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Showing posts from June 30, 2013

कोटा का अमित राजस्थान टॉपर, ऑल इंडिया रैक-21

सीबीएसई ने इसी साल 7 अप्रैल को आयोजित जेईई-मेन्स परीक्षा का फाइनल रिजल्ट मंगलवार को जारी कर दिया। कोटा का अमित मालव 99.91 परसेंटाइल स्कोर के साथ राज्य में टॉपर रहा। अमित को ऑल इंडिया रैंक-21 व ओबीसी रैंक-19 पर सफलता मिली। जयपुर के तुषार धमानी की स्टेट में 5वीं तथा ऑल इंडिया रैंक 99वीं रही। अजमेर के जयेश बुंदेल ने एससी श्रेणी में अखिल भारतीय स्तर पर 78वीं एवं राज्य में 14वीं रैंक पाई। इंजीनियरिंग कॉमन एंट्रेंस टेस्ट के प्रथम चरण में देशभर से 12.50 लाख परीक्षार्थी बैठे थे। इनमें से 1.50 लाख को जेईई-एडवांस के लिए क्वालीफाई घोषित किया। शेष 11 लाख परीक्षार्थियों को एनआईटी, ट्रिपल आईटी व अन्य प्रमुख संस्थानों में ऑल इंडिया रैंक, स्टेट रैंक या कैटेगरी रैंक के आधार पर बीटेक कोर्स में एडमिशन मिलेगा। कॉमन मेरिट लिस्ट में सामान्य वर्ग का कटऑफ 62 अंक, ओबीसी-एनसीएल वर्ग का 59 अंक और एससी-एसटी व निशक्त वर्ग का 32 अंक रहा।

JEE (Advanced) Scores out: New pattern affects marks

Most of the students who appeared for the JEE (advanced) examinations on June 2 were left disappointed with the low scores that were declared by IIT on their website on Thursday evening. The students will now have to wait till June 23 for their actual rankings. Only around 5,000 of the 1.5 lakh students who took the JEE (advanced) would make it to the premier IITs. The marking system this year had changed the pattern with five out of six sections having negative marking. Students and experts had found the maths section to be most difficult as compared to past years. Majority of the students have found their scores to be lower than the figures that they had calculated using answer keys provided by coaching institutes after the exam. Surprisingly, some of the students were not even aware that the scores had been declared. Pradyot Prakash, one of the top scorers of IIT-Mains (322), secured 287 in advanced exam, maintaining his position to be one of the highest in the city

Guiding towards the right path

I have just completed Class XII. I’m interested in pursuing a career in science. I want to do an integrated BS/MS programme. I have scored 91 per cent in my board exam. Please suggest some institutions. You have not indicated which stream of science you wish to pursue. If it is medicine, you need to write NEET exams and if it is engineering, you need to write JEE Mains exams. Since you have scored good marks, the chances of you clearing these tests seem high. I have passed Class X (CBSE) with A1 grades and wish to study humanities. Please enlighten me on various career opportunities and courses available in this field? As a student of humanities, you have several career options that are very interesting and creative. Some of them include architecture, design, fine arts, mass media, mass communication, human psychology, fashion, interior design and decoration. Do visit a career counsellor who can guide you to identify your aptitude and then decide on your career plan.

In a first, city lad tops country in JEE

In a first for the city, local lad Chandra Maloo has topped the country in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Mains paper. Addressing a press conference on Wednesday evening, Maloo said the All India Rank (AIR) 1 was certainly a surprise for him. "I knew I had done well and would be in the top bracket, but this has come as a surprise to me," said Maloo. The mains paper's AIR have been prepared after taking into account marks scored by students in their Std XII board exams as well. Maloo's elated parents said their son had put in a lot of effort. His father Ashok said, "Chandra would spend up to 15 hours a day at IIT-Home coaching centre and the place had virtually become a home for him. But all the time he slogged has certainly been worth it because of the rank he got. We are extremely happy with the way IIT-Home coached Chandra for the last two years, as it helped him to approach the exam properly." Nisha Kothari, the coaching institute's own

NITs: Students may move SC

A group of students is planning to move the Supreme Court next week to challenge the complicated process used for deciding ranks in JEE(Mains) for admission to the NITs. “We will file a case in the SC next week. We will try our best to get thousands of students out of this mess,” said Kshitij Garg, who started the online petition against CBSE chairman on June 6. The Andhra Pradesh high court had earlier issued a notice to the HRD ministry on a petition challenging the normalisation procedure on June 27. Similar petitions are pending in Delhi and Punjab and Haryana high court

