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30 Sep 2008, 0356 hrs IST, Neha Pushkarna, TNN

 

 

This year the maximum number of students qualifying for IIT from a single state — 1,697 — came from Andhra Pradesh with Uttar Pradesh following next with 1,194 students out of a total of 5,524 successful candidates.

According to the data compiled after the joint entrance examination (JEE) in 2007, Andhra had given the highest number of students to IITs — 1,384. According to IIT veterans, Andhra Pradesh has been on the top of the state-wise list of qualifying students in the last few years.

"This has been a general perception among all IITians that number of students coming to IIT from AP is more than from other state. The main reason for it is that Hyderabad is a major hub of coaching centres like Kota. And I must say, these coaching centres are doing a great job in training students for IIT JEE," said M S Anand, director, IIT-Chennai.

According to IIT professors, many students from south India migrate to Hyderabad for coaching and manage to crack JEE. So the students coming from Andhra Pradesh may not necessarily be natives. Most of them are known to go for a seat in IIT Chennai or IIT Bombay. And, with IIT Hyderabad debuting this year under the mentorship of IIT Chennai, the number is expected to go up.

"Students in Andhra Pradesh did not have an IIT till now. But they studied really hard and usually joined Chennai or Bombay. But of late, it seems most of them are going to IIT-Bombay. They say they like the food there better!" remarked Anand. Surprisingly, only 202 out of 9,929 students qualified from Tamil Nadu itself.

According to R Chattopadhyay, JEE chairperson, IIT-Delhi, this trend has come up in the last couple of years. "Once the students join the classes, nobody knows who comes from where because they all mingle so well. But the figures in the last two years have shown that most students qualify from Andhra. Many students also travel to Hyderabad for coaching adding to the number," he said. According to IIT officials, while IIT Delhi mostly gets students from north India in B.Tech., there are many students from Andhra Pradesh in the M.Tech. course.

As for the maximum number of students appearing for JEE, UP leads the pack with 72,028 students appearing for JEE 2008 while 57,488 in 2007. Bihar also had a huge number of IIT aspirants — 30,490 this year and 14,854 in 2007 — however, unlike UPSC exams, they could not take IITs by storm. While 533 qualified this time, 146 were successful last year.

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A Vaidyanathan

Tuesday, October 14, 2008, (New Delhi)

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16 Oct 2008, 0413 hrs IST, Akshaya Mukul , TNN

NEW DELHI: The HRD ministry is weighing various options including seeking clarification from the Supreme Court on its order passed on Tuesday asking the government to fill OBC vacancies in central educational institutions with general category candidates.

The moot issue, a highly placed source said, was that October is too late to fill vacancies. He pointed out that last year, the apex court had deferred its final order on OBC reservation in June on the ground that it was too late to implement it.

The second issue on which the HRD ministry could seek clarification relates to implementing the new creamy layer criteria to fill OBC vacancies. "We will ask if the new creamy layer criteria of Rs 4.5 lakh annual income can be used to deal with the vacancies," the source said.

The ministry will also highlight how central educational institutions do not only have vacancies in OBC seats but also in general category. "Most often, vacancies are in courses that have not been opted by students. For instance, certain branches of engineering are not preferred by students, be it OBCs or general," the source said.

For instance, the government had contended in the SC that out of 20 OBC vacancies in IITs, 11 were in architecture and design. IIT-Guwahati had three vacancies, IIT-Kharagpur seven and IIT-Roorkee 10.

In fact, Jawaharlal Nehru University filled 54 OBC seats with students from the general category. It still has 29 vacancies. In more than 50 colleges of Delhi University, there were 1,906 OBC vacancies and university departments had 117 vacancies. "Most of the vacancies in undergraduate courses in DU are in disciplines not preferred by students," the source said.

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CHARU SUDAN KASTURI

New Delhi, Oct. 17: The Centre has shelved plans to legally recognise degrees offered by the five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and six new IITs in the Parliament session that began today, delaying a long-pending demand yet again.

The human resource development ministry had planned to introduce amendments to the IIT Act and the National Institute of Technology Act to recognise the degrees in this monsoon.

Top government officials, however, said the ministry would not table the amendments this session, expected to be the last one during the current Lok Sabha’s tenure.

