Madras HC directs CBI to conduct probe into IIT-M appointments

Madras HC directs CBI to conduct probe into IIT-M appointments:

CHENNAI: Madras High Court today directed CBI to conduct a probe into appointments made in the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras between 1995 and 2000 for its correctness and legality. 

The court further directed the agency to prosecute the persons responsible, if it was found that any case of illegality had been committed. 

Justice S Nagamuth gave the direction on a batch of petitions from W B Vasantha and others, seeking to quash the selection for certain teaching positions by an advertisement issued in 1995 and to further direct the Chairman and Board of Directors and the IIT(M) Director to select her as Associate Professor in a duly constituted selection committee following the reservation for OBC. 

The judge said the petitioner should be treated as having been appointed as Associate Professor from July 27, 1995 and as a Professor from December 18, 1996. 

He said the pay and allowances for Vasantha from July 27, 1995 as Associate Professor till December 17, 1996 should be calculated notionally for fixing her future salary. But for this period she would not be entitled for back wages. 

For the period commencing from December 18, 1996, pay and allowance of the petitioner should be notionally calculated for the post of professor as of date for purpose of fixing her future salary, he said. 

However, on such fixation of salary for the post of Professor from December 18, 1996 till today, she should not be entitled for back wages. 

For the period between Dec 18, 1996 to till date, she should be given pay and allowances equivalent to the post of Associate Professor and she would be paid the differential amount, the judge said. 

Vasantha, who is from the OBC community contended the selection in 1995 was 'arbitrary, illegal and discriminatory,' since reservation for OBC was not followed despite the Apex Court's rulings. 

She said her candidature was ignored despite possessing required qualifications and experience, while her juniors were granted promotions at each and every stage.

IIT-Kanpur's orientation programme held

IIT-Kanpur's orientation programme held:

There was a lot of excitement as new students were given a welcome by the IIT-Kanpur authorities for their orientation programme which took place in the institute's auditorium on Monday. This orientation programme was basically for the under graduate students.

The new students were congratulated over the fact that they became part of IIT-Kanpur, they were also administered an oath by the authorities of IIT-Kanpur that they give their best in academics and sports. They also took an oath regarding maintaining the reputation of the college.

The students were told about the counseling service that was available in the institute, and available for the students 24 hours a day. They were old to avail of the service whenever the need arose.

Source:Indian Colleges

Intel selects IIT Delhi for 5G project worth Rs 16 crore

Intel selects IIT Delhi for 5G project worth Rs 16 crore:

Intel has chosen Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) as one of the universities to develop 5G or Fifth Generation Technology.

IIT Delhi was the only university from Asia that was chosen.

It’s estimated that Intel is pumping around USD 3 million (approximately Rs 16.30 crore) into the project. Verizon is the industry partner for the venture.

As it takes around 10 years for each generation, chances are that you will only be able to use 5G on devices in around 2020.

What will 5G mean for you?

There’s no fixed concept of what 5G actually but it will result in higher speeds with better coverage for you.

Battery life is expected to last longer than it does with 4G and a higher number of devices will be supported.

The other universities in the project include:

University of Southern California 

New York University 

Princeton 

Stanford 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

University of Texas at Austin 

University Fabra Pompeu 

Purdue University 

Cornell 

University of California at Los Angeles 

Rice University

Macquarie University

Source:Indian Colleges

IIT Mumbai student a step closer to win the IET India Scholarship Award 2013

IIT Mumbai student a step closer to win the IET India Scholarship Award 2013:

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) announced Suhas Vibhate from IIT – Mumbai and Sayali Bhavale from College of Engineering - Pune as the winners of the Pune regional round of its India Scholarship Award 2013 in the general and women’s categories respectively.

The winners received a cash prize of Rs 30,000 and a certificate from the IET each.

Suhas Vibhate from IIT – Mumbai and Sayali Bhavale from College of Engineering will compete at the national finals to be held in Delhi in August 2013.

Other winners include Nagendra Chowdhary from DAIICT and Himani Singhal from IIT – Mumbai. They are rewarded with a cash prize of Rs. 20,000 each.