IIT JEE candidate challenges CBSE in Delhi HC to provide answer key with PnA Law

A candidate for India’s toughest engineering entrance exam, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the National Institute of Technology (NIT), has challenged the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the Delhi high court to force it to disclose the exam’s answer key after results. The JEE is a three stage entrance exam for gaining admission to India’s highest ranked IIT and NIT engineering universities. It consists of a prelim, mains, and advanced testing stage. Kartik Narendra Jain, formerly a Somerville Greater Noida school student, cleared the JEE’s preliminary examination in his first attempt this year but could not make it past the 25 April main exam. Jain has challenged the CBSE to disclose the key on the basis of which his paper was evaluated, through PnA Law Offices co-founding partners advocates Rashi Bansal and Aritra Das. In an emailed statement Bansal wrote: “The writ […] questions the policy of non-d

PnA Law writs IIT JEE again over Sibal brainchild procedure

PnA Law Offices advised engineering Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) candidate Arnav Ohri in challenging the government assessment process, introduced by Kapil Sibal, for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes in top Indian institutes including the IITs and the NITs. Ohri has brought a writ before the Delhi high court arguing that the “normalisation procedure” which gives 40 per cent weightage to a candidate’s senior secondary board marks while deciding his or her all India rank in the JEE, was arbitrary and unconstitutional because of the existence of several boards in India with different curriculums and marking systems. The normalisation procedure is being adopted for the first time in the academic year 2013-14. PnA Law co-founding partner Aritra Das and Rashi Bansal acted for Ohri in the Delhi HC, which yesterday issued notices to the HRD ministry, the Central Board of Secondary Education, the JEE Apex Board, and the JEE Interface Group. Another

IIT-I to conduct 5-day course in robotic engineering

The Indian Institute of Technology, Indore (IIT-I) in collaboration with Centre for Robotics and Control (CRC) will offer a five-day course in robotic engineering, starting July 15. The objective of the course is to introduce engineers and researchers to the state-of-art technology and products in mechatronics and robotics to enable them take up challenging assignment in their respective areas of work. Mechatronics is a multi-disciplinary field of engineering, that is to say, it rejects splitting engineering into various disciplines. Thus the present course would be beneficial for those coming from various engineering disciplines. The course fee is subsidized to achieve good participation from students and researchers. It will include course material, tutorial sheets and lecture handouts. The course is interdisciplinary in nature, thus participants will receive necessary inputs in all areas, starting from fundamentals to simulation to an exposure of the hardware.

To crack IIT, students do better in boards

The new format for IIT selection has pushed students to do better in their board exams. As per the new format, only the top-20 percentile students from each board are eligible to compete for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). As students competed to make it to the 20 percentile, the cut-off  required to be in that bracket has gone up substantially. For instance, those who scored 67.5 % in Karnataka board  last year were in the top-20 percentile bracket. This year, only those who scored  more than 86%  marks made the cut — a sharp increase of nearly 18%. Similarly, Chhattisgarh board and Meghalaya board have seen a jump of 10%, Tamil Nadu board (13%), UP board (8%), Mizoram board (20 %), Kerala (18%) and  in Andhra Pradesh (5%). In some boards such as Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, there has been a marginal increase. The idea of encouraging students to pay more attention to board exams is rooted in the fact that

Joy of cracking IIT is short lived for underprivileged students

For several students from underprivileged families the joy of cracking IIT has been short lived. They are now confronting with a strange situation of managing Rs 60,000 to appear at counseling. Super 30 founder Anand Kumar, who has been providing free residential coaching to poor students for the last 11 years said for the wards of daily wage earners, vendors or marginal farmers, it was turning out to be a big problem. In 2013, 28 of the 30 Super 30 students made it to IIT, taking the total number of Super 30 students reaching India's premier institution to 281. "The banks give loan directly for admission. This can happen only if the students have allotment letter for specific college, which is possible only after counseling," he said, terming Rs 60,000 demand for counseling as a ploy to block talented students from poor families. He said first the IIT board changed exam format, then added new dimension to JEE and now there is Rs 60,000 requirement for c

Fewer toppers opt for IIT Bombay this year

Even as the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) retains its pole position among the Joint Entrance Exam (Advanced) high scorers, the number of candidates from the Top 100 rankers who will join the Powai institute will be less than last year. Only 67 aspirants from the elite club have been allotted seats at IIT-B, down from last year's 77. IIT-Delhi (IIT-D) comes a distant second with 29 candidates compared to 19 last year. The remaining four candidates will head to IIT-Madras. Of the Top 10 rankers, eight have opted for IIT-B and the remaining two have signed up for IIT-D. First ranker Pallerla Sai Sandeep Reddy and second ranker Addanki Ravichandra, both from Hyderabad, have opted for IIT-B. Leena Madhuri, the second highest ranker among girls, will also go to IIT-B. "We get really bright students. It does not matter how many from the Top 100 join us," said Devang Khakhar, IIT-B director. About a decade ago, IIT-Kanpur was the preferred c