The law ministry, sources said, had not yet finalised the draft amendments because of “minor” differences with the HRD ministry over language.

The degrees offered by the five IISERs — premier institutes of science research set up at the recommendation of the Prime Minister’s scientific advisory committee — are now not recognised officially.

Six new IITs, in addition to the existing seven, were launched this year and have started offering courses. Their degrees, too, are not recognised as BTech degrees yet — an amendment to the existing IIT Act is needed for the formal recognition.

The new institutes — for Rajasthan, Punjab, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar and Hyderabad — can now legally offer only diplomas.

The new IITs still have over three years’ time before they have to award their first set of degrees, since the first batch of students will graduate in 2012.

But the IISERs in Calcutta and Pune, started in 2006, have entered their third year and the institute in Mohali its second year. The IISERs in Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram started this year. These science research institutes offer five-year, integrated courses.

Worried parents and students at the Pune and Calcutta institutes have been quizzing administrators about when the degrees will be recognised, officials said.

“If the government has decided against introducing the bill to recognise the IISER degrees, it is a big blow to the hopes of hundreds of students,” a top official at one of the IISERs said.

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NEW DELHI: The faculty members of central technical institutions like IITs and IIMs can hope for a better pay package soon with the government setting up a committee for review of their salary and emoluments.

The committee is headed by former director of Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, Prof Govardhan Mehta.

"The committee will make a comprehensive study of the 6th Pay Commission recommendations. It will speak to the faculty members of the IITs, IIMs, IIITs and NITs and consider their views and recommend an ideal pay package for the faculty members in these institutions," a senior official in HRD Ministry said.

The committee has been given three months time to complete the report, so that the government could implement it before the general elections.

The committee will look into the recommendations of Prof G K Chadha committee, which has been set up to recommend pay structure of university teachers. The Chadha committee is expected to submit its report to the University Grants Commission next week.

"The committee will have to address the major issue of retention of teachers and attracting more scholars to join teaching and research at these premier institutes," the official said.

The committee is set up at a time when the government has decided to expand the technical educational institutions in a big way. The government has decided to set up eight IITs, seven IIMs, 20 IIITs and six NITs across the country. Some of these institutions have already started functioning from this year.

 

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(Photo courtesy: http://www.heritageindia.com/north-india-temple-tour.html)

By Girish Kumar Dubey

Varanasi, Oct.16 (ANI): People in Varanasi celebrate Akashdeep festival in remembrance of martyrs by lighting earthen lamps on the banks of holy River Ganga on the beginning of auspicious Kartik month as per Hindu almanac.

The ritual is believed to have existed even centuries ago when it was held to pay tributes to the numerous soldiers who died in the epic Mahabharata war.

The Akashdeep festival is now devoted to the memory of jawans who lost their lives during wars like the Kargil and 1965 and 1971 wars against Pakistan.

Led by the Gorkha regiment, the Jawans of all the Armed forces lit hundreds of earthen lamps at Dashashavmegh Ghat to mark the Akashdeep festival as a tribute to war heroes.

These lamps will be lit everyday for a month and will conclude on Dev Deepavali, the festival celebrated after 15 days of Diwali, the festival of lights.

“We thought this was an ideal time to remember our martyrs, they were national heroes and they sacrificed their lives so that we could live in peace. In our day-to-day schedule we generally forget to remember them. So we thought that today we should celebrate this Akashdeep festival in their memory,” said Bhawna Trivedi, Secretary of Ganga Sewa Nidhi organisation.

Organisers of the Akashdeep festival said that they wished to relate nationalism with religious occasion.

“I am very happy to be part of this event, I think it’’s a novel idea to celebrate this Akashdeep festival in memory of our martyrs, I think it’s the best time to remember them,” said Guru, Commanding Officer of the local Indian Air Force unit.

Residents of Varanasi and Indian Army officials joined hands to celebrate this event with pride.

“Today I felt really nice after coming for this ceremony, as today we paid homage to our martyrs who lost their lives fighting for our country. Events like this keep our memory afresh and it also help us in merging our nationalism with religious ceremonies,” said Sangeeta Jain, an onlooker. (ANI)

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