Wednesday 30 May 2012

Quota cloud over 325 who cracked IIT

New Delhi: The future of 325 IIT aspirants belonging to backward sections of minorities appears to be in limbo in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh high court striking down the 4.5% sub-quota for minorities within OBC reservation. The students, who are in the middle of the counselling process, were expected to be allotted seats by June 14. 

With around 432 seats reserved for the minority subquota, these students were assured of a college and course of their choice, but now they face the prospect of losing their seat altogether as the court decision will mean they will have to compete for the 27% OBC seats. 


Law minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said HRD minister Kapil Sibal had told him that the IIT admission process was not complete yet, thereby implying that quota admissions may have to be scrapped unless the superior court intervened.
‘Quota candidates can move SC’ 


New Delhi: With the Andhra high court striking down the 4.5% subquota to minorities within OBC reservation, the admissions under quota may be scrapped menting on the fate of some 325 IIT aspirants belonging to backward sections of minorities, law minister Salman Khurshid said, “The selected candidates can go to Supreme Court and seek relief.” Sources in HRD ministry said they were evaluating the situation following the HC order even as Khurshid said they would move the apex court against the high court ruling.But till such time that the government moves a vacation bench of the SC, and is successful in obtaining a stay to the HC order, the 
future of these candidates appears bleak.In fact, sources in the IIT Joint Admission Board confirmed that the tech institutes had sought advice from the HRD ministry on the way ahead. Counseling for admission to 15 IITs and ITBHU and ISM-Dhanbad is currently underway and the process will go on till June 10. The web release of the first seat allotment will be made on June 14. The HRD ministry had asked all institutions to implement the sub-quota from January 2012. The IITs are the first to implement the government’s decision.Khurshid said the HC judgment had raised some interesting points and the Centre would challenge it in the Supreme Court. He defended giving reservation to minorities.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Formula for normalisation of 12th board scores for JEE 2013


It was decided yesterday at the meeting of senates of IIT’s, NIT’s and IIIT’s that new Joint Entrance Examination will be held from 2013, where in the IIT’s will have 50% weightage for board marks and 50% for main test for screening while shortlisting will be done through an advanced examination that will be conducted the same day, othercentrally funded institutes including IISER’s will have weightage of 40% for 12th board, 40% for main test and 30% for advanced test.

While there are so many boards including state and central that conduct 12th examinations, MHRD has given the responsibility of normalizing those scores to Indian Statistical Institute, the proposed formula for normalizing the scores across all the boards to generate percentile rank is (cl+0.5 fi)/N x 100, where cl is the count of all scores less than the score of interest, fi is the frequency of the score of interest (the number of students with the same score) and N is the number of examines in the sample.

Percentile rank and not absolute marks will be taken for weightage and rank will be given up to 9 decimal places in order to enable the tie-breaks.

Monday 28 May 2012

Common test for IITs, engg colleges next yr

New Delhi: A common national test for admission to engineering courses across the country that takes into account class XII board exam marks will be introduced from 2013. 

All aspirants will have to give two exams — JEE main and JEE advanced — to be held on the same day. 

The aspirant’s set of scores will decide whether he 
or she will be eligible for admission to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), centrally funded institutions like NIITs or IIITs or state-funded institutions. 

According to the decision taken, for the first time, the class XII examinations will count towards entrance. There will be 50 per cent weightage to the class XII examinations and the rest of the 50 per cent to the main test.

 For admission to IITs, students will be shortlisted on the basis of their cumulative score for class XII and the main test (50% weightage each). Class XII marks will then be standardized on percentile basis by a formula worked out by the Indian Statistical Institute. IITs set to have more say in JEE 

All aspirants will have to appear for a main test and an advanced test, both to be held on the same day. The top 50,000 students in the main test will have their advance papers evaluated for IIT merit positions.