The competition is spread across three levels; applicants go through an online examination following which, shortlisted candidates compete at the regional and final round thereafter. Candidates selected for the regional level are required to make a presentation on a pre-decided topic followed by a Q&A session with an expert jury panel.  The competition has two categories, General and Women, for which participants can apply.

The regional round in Pune was at the College of Engineering Pune, About  21 students participated.

The jury members judged the contestants on their presentation skills, leadership potential and technical content.

Source:Indian Colleges

IIT admissions 2013: Students prefer mainstream engineering courses

IIT admissions 2013: Students prefer mainstream engineering courses:



Petroleum Engineering may be one of the best paid careers, but few students are opting to study it at the IITs as they feel that it is a very specialized course.

Seats for Petroleum Engineering along with Mining Engineering, Mineral Engineering and Ocean Engineering remained vacant.

Reports stated that students preferred courses in mainstream Engineering as there were more options in careers.

While some of the specialized streams command higher salaries, the number of employers may be limited.

Surveys regarding employment options for Engineers have found that about one in five engineers do not have the skills that firms require.

Earlier reports on placements at Engineering colleges had stated that students were opting for Civil Engineering as sectors such as Telecommunication and IT were undergoing a slowdown.

Around 250 seats are vacant at the IITs and ISM Dhanbad this year. Interestingly, the four new IITs do not have any empty seats.

Source:Indian Colleges

IIT-JEE 2013: HRD Minister steps in to help solve Class 12 cut off problem

IIT-JEE 2013: HRD Minister steps in to help solve Class 12 cut off problem:



The IIT Delhi director was called by HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday to talk about the immense anger against the criteria that students need to be in the top 20 percentile in the class XII board exam. This is a new condition apart from the performance in JEE (Advanced).

As of now, 79 students have not been given admission in IITs after the initial offer since they did not qualify regarding the cut off rules that differ in the case of each state board.

Apparently the top 20 percentile eligibility cut offs of the class XII results had been calculated two times. Altough Raju is not confirming regarding changing the process from 2014, the minister has been getting a lot of complaints against the way in which cut offs had been calculated twice.

Source:Indian Colleges

Northeast India's first IIIT to open next year in Tripura

Northeast India's first IIIT to open next year in Tripura:



An Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) will be set up for Rs.128 crore in the north-eastern state of Tripura next year to boost the growth of the domestic IT market, an official said.

The IIIT will be set up in Bodhjungnagar, one of the northeastern region's biggest industrial hubs, 25 km north of state capital Agartala. It will be the first such institute in the northeast and will start functioning from the 2014-15 academic year.

"Two state-owned companies, ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) and NEEPCO (Northeastern Electric Power Corporation), and a private industrial house from West Bengal have expressed willingness to partner for the Tripura IIIT," Higher Education Department Secretary Kishore Ambuly told reporters here.

"Of the Rs.128 crore, the union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) would give Rs.119 crore and the remaining amount would be shared by ONGC, NEEPCO and the private organisation," he added.

He said that the state government had allotted 50 acres of land for the institute.

Besides Tripura, the MHRD had last year given its approval to the setting up of IIITs in Assam and Rajasthan.

"The human resource development ministry has planned to establish 20 IIITs on a not-for-profit public-private partnership (N-PPP) basis in the country," the official said.

So far, 11 state governments have identified land and are in the process of identifying industry partners and fulfilling other criteria.

Currently, there are four IIITs in India at Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Kanchipuram. These autonomous institutions provide undergraduate as well as postgraduate technical education.

Source:Indian Colleges

IIT, IISc engineers develop silencer for jet planes

IIT, IISc engineers develop silencer for jet planes:



You may soon be able to sleep soundly at night if you live close to an airport.

Engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore have come up with a new technology that decreases the noise of jets taking off and landing.

The two institutes worked with Imperial College in London.

The technology will be used on aircraft including Boeing 747s and other long haul flights.

The research began in 2006 with Rolls Royce. U Ramamurthy from IISc’s department of materials engineering led the 11-member team. Vyasa Shastry, who is studying  towards a PhD at IISc, also worked on the project.