IIT student beaten up by gun-toting molesters

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An IIT-Guwahati student and his cousins, including a JEE rank holder, were held at gunpoint and attacked by a gang of molesters in Ichhapore when they tried to save some schoolgirls from sexual harassment on Wednesday evening. To add to their trauma, Noapara police allegedly refused to register and FIR and only took a general diary entry after making the injured youths wait for four and a half hours. Coming on the heels of the rape-murder in Kamduni - some 35km from Ichhapore - the reaction of the police does not bode well for a state wracked by a spate of sexual crimes. What's more, locals identify the main accused, Amit Das, as the close aide of a senior Trinamool leader though the party has denied it. Riki Biswas, a second-year chemical engineering student of IIT-Guwahati, and his cousins Avik Biswas, a JEE engineering rank-holder, and Ranajit Biswas, a Class XI student of Icchapur Anandamath High School, were travelling in their car when they saw two bikers bl

Cracking the IIT-JEE (Advanced) in style

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S. Adhithyan from Coimbatore has cracked the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) (Advanced) with an All-India rank of 549 in the Scheduled Caste category. He has attended the first round of seat allocation and has selected B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering course at the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi. This IIT is his tenth choice. He plans to attend the second and third rounds of seat allocation to try his luck for a seat of higher preference, i.e. in an older IIT such as IIT-Madras or IIT-Mumbai. Though his first choice is mechanical engineering, as he wants this to be his base to pursue higher education in avionics or space science, his other interest in computer science is no degree lesser. If he gets B.Tech. computer science in another IIT in the forthcoming counselling sessions, he plans to grab it first and then decide on a suitable higher education option. This year, only the top 1.5 lakh candidates of the IIT-JEE (ma

IIT JEE ranker loves to write poems

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It was the simple mantra of regular and focussed studies that helped Delhi boy Nikhil Chaturvedi to reach the number four spot in the all-India IIT JEE (Main) results. Chaturvedi, who plans to study Computer Science at IIT-Delhi, says that his elder sister has been his source of inspiration. “My sister Nupur has been a topper all throughout her life. I grew up admiring her hard work and consistency. When she topped the CBSE some years ago, I promised myself that I will follow in her footsteps,” Chaturvedi, who scored 98.8 % in CBSE Class XII results, he told Born in a family of high achievers, Chaturvedi says, “There was no pressure from my family and teachers. They always encouraged me to learn and not only cram. I told myself every day that I have to achieve good results to keep up with my sisters,” said Chaturvedi who loves to write poetry. As a Science student, Chaturvedi said he never really had the time to read much of literature but he always made

How to get away from everyday technology??

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Actress Kiera Knightley once described the internet as "dehumanising" and said she avoided it, while singer Sir Paul McCartney has previously admitted to being baffled by High Street bank cash machines. Ms Knightley may have had a change of heart - she recently told US chat show host Ellen de Generes that she had looked online for advice about planning her wedding - but for many so-called "digital deniers", the opportunity to block out technology is often welcomed. "Technology is becoming more personal," security expert Graham Cluley told the BBC. "We're going to see more and more devices that are carried on your person or worn - I am expecting there to be something of a backlash. Some people will love those things, others will find it very upsetting." For those who consider themselves to be in the latter group, technology - ironically - may provide the solution. 'ANTI-GLASS' GLASSES

David Pogue, The Most Prolific Technology Critic In The World, Cannot Say No

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David Pogue is as well known a technology critic as you’ll find in the world. He is a master of both old and new media. He is best known for technology column in the New York Times , but he also has a column in Scientific American . He’s the host of “NOVA ScienceNow” and other science shows on PBS, and he’s been a correspondent for “CBS Sunday Morning” since 2002. Pogue has nearly one and a half million followers on Twitter and writes four to five books per year, with over three million of his books in print. He’s won an Emmy, a Loeb award for journalism, and an honorary doctorate in music. What may be most remarkable for someone who has among the strongest personal brands that you will find is how little planning he has put to developing that brand. Rather, he has largely been reactive as opposed to proactive in his career. When he arrived at the New York Times in 2000, others saw in him an ability to make the esoteric accessible, and thus offers arrived to get invol