The merit list will be decided on an IIT aspirant’s performance in the advanced entrance test. For students who have appeared for Class XII board in 2012, the IIT council has decided that they may be allowed to sit for the board exam again if they would like to improve their performance. 
The decision, after two years of consultations, was taken in a meeting with the joint councils of IITs, NIITs and IIITs. The All India IIT federation has submitted a dissent note at the meet continuing with their insistence that the exam be deferred till 2014 and Class XII be given a maximum of 40% weightage. HRD minister Kapil Sibal admitted “resistance” from the IIT system pointing at two concessions that have been made. The first demand of the IIT Senates and faculty federations was academic control, including paper-setting, evaluation and preparation of merit list over the exam. The faculty also wanted that main exam scores be used in addition to the board exam to shortlist eligible students. 

In turn, Sibal has managed to get the IIT council to agree to introduction of the common entrance test next year itself. 

  The minister said Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat had already agreed to adopt the new format. An education ministers’ meet on June 5 will be crucial to gauge interest among states who will have the freedom to decide their weightages. For admission to all centrally funded institutes like NIITs and IIITs, there would be 40% weightage for performance in Class XII (after normalization of marks), 30% weightage for main test scores and 30% for the advanced test. Sibal said IITs have, in principle, approved this format from 2015. 
Earlier, the IITs had resisted having a joint test with other institutions, following which the two tier system was evolved. The IITs though have agreed that if the formula works for the first three years, they may agree to do away with two tier system and have just one exam.

Friday 25 May 2012

Number of Girls cracking IIT JEE doubled, no application fee for girls worked ?


Number of Girls cracking IIT JEE doubled, no application fee for girls worked ?

Female to male ratio in cracking IIT JEE has been traditionally very low, but the situation definitely seems to be improving. Of the 1,68,568 girls who have registered for IIT JEE this year, reportedly 2,886 girls cracked the exam got rank in the general category list while a total of 1,902 girls have been shortlisted for counselling.

The number of girls IIT JEE cracking this time is almost double compared to last year, IIT JEE 2011 had 1,08,653 girl candidate registrations , with 1,443 of them cracking the examination.Reportedly Piya Inala, who hails from Andhra Pradesh has scored an all India rank 21 and is the girl’s topper in IIT JEE 2012, while two other girls scored an AIR below 100

This year in a strange move to bring in more girls to IITs, IIT JEE entrance board has waived application fee for girls , though the causal relationship doesn’t make much sense, it definitely seems to have worked.

IIT Kharagpur adding 8 new departments on its 60th anniversary


IIT Kharagpur is celebrating it’s 60th anniversary this year in August and it is already getting ready to add 8 new departments to the institute, the proposal has been sent to the Ministry of Human Resources Development and very likely the institute is going to get a good amount of funding to establish at least 8 new technology departments or schools and next-gen labs to support research and development for the country.

The new technology departments proposed by the institute include:

1) Biosciences Department
2) Engineering Entrepreneurship
3) Energy Science and Engineering Department
4) Environmental Engineering Department
5) Nano science and Technology Department
6) Engineering Design and Manufacturing Department
7) Embedded Electronics Controls and Software Department

Reportedly the idea behind establishing these new schools/departments is to make country technology independent and reduce dependency on foreign research and designs for technology.

The institute will apparently construct a new complex where in all the state-of-the-art laboratories will be housed.

Thursday 24 May 2012

IIT’s want to switch to ISEET


IIT’s want to switch to ISEET as prelims followed by IIT JEE subjective exam, top 50,000 in ISEET eligible for IIT JEE

Earlier at the Pan IIT summit , NewYork, Narayana Murthy , Chairman of Infosys , expressed his great displeasure 
over the quality of the engineers passing out of IIT’s blaming the JEE format, which followed by heated discussions among stake holders of IIT’s,amid this MHRD has proposed to have a nation wide common engineering entrance test called ISEET which faced a stiff opposition from the senates of IIT’s.

In a bid to improve the situation IIT’s want to switch to the earlier pattern of IIT JEE, a subjective test to shortlist students for the admission to IIT’b ut as a compromise between MHRD’s proposal of having a nation wide common entrance test and IIT’s having a seperate test,all the IIT senates have decided to go for a two-tier selection process,where a nation wide objective test will be used as a prelim exam for IIT’s and the top 50,000 in the objective test (ISEET) will be made eligible to appear for IIT JEE subjective test.

