a desktop using "Remote Desktop Client". Please mail/comment in case you want to have an article on the same.