Health care information technology blossoms in Kansas City

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A slip of paper at the nurses’ station indicated a certain medication dose was due for a patient. Dallas Fulton knew better. Actually, his hand-held computer knew better. FRED BLOCHER | The Kansas City Star Dallas Fulton, a nurse, uses a CareMobile unit, tied in with Truman Medical Centers’ patient records system, to track the health of Joe Darrough of Kansas City. Fulton, a registered nurse on staff in Truman Medical Centers’ Hospital Hill intensive care unit, gets real-time electronic information about prescriptions, vital signs and any other aspect of patient care. His “CareMobile” device, never far from his side, quickly showed him that the patient’s physician had just changed the prescription order. “It’s faster and safer,” Fulton said of the technology. “It used

Not enough quota students, IITs may restart preparatory course

The nightmare of the 1990s is here again. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will open their classrooms for special coaching for reserved category students who fail to make the grade this year despite a substantial lowering of the cut-off for them. The reason the IITs will be forced to restart the yearlong preparatory course is that there may not be enough students to fill the reserved category seats. A smaller pool of candidates this year contributed to an inadequate number that made the cut. That will force the elite engineering colleges to not only lower their cut-offs but also re-start the preparatory course. The possibility of the IITs falling short of quota students was reported by TOI when the JEE Main results were declared on May 7. "Although we are at the stage of certificate verification and everything currently is provisional, I think we might have to conduct a preparatory course this year," said JEE (Advanced) chairman H C Gupta. For

A year on, IIT-JEE coaching institutes see a good admission season

The ministry of human resource development's (MHRD) idea to tweak the joint entrance examination (JEE) to discourage the coaching culture doesn't seem to have worked. In fact, it has resulted in more students knocking on the doors of engineering test preparation institutes. For IIT-JEE coaching institutes, academic year 2012-13 has been good. Three test preparing institutes - Kota-based Career Point Infosystems, FIITJEE and Rao IIT Academy - told Business Standard admission at the institutes has seen a 15 per cent jump, which may go up to 30 per cent over the next few months. "With the changes brought about in the exam, MHRD has in effect given a fillip to the coaching culture. Students and parents think it may be difficult to get into the IITs without any formal coaching," says Pramod Maheshwari, CEO, Career Point Infosystems, Kota. He says his institute has introduced coaching programmes for 12th standard students, in addition to providing coaching f

What makes IITs tick

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The Indian state faces a serious need to overhaul its mechanisms of accountability. According to a Pew Research Poll conducted in 2010, 98 per cent of Indian citizens classify government corruption as a “very big” or a “moderately big” problem facing the country. There is good reason for citizens to be concerned. Every year, the government loses countless crores of rupees to bribery and embezzlement. Related to the lost money are the lost man-hours. Worker absenteeism, defined as the practice of staying away from work without good reason, is another huge problem. A recent study conducted by Harvard and Princeton economists revealed that 25 per cent of public primary school teachers and 40 per cent of government healthcare workers are absent from their jobs on any given day. Unfortunately, introducing new mechanisms of accountability can be a daunting prospect. It is apparent that certain institutions and accountability procedures, when copied from other (typical

IIT Guwahati poised to get new director

Professor Gautam Biswas, currently the director of Central Mechanical Engineering and Research Institute (CMERI) Durgapur, is tipped to become the next director of IIT Guwahati. Biswas will replace Professor Gautam Barua, whose tenure as the director ended yesterday. Barua served in the top position for 10 years. A search-cum-selection panel headed by human resource development minister M.M. Pallam Raju has selected Biswas for the job. President Pranab Mukherjee, who is the visitor of the institute, will have to clear the appointment after which Biswas will get a five-year term as the director, sources said. Biswas has done Masters and PhD from IIT Kharagpur. A faculty at IIT Kanpur, he has served as the Dean (Academics) in IIT Kanpur. He has been serving as the director of CMERI, a research lab of Council of Scientific and Indust-rial Research (CSIR), since 2009. The comparatively you

45% increase in internships in IIT Bombay

More IIT-B students got internship at companies and universities this year, with the process being formalised and streamlined by the institute’s placement office. There was a nearly 50% increase in internship at IIT-B over last year (909 compared to 605 last year). The internship season started around mid-August 2012 and continued till mid-May. This was also a part of the interim placement report that the institute has prepared. “This is the first time we looked at internship and we saw a huge increase,” said Avijit Chatterjee, professor in charge of placements. “More students want to do internship and companies also make placement offers based on internship.” Internship are not a formal requirement at the institute, but students prefer to do them, for various reasons. Internship at universities included those in India (27 students) as well as countries such as Germany (19 students), USA (13 students).