Reportedly Ministry of Human Resources Development have been informed about the proposal to change admission process.The final decision on the same will be taken at the MHRD meeting with IIT Senates to be held on May 28.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

IITs pitch for subjective JEE to improve student quality

IITs pitch for subjective JEE to improve student quality.

The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability of aspiring students

New Delhi: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are planning to switch to a subjective question-based test from the current multiple-choice-based joint entrance examination (JEE) after criticism over the deteriorating quality of students.

The new test will seek to evaluate the knowledge and analytical ability of aspiring students. Critics of the current format, which comprises two multiple-choice papers, include Infosys Ltd chairman emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy and other executives and alumni.

The move is also being seen by some academicians as a compromise between the government and the IITs over a common entrance exam for all engineering schools. The government wants to conduct a nationwide objective-type selection test for millions of students aspiring for such colleges, including the IITs.

The IITs themselves now favour a two-tier selection process, where the top rank holders in the objective test will be eligible to appear for a final subjective question-based evaluation.

The human resource development (HRD) ministry has been informed about the proposal to change the selection process by the senates of at least the five older IITs. The senate is the highest decision-making body at an IIT and comprises senior professors, the director and some outside experts, including former students and executives.

“Selecting students through an objective test is not the best way to get quality students for institutes like IITs,” said Sanjeev Sanghi, president of the IIT Delhi faculty forum. “We need to go back to the subjective format.”

Murthy said at an IIT alumni meet in New York in October last year that JEE coaching centres had led to the deteriorating quality of students entering the colleges. “But their performance in IITs, at jobs or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be,” he said. “This has to be corrected. A new method of selection of students to IITs has to be arrived at.”

While the top 20% of IITians can “stand among the best anywhere in the world”, the quality of the remaining 80% wasn’t as sound, Murthy had said.

The IITs insist though that changing the entrance format will have a significant impact on student quality.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Old IIT JEE , ISEET or new JEE

Old IIT JEE , ISEET or new JEE, So what is the new engineering entrance examination ?

There’s a lot of confusion in students about what is the engineering entrance examination that they need to prepare for , thanks to Ministry of Human Resources Development and IIT’s for not making any official statement on the same.


Here’s a quick snapshot of what has happened till now:


>In the year 2011, T.Ramasami Commission presented it’s report to Ministry of Human Resources Department stating a need for a Nation wide common Engineering Entrance Examination and that Class 12 marks has to be given weightage not less than 40%.

>MHRD has approved the common Engineering entrance examination which can be called ISEET (INDIAN SCIENCE-ENGINEERING ELIGIBILITY TEST ).

>ISEET will have three 40% weightage to 12th marks , Main examination which comprises of test for aptitude, comprehension and critical thinking and Advanced examination which will have test for Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry.

>NIT’s and IIIT’s also approve ISEET as Engineering Entrance .

>IIT Council approved ISEET to be implemented from 2013.

>Board of State Education Ministers endorse ISEET to be implemented from 2013.

>MHRD suggests that only IIT’s , NIT’s, IIIT’s And IISER Will Have Single Entrance Test In 2013

>IIT Faculty federation strongly opposes ISEET as engineering entrance exam.

>Kapil Sibal says the name of the engineering entrance can still be JEE , and ISEET renamed back to JEE .

>MHRD also announces that IIT JEE will be held twice from 2013.

Amid All India IIT Faculty Federation strongly opposing the new format of JEE and Sibal working hard on getting the new JEE implemented from 2013 we will have to wait next month for an official announcement on the new JEE as MHRD , IIT’s and CBSE is working on the details and modalities of the examination, though it’s putting a lot of pressure on students appearing for engineering entrance in 2013

Monday 21 May 2012

Three wrong questions in AIEEE-2012 offline question paper


Reportedly there were 3 wrong questions in AIEEE 2012 question paper conducted on 29th Apr 2012 and were subsequently confirmed by the board. One question was from Physics section(Q No. 17) and remaining two were in Mathematics section(Q No. 66 and 85). In all three questions there were some printing mistakes and students wasted lot of their time on these questions before they could be sure that questions were wrong.