How does the technology work?

The technology uses shape memory alloys that can work in temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius. This will bring down the noise from the engine during take-off and landing.

Source:Indian Colleges

IITs lose 274 students to competition

IITs lose 274 students to competition:



KOLKATA: Here's a reality check on brand IIT. At least 274 students who had enrolled for undergraduate tech courses in IITs have pulled out to study elsewhere in spite of paying the fees in full.

This is about 3% of the 9,885 IIT seats on offer but eight to 10 years ago, no one would think of quitting IIT, no matter what the stream. Withdrawals have been a rising trend for the past five years or so and this year has been the worst, say IIT sources.

The admission process got over on Friday, but on Thursday night, a stock-taking by the IITs revealed that a good many of them had decided to withdraw, mostly because they did not get a stream of their choice. Those who sacrificed the IIT brand chose IISc Bangalore, IIIT-Hyderabad, the NITs and even renowned private institutions like Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani and Ranchi.

Thursday was the last date for candidates to withdraw from IITs. The pullouts started after the JEE-main (what was earlier called AIEEE) results were announced in mid-June and admission to the NITs started. IIT-Madras zone has taken the biggest hit - at least 76 candidates have left in favour of the two NITs in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, IISc-Bangalore and IIIT-Hyderabad.

"We've had the maximum withdrawals because there are more options for tech studies in the southern states. Many students who had taken admission in streams like mining, metallurgy, architecture and biotechnology have opted for computer science, electronics or electrical engineering in the other institutes," said IIT-JEE chairperson from IIT-Madras, R Sarathy.

Informal discussions between the candidates and faculty members revealed that they do not mind giving up the IIT brand if they get a stream that will fetch them a prized job. Placement results for streams like mining and metallurgy have been poor in recent times, the students said.

IIT-Delhi zone lost 63 students, Mumbai 44 and Roorkee 35. "The trend is that everyone wants computer science, electronics and communication and electrical engineering, keeping placements and a corporate career in mind. In some IITs, even core departments like civil and chemical engineering have suffered," said IIT-JEE chairperson from IIT-Mumbai, Tom Mathews.

IIT-Kharagpur zone fared comparatively better, with 19 withdrawals, followed by Kanpur with 16. "Most students want to get into engineering streams that are in demand and they don't mind sacrificing the IIT brand for this. Hence, this spate of withdrawals. Even the Indian School of Mining, Dhanbad, has become a preferred destination for many from the Kharagpur zone because it has started offering mechanical, computer science and civil engineering courses," said N K Panigrahi, IIT-JEE vice-chairman at IIT-Kharagpur.

Guwahati had the least number of pullouts - 6, said IIT-JEE chairperson Senthil Velan.

IIT faculty members say that so many withdrawals were unthinkable a decade ago, perhaps because the options were limited. However, the times have changed and many new institutions have attained excellence. "The tech education scene, even in 2005, was very different from what it is now. New IITs have come up. From 4,000-plus seats, there are now nearly 10,000 seats on offer. Naturally the withdrawal rate will be proportionately higher," explained P K Das, IIT-JEE chairman at IIT-Kharagpur.

Source: TIMES OF INDIA.

High court summons CBSE official over IIT mess

High court summons CBSE official over IIT mess:

HYDERABAD: Justice RameshRanganathan of the high court on Thursday directed a senior officer of the Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSE) to appear before the court on July 17 along with records to explain how normalisation has been worked out and applied for IIT (Advanced) examination. The judge was dealing with a batch of writ petitions filed by one L Sharat and others. They complained that while making admissions to the National Institute of Technologies (NIT), formerly Regional Engineering Colleges (REC), students who scored high marks in JEE (Advanced), were put to disadvantage in the name of normalisation. Gandra Mohan Rao, counsel for the petitioners, produced a bunch of mark sheets and comparative tables to demonstrate how, in the name of normalization, students of the state were being deprived of seats in premier institutions like NITs. The judge sought to know how the normalisation process was being arrived at. Justice Ranganathan warned that the court will not tolerate any delay in filing counter affidavit. He said prima facie there seems to be something amiss. Source:TIMES OF INDIA

Entering IIT-Bombay gets tougher this year

Entering IIT-Bombay gets tougher this year:



MUMBAI: With more toppers choosing computer science and engineering (CSE) at IIT-Bombay, getting a seat at the premier institute has got tougher this year. Admissions to CSE there closed at the 57th rank in the first round of allotments. Last year, it closed at 75{+t}{+h} rank in the final round. Though three more rounds are yet to go, it is unlikely the closing rank will drop much in subsequent rounds.

