Thanks! - for listening

Sometime back I had written about the 'state-quota in NITs'. Thanks to the media, for when it was published in JAM, it did get some notice and brought me some appraisal :). But it feels great when something that you bring into the light, gets noticed and some step is taken towards it by the government. Well, I agree it won't have been just my article in JAM bringing this revolution, but I guess there's nothing wrong in claiming for your piece of cake, if you deserve some. :D

According to the corrigendum issued by the
Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, for filling up seats in NITs
amongst the candidates declared eligible for counseling, on the basis of results of
AIEEE conducted by CBSE, the seats in the NITs shall be filled up with following
criteria:
(i) 50% of the seats in an NIT shall be filled by the eligible candidates who
have passed +2 examination from the State in which the NIT is situated. For
example, in NIT Agartala 50% seats shall be filled by the eligible
candidates who have passed their +2 examination from Tripura.
(ii) Admission in NITs for rest 50% seats would be on All India Merit basis.
For these seats candidates would be admitted from amongst All India rank
holders in AIEEE.

Although this may be a little disheartening for those guys, who still don't have NIT in their state.
But its a good news for all those crying over not getting the dream college even after excelling in AIEEE. Still 50% is to be filled by the home-state candidates, but atleast the rest 50% will be filled on purely impartial way.
Although I was shocked to hear about this news considering the fact that our HRD minister is still the one who has the credit of bringing some 'historical' changes in the admission process in India, bringing in 'quotas' and arousing people to destroy railway lines in rajasthan to get the officially coveted status of 'backward class'.
But, after this rule coming into action from this year onwards (those taking admission in july'08) ,I think the better crowd these NITs get, better is going to be their reputation. And I guess the 50% home-state quota too is on its way to make way for 100% admission on All India Merit basis. Just keep your fingers crossed, because the HRD minister is still the same!

pragyan '08

Pragyan, the international techno- management festival of NIT Trichy, as they call it, which aims at imbibing a scientific temper with the spirit of innovation among the youth, truly lived up to its expectations, in its fourth edition. It not only