Confirmed decision on grace marks for these wrong questions has yet to be taken by Board. One teacher told that usually in this case, only those students are awarded marks who have attempted those particular questions or sometimes the questions are not included in the total marks itself, but anyhow it is ensured that no student is at loss due to the mistake.

June Time Table Chart

Time Table Chart of June 2012 is out. Check the Schedule & enroll for the relative Topics. Classes will start from 4th June 2012. Hurry!!! Limited Seats.

 


IIT-JEE question pattern has changed

The IIT-joint entrance examination question pattern has changed a lot over the years. The focus has now been to accommodate more students.
    “With the increased number of seats and moderate question pattern, more students are making the cut compared to 80s and 90s,” said VK Bansal, founder and managing director of Bansal classes.
    However, students have a different viewpoint. “Yes, the seats have been increased and the papers are not as tough as they used to be. But even the competition has increased manifold. Look at the number of students enrolling every year. The pressure is much more than it used to be in the past,” said Geentajli Biswas, a student at one of the coaching institutes in Kota.
    Her views were echoed by Narendra Avasthi, director of Vibrant Academy. “These exams are relative and there will be no impact on the standard of students entering IIT. No matter how tough or easy the papers are, only the brilliant students will get selected.”
    The central government’s efforts to curb the mushrooming growth of coaching institutes are playing a pivotal role in this shift. “There has been a dilution in the set standard of JEE. This year’s paper was a notch below in terms of difficulty compared to last year. By bringing down the difficulty level, JEE is trying to give equal opportunity to those not taking any coaching. Taking weightage of VII grade marks into account is yet another step in this direction,” said Pramod Maheshwari.
    Despite all the efforts, the JEE could not avoid controversies in conducting the test. A last minute glitch of putting two answers for a question, which was earlier declared null and void due to technicalities, changed the rankings of many students.
    IIT should be careful while designing the question papers as last minute cancellations and changes affects students’ confidence. But we also appreciate the way they brought transparency in the system,” said RK Verma of Resonance.
    However, the experts appreciated the transparency brought in by the JEE.
    This year the OMR sheets, answers and even the highest marks scored by students were put on the website before declaring the results.

Kota losing its raj as IIT coaching hub in country?

Is It True ??

Once a sleeping town in the state, Kota later became the hub for IIT-JEE coaching in the country. As many as 35 institutes have opened here which help students crack the IITJEE exam every year. But a sudden decline in the number of candidates getting selected for IIT from here has brought to focus the quality of training that the institutes impart.
    In 2008, out of the top 10, six students took coaching in Kota. But the success ratio declined over the subsequent years. Only three could make it to the top 10 in 2009, none in 2010, three in 2011 and just 1 in 2012.
    “Kota is fast losing its position as the number one city that churns out IIT toppers. Coaching centers have decentralized and each city has a number of institutes, which will lower the number of students travelling to Kota seeking training,” said P K Bansal of Bansal Classes.
    The Union government proposing the idea to give 40% weightage to Class XII marks in the entrance has also played a role in shifting the focus of students and parents from Kota.“Just focusing on IIT and neglecting Class XII papers is not happening any more. So more and more students are staying back and preparing simultaneously for IIT from their hometowns,” added Bansal.
    The students who used to throng Kota after completion of Class X also show a shift in perception. “There is no guarantee that only those who study in Kota can make it to IIT. In fact, more and more IIT candidates are now coming from smaller places. Even this year, there are candidates from towns like Bhilai and Nellore,” said Arpit Agarwal, 2012 JEE topper, who himself preferred to stay in hometown Faridabad rather than moving to Kota.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Two IIT JEE 2012 Questions of Worth 7 Marks will be Cancelled


As announced earlier , corrected IIT JEE answer sheets are now available on JEE portals of all IIT’s , the corrected Optical Response Sheets will be available on these portals till May 10, where in students can match their answers and file a complaint if there is any discrepancy in marks awarded in his/her answer sheet , he/she can file a complaint between May 5 and May 10 and the answer sheet will be manually verified before 15 May.