This year, students with higher ranks have chosen computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, in that order, across IITs. Post-round one, the courses have seen higher closing ranks among sought-after IITs, with IIT-Bombay registering the highest for all courses. A higher closing rank means more top rankers opted for the stream. At IIT-Delhi, the closing rank was 107 and at IIT-Madras it was 212.

 The secret behind students' preferences lies in placements and research opportunities. After completing undergraduate courses in CSE or electrical engineering, students usually get best placement offers compared to other courses. In the 2012-13 placement season, the two students who bagged the highest offers were from CSE. Chandra Ashok Maloo, with an all-India rank (AIR) of 43, opted for CSE at IIT-B.

Candidates are allotted seats based on preferences and AIRs. With three more rounds, closing ranks are unlikely to change for CSE at premier institutes, said Hemchandra Gupta, chairman of JEE (Advanced) 2013. Gupta said the confirmation process will go on till Monday midnight and the second list will be out on Tuesday.

Electrical engineering closed at 126 in the first round at IIT-B. The rank may or may not dip further in the subsequent list, while mechanical engineering, the third best choice among students closed at 477. Courses such as metallurgical engineering and material science, civil and aerospace engineering have not managed to attract high scorers as closing ranks of these courses at IIT-B were 2619, 1639 and 1610, respectively.

Source:TIMES OF INDIA.

Denied IIT admission, Andhra students fight it out in High Court

Denied IIT admission, Andhra students fight it out in High Court:




HYDERABAD: Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP High Court on Monday directed the authorities of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) not to fill four seats which were offered to four AP students who were later denied on the ground of poor percentile upon. The judge termed the actions of the authorities as violation of article 14 of constitution. The judge was dealing with the writ petition filed by Anudeep Pendyala and three others. They contended that they appeared in the JEE (Advanced) -2013 after qualifying in JEE Mains. They told the court that they got good ranks in the JEE (Advance) and that they were issued call letters and asked to go to Chennai for completing the admission formalities.

 Gandra Mohan Rao, counsel for the petitioners, lamented that now the students were told that they would not get admissions. He said the authorities were playing havoc with the future of bright students in the name of percentile. He said that the petitioners were called for counseling and offered seats on the basis that the cut-off mark was 89.1 percent in intermediate. Now at the time of counseling, this benchmark was suddenly raised to 91.8 percent. Terming it as arbitrary, the petitioners said, students with 60 percent were offered seats last year. Saying that the students were left in lurch due to sudden change in cut-off marks, the petition sought a direction from the court in this regard.

Justice Ramesh Ranganathan also heard the arguments of counsel appearing for the CBSE in this case which was urgently moved a lunch motion. The judge said that the sudden change of cut-off mark after call letters were dispatched was in violation of article 14 of constitution of India'. The judge directed the authorities to keep aside the seats offered to the petitioners without filling them till finalisation of case and ordered notices to the IIT authorities.

Source: TIMES OF INDIA.

IITs get maximum students from CBSE board

IITs get maximum students from CBSE board:




This year the maximum students selected for the IITs are from the CBSE board. 5,500 students are from the CBSE board.

1,800 students are from Andhra Pradesh, 750 students from Punjab. The students from other boards did not fare as well.

Those students who passed their Board exam for the first time in 2012, the eligibility criteria for joining any of the IITs or ISM Dhanbad will be 60% marks in their 12th Board or equivalent (55% for SC/ST/PD candidates). For those candidates who appear in their Board exams for the first time in 2013, the eligibility criteria will remain top 20 percentile of the successful candidates in their Boards, category-wise. This will be a one-time exception for JEE (Advanced) 2013 only.