IIT-B, computer engineering are top choices for aspirants

The first round of counselling for the Indian Institutes of Technology closed on Sunday with IIT-Bombay emerging as the top choice among those who cleared the second round of the joint entrance test, with IIT-Delhi and IIT-Madras coming next. The most preferred course among the candidates was computer engineering. The first round of seat allotment for the IITs could be announced on July 3. Meanwhile, admission to various National Institutes of Technology (NITs) seems to move towards more complexity after being mired in legal tussles.  While the Andhra Pradesh high court had issued a notice to the HRD ministry on a petition challenging the normalisation procedure on July 27, the Delhi high court on Monday asked the respondents to file a reply within three weeks on a similar petition challenging the normalisation process. The way normalisation is being worked out, it could result in a student with high score in JEE (Main) a

IIT Guwahati techno-management event from Aug 29

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IIT Guwahati is all set to host Techniche 2013, its annual techno­-management festival from August 29 to September 1. Techniche, a non-profit festival, serves as a platform for inspirational lectures, quality workshops, social initiatives besides hosting challenging competitions. Techniche will turn 15 this year. IIT Guwahati annual event from Aug 29 Held in collaboration with the Entrepreneurial Development Cell of IITG, the 'Corporate' module of Techniche will host various management events. Some of them are: 1. Brain Child, the business plan competition in which the participants will have to pitch their business idea to the judging panel which includes our Incubation Partners like Indian Angel Network, Gemini New Media Ventures, Nirvana Venture Advisors and Mumbai Angels. Cash prizes worth Rs 50,000 up for grabs! 2. The Case Study competition on board with Harvard Business Review as knowledge partners is being organised with the cardinal aim of helping the

IIT-JEE 2013:After Vidya Balan, TISS researchers study Bihar's Super 30

After making actress Vidya Balan the subject of their research, social science students at the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) are now attempting to understand the rare success of Anand Kumar, founder-director of Super 30, who offers free coaching to poor students seeking admission to IITs. "Now, it is the turn of Super 30 founder Anand Kumar from Bihar. His pioneering initiative that has ushered in a silent revolution by helping students from underprivileged sections study in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has drawn the attention of researchers," a TISS official said. Vidya Balan and her outstanding performance in the film "Dirty Picture" as a "sex siren" had earlier been the subject of research at TISS. Mini Narayanan, 41, from TISS, is undertaking the research on Anand Kumar and his Super 30, so named because each year 30 students from poor families are chosen to undertake the free coaching

Hopes of getting IIT rekindled

Karnataka may finally get its long standing dream of an Indian Institute of Technology, with the Union Human Resources Ministry indicating a sanction for the same. Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande told reporters here on Friday: “I am confident that the HRD Ministry will sanction an IIT for Karnataka this time. They have given us an assurance on this after we offered to provide the required infrastructure.” The previous BJP government had made a similar proposal, but had not got a sanction. Deshpande admitted that the Centre had earlier categorically stated that it has no plans to sanction any more IITs, as it is more interested in strengthening the existing ones. Karnataka also does not figure in the list of states where additional IITs are to be set up under the 12th five year plan. “But now, with the Centre’s assurance, our hopes are rekindled. I have instructed the officials concerned to present a proposal to the Centre on the issue and get it sanctioned as

IIT Roorkee red flagged bad roads which contributed to landslides in Uttarakhand

It's in the air, and all of it is true. The Armed Forces have pulled off an amazing helicopter rescue operation in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand , but they had no option as Uttarakhand's roads simply melted away before raging rivers and falling rocks. In a report shared with the Uttarakhand government, geologists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Civil Engineering Department (Hill Area Development) Bureau of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) have blamed "unplanned" road construction for the disaster . The department says the state's roads have been made without apt guidance from geologists and environmentalists. The Civil Engineering Department (Hill Area Development) Bureau of BIS had charted executive director of the DMMC, a body headed by out guidelines and codes for constructing roads in Himalayan terrain. Taking a cue from BIS guidelines for development in hilly areas, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, analysed roads

IIT-K prepares for President's visit

The authorities of IIT-Kanpur are making preparations for the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to the institute on July 5 to take part in the convocation and give medals to meritorious students. The auditorium in which the convocation would be held is being readied. The President would arrive at the airstrip of IIT-K where he would be welcomed by the director. The district administration and the police authorities are busy in making preparations for the President's visit. Security would be enhanced at IIT-K. SPG will take control of it. From Chakeri Airport where President's special plane will land to airstrip at IIT-K and the entire institute would remain a high security zone. The residents of IIT-K will also be restricted in moving around the campus. The needy ones would have to produce identity cards. The students coming to convocation hall to receive degrees and medals would be frisked. They should carry identity cards. The security personnel of IIT-