Though due to large number of students flocking to these websites, most of them are very slow in response or are down.

This is the first time IIT’s are making the corrected ORS sheets available and is a good step towards bringing in transparency in the admission process to the prestigious engineering colleges.

Students who appeared for IIT JEE 2012 Entrance Exam are hereby informed that the IIT Council has Decided to Cancel two Wrong Questions which worth seven(7) Marks. The IITs has Published its IT JEE 2012 Official Answer Keys.
IIT Bombay Chairman AV Mahajan Said that the Council has Decided to cancel the Two Question which worth seven Marks in the Meeting. Sources Says said that the Two Mistakes were form Paper 2 one Questions in Chemistry paper and Another Mistake in Mathematics Paper. With this decision the IIT JEE 2012 Marks Come Down from 408 to 401 Marks.


BITS entrance is more competitive than IIT-JEE


Chennai: Cracking the IITJEE may be top priority for most students, but the BITSAT is now the most competitive of all national engineering entrance exams in the country. 
    An average of 68 students will compete for a seat in this year’s BITSAT, the online test for admission into degree courses at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, which starts on May 10. In comparison, only 54 students contested for a seat at the IIT-JEE 2012. 
    Based on number of applications received, 1.36 lakh students are expected to take the BITSAT-2012 for admission to a total of 2,000 seats at the institute’s campuses in Pilani, Hyderabad and Goa. The exam will be conducted in 32 centres across the country between May 10 and June 9, 2012. On the other hand, 5.2 lakh students took the IITJEE 2012 on April 8 to be eligible for 9,600 seats in the 15 Indian Institutes of Technolo
gy (IIT), the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU) and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. 
    The VITEEE, which was conducted on April 21 for admission into deemed university Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), follows the IITs with 48 students competing for one seat. The exam was taken by approximately 1.5 lakh students across India for admission to 3,100 seats. “VIT sees the largest number of applicants among deemed universities because of its placement record, especially in the IT sector,” says Jayaprakash Gandhi, an education consultant. 
    Next comes the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE), which was taken by 11 lakh students this year for admission into approximately 35,000 seats in the 31 National Institutes of Technology (NIT). The AIEEE score is also used by approximately 50 other private and government engineering institutions across the country.

Staff crunch, temporary campuses mar new IITs


TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The government’s attempt to bolster professional education institutes has turned a cropper, with the new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) hit by an acute shortage of faculty and are still functioning from temporary campuses. 
    A parliamentary panel report has asked the HRD ministry to ensure that these gaps are met so that the premium institutes can function more effectively. 
    The standing committee on HRD has expressed concern over the shortage of faculty that is as high as 60% in some IITs. The sanctioned posts in the new IITs are about 90, but none of the new institutes have been able to fill up their posts. 
    While IIT-Hyderabad had the support of 74 faculty members, institutes in Patna (55), Bhubaneswar (50), Indore (38) and Mandi (35) had below-par strength. IIT-Jodhpur was worst off, with only 32 members in its faculty. “The committee is of the view that only quali
fied and experienced faculty can make the functioning of any institution, specially premier institutions like IITs, meaningful and effective,” the report said. 
    It also expressed concern over the running of new IITs from temporary campuses despite being set up between 2008 and 2010. In the case of new IITs, either the location of the permanent campus was being finalized or land allotted or construction work was to start. 
    In the case of IITs in Bhubaneswar and Mandi, for instance, the foundation stones were laid in February, 2009 but they continued 
to function from temporary campuses. The report said that it was clear that it would take some time before IITs begin to function from “well-structured and well-equipped campuses”. 
    Five IISERs also continue to function from temporary campuses. IISERs are expected to have state-ofthe-art buildings, fully equipped labs and a rich library, but these facilities are still not available for students. 
    The report noted that 10 new NITs also suffered a similar fate, four functioning out of their respective mentor NITs and six running from temporary campuses.
Cabinet may consider accreditation bill Acrucial bill that makes it mandatory for every higher educational institute (except agricultural institutes) and every course to be accredited by an independent agency is likely to come up in the Union Cabinet on Thursday. If passed, it will give students an assessment of the college and course they are applying for. The much delayed ‘Universities of Innovation bill’ that aims to establish varsities that will encourage superlative academic quality and research output could also come before the Cabinet. The ‘National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill’, moved by the HRD ministry, will establish a statutory authority that will assess and accredit an institute on the basis of the course, faculty and infrastructure. The educational institutes will have to be accredited within six years, while the process of assessment and accreditation was split, officials said. TNN.