For those students who passed their 12th Board exams in 2012 but are re-appearing in the 2013 Board exams with a view to improve their performance, 60% rule will apply if they use their 2012 Board exam results and top 20 percentile rule will apply if they use their 2013 Board exam results. This too will be a one-time exception for JEE (Advanced) 2013 only.

Source:Indian Colleges.

GATE 2014: Exam to be conducted online only

GATE 2014: Exam to be conducted online only:





GATE 2014 will be conducted online only for 21 papers. The exam will be conducted in 12 sessions.

The online exam will be conducted from February 1 to March 2, 2014.

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all India examination administered and conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and seven Indian Institutes of Technology ((IITs at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee) on behalf of the National Coordination Board - GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.

 GATE 2013 admit cards can only be downloaded from the zonal GATE websites.

Candidates are required to bring the admit card to the test centre along with at least one original (not photocopied / scanned copy) and valid (not expired) photo identification.

The question paper for GATE 2014 will consist of questions of multiple-choice type and questions of numerical answer type.

Important dates

GATE Online Application Processing System (website) opens: September 2, 2013

Last date for Submission of Online Application (website closure): October 3, 2013

Last date for the receipt of printed version of online Application at the respective zonal GATE Office: October 10, 2013

Source:Indian Colleges

Candidates from Andhra Pradesh need to score 91.8%

Candidates from Andhra Pradesh need to score 91.8%:

Candidates from Andhra Pradesh need to score 91.8% in their state board examinations to get the admission to the IITs as well as clear the IIT- JEE ( Mains and Advanced).

Students from Tamil Nadu need to score 90.9% while students from Kerala require 85.2%.

State wise lowest cut-offs

- Tripura (53.2%)

- Jharkhand (56.2%)

- Assam (56.6%)

- Uttarakhand (57.8%)

Cut-offs according to the boards

CBSE cut-off--81.6%

ICSE -83.2%

UP -73%

Bihar - 65%

West Bengal - 61.2%

Candidates seeking admission to IITs are also facing a tough situation as they might have performed well in the entrance examination but not got the required cut-off in their board exams.

The cut-off marks for admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology have been increased due to the top-20 percentile norm introduced by the Centre.

The 50% of Boards marks will be normalized by equating percentile amongst different boards/examining bodies and anchoring them to All India JEE Main percentiles, and 50% be normalized by equating each Board’s/examining Body’s percentile with JEE(Main) percentile marks of respective Boards /examining bodies.

There are five subjects which will be used for normalization. The subjects to be considered for normalization include-

Physics, Mathematics, any one of the subjects from Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology and Computer Science, One language and any subject other than the above four subjects.

Source:Indian Colleges

Engineering graduates prefer to study abroad IIT admissions 2013:

 Engineering graduates prefer to study abroad IIT admissions 2013:

This year a trend has been noticed that students have skipped IIT counselling and have opted to study abroad or at renowned institutes.

The students have skipped the counselling as they have got an opportunity to study abroad as well as have got their preferred subject.

About 96 students did not attend the IIT-Kharagpur admission counselling this year.

IIT Kharagpur has a total of 1341 undergraduate seats.

Computer science engineering and electrical engineering are some of the subjects which have emerged as most popular.

The second round of admissions began on July 10.

Candidates from Andhra Pradesh need to score 91.8% in their state board examinations to get the admission to the IITs as well as clear the IIT- JEE ( Mains and Advanced).

Source:Indian Colleges

Online Test Practice for IIT JEE EAMCET

Specially for IIT JEE EAMCET Aspirants:

Specially for IIT JEE EAMCET Aspirants:

ExamHook is an online educational portal. Our community encourages, rewards and sets expectations for good online learning. We embrace and support learning opportunities and flexible education options. Our aim is to test you in order to provide you one stop solutions for all your educational needs.

ExamHook is an exclusive online examination portal for IIT JEE. We provide IIT JEE (Main/Advance), EAMCET, AIEEE, CA Study material and online practice.