Thursday 3 May 2012

IITs ready to open Mauritius campus


New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are set to open their first overseas campus in Mauritius and a feasibility report has already been prepared.
IIT Kharagpur. Photo by Indranil Bhoumik/Mint
IIT Kharagpur. Photo by Indranil Bhoumik/Mint
This campus will be set up in collaboration with Mauritius University with support from the Indian as well as the Mauritius government. To be named International Institute of Technology (IIT), the institution will engage in research and development for the first five years.
“We have already given the feasibility report to the human resource development ministry as well as the Mauritius government,” said M. Balakrishnan, who is spearheading the team in charge of the plan. “We are ready to start it this year but it depends on both the governments, as the proposal to set up the institute was taken by the Indian education minister and his mauritius counterpart,” he said.
Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal and Rajesh Jeetah, Mauritius’ minister of tertiary education, science, research and technology, had in June 2010 expressed a willingness to open an institute similar to an IIT in the island nation.
To start with, it will be a IIT-Delhi research academy with a global outlook, Balakrishnan said. “IIT Delhi will mentor the institute and we believe we will engage some 40 faculty members for the Mauritius centre,” he said, adding that these professors need to give at least one month of their time for the campus—three weeks in Mauritius and one week in India dedicated for the offshore plan. According to the plan, the initial investment will be more than $20 million (around Rs. 100 crore).
Since Mauritius does not have a huge industry-linked economy, the course and research areas have to be global in outlook, Balakrishnan said. Both faculty and students will be global as well.
“Their industries are largely sugar and fisheries but we know that it’s an international gateway and can be a hot destination for IT, electronics and e-commerce streams,” he said.
A human resource development ministry official, who did not want to be named, said the ministry is discussing the report and is “quite optimistic”.
IIT-Delhi director R.K. Shevgaonkar said the IITs want to make their presence felt overseas. “We now have the expertise and know how to help a country set up an IIT-like institute. It will have a huge impact on our brand image.”
The aim is to start with research and not undergraduate courses. “If you start teaching undergraduate courses from the beginning then it will become a college, not an IIT-type institute, which is research-oriented,” he said.

IIT answer sheets to be posted online


New Delhi: IIT aspirants will now get to see their evaluated answer scripts of the Joint Entrance Examination even before the result is declared on May 18. IIT Delhi, which organized JEE on April 8 this year, has decided to upload the checked optical response sheets of every candidate on the JEE website. The sheets will be available online only for six days from May 5 to May 10. 
    During this time, candidates can go through the evaluation and point out any discrepancy or error in checking. IITD will consider all complaints and update scores, if required, before preparing the fi
nal merit list. This is for the first time that IITs will show evaluated ORS to candidates. “It is possible that sometimes the scanner might not read an answer if the candidate has not filled the response bubble completely. Candidates can go through their optical reader sheets and if they do not find the evaluation satisfactory, they can lodge a complaint online,” said Professor R Shevgaonkar, director, IIT Delhi. Nearly 4.8 lakh candidates had appeared in JEE this year. Since JEE is held in two parts, each candidate had two ORS which will now be uploaded. A candidate can access the ORS using his or her date of birth and registration number. 
    The administration will consider an answer only if the response bubble has been dar
kened more than half. IITD officials also clarified that there will be no scope for changing the answers as the ORS will be uploaded only as an image. Also, there will be no scope for questioning the answer keys or the evaluation process. “This facility will enable students to highlight any technical glitches. They’ll know the marks scored for each question. Representatives of all IITs will meet after May 10 and the revision process will be carried out between May 11 and May 14. Te updated responses will be reflected in the ORS by May 15,” said JEE chairperson Professor G B Reddy. The ranks will be clear only on May 18.