URL: http://www.examhook.com

Delhi constable's son clears IIT entrance exam

Delhi constable's son clears IIT entrance exam:

A Delhi Police constable's 18-year-old son has obtained the seventh rank in the OBC category in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Joint Entrance Examination 2013.

Ashish Kumar Yadav, son of bomb detection squad member Radhey Shyam, cleared the exam without taking any coaching lessons, soon after scoring 82 percent marks in Class 12 from Haryana, a police officer said.

Ashish credited his parents and teachers for his achievement. His father said the young man used to study four to five hours every day.

There are 9,885 IIT seats on offer. Of these, 4,844 are for the general category students.

Satyam Kumar, a Bihar farmer's son who is just 13-years old, has cleared the fiercely competitive Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) for which 150,000 candidates had appeared this year.

Satyam, who passed his class 12 exam last year, secured an impressive all-India rank of 679.

"We are proud of him. He has done something special at this age," Satyam's father Sidhnath Singh, a farmer, told IANS.

IIT-JEE (Advanced) results for admission into IITs were declared.

According to IIT-JEE website, Sahal Kaushik from Delhi was the youngest person to have cracked the exam in 2010 at the age of 14. But now this record is held by Satyam.

Source:Indian Colleges

Joy of cracking IIT is short lived for underprivileged students

Joy of cracking IIT is short lived for underprivileged students:

28 of the 30 studentsfrom Bihar's Super 30 free coaching centre cracked the Indian Institute ofTechnology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE).

Abhishek Kumar son of amechanic cleared the prestigious engineering exam. Abhishek aspires to becomean electrical engineer, a trait that runs in his genes.

Others students of Super30 like Bhanu Pratap son of Rampyare Pratap, a poor labourer from Uttar Pradeshalso cleared the exam.

Pranav Kumar fromSamastipur district in Bihar is the son of a landless farmer, Pankaj Kumar.Pranav studied in a government school. On cracking the exam, he said that AnandKumar "not only taught us but gave us the confidence to excel even in theface of odds".

When Ankit Kumar fromVaishali district in Bihar lost his father, a lineman in the telephonedepartment, in a road accident last year, his life seemed to come to astandstill.

"I came to know ofSuper 30 and cleared its screening test. Here, I seemed to have found my newfather," he said.

Shivangi Gupta, daughterof magazine vendor in Deha, 50 km from Kanpur, saw acute hardship from herchildhood as her father Viresh Chandra Gupta struggled to make both ends meet.

"I was provided allhelp and stayed in Anand Kumar's and finally cracked my dream exam,"Shivangi said.

Farhad and YasmeenShafi's son Hanjala has also made it through the IIT-JEE. Hanjala's parentshave a small shop in Patna. They somehow scraped together money to pay hisschool fees. "Today my son is set to go to IIT," said a proudYasmeen.

Santosh Kumar's fatherSanjeev Mallik from Madhubani is worried how he will pay his son's IIT fees,but he has faith in god to see them through. "I don't have the money tobuy him new clothes and books. But when god has brought him this far, he willtake care of his future also. I am a driver and don't even know what IITis," Mallik said.

A proud Afsar NathMishra, a Sanskrit teacher and priest from Banka, is proud that his daughterPreeti Kumari will be an engineer. "She will be our support when we areold," Mishra said.

Source: Indian Colleges

IIT- JEE(Advanced) 2013: Online counseling ends

IIT- JEE(Advanced) 2013: Online counseling ends :

The online counseling for IIT- JEE(Advanced) 2013 will conclude today June 30. 

Students are required to select their course and institutes.

The seat allotments will be announced on July 2. Candidates will also need to verify their documents from July 4 to July 8.

The academic session will commence from July 27.

Total candidates qualified under Common Merit List are 15947. Candidates who have scored aggregate marks of 156 (upto CML Rank 7436) and above are being asked to fill choices for courses at IITs and ISM, Dhanbad where the total General Category seats available are only 4841.

The cut-off marks for admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology have been increased due to the top-20 percentile norm introduced by the Centre.

Source: Indian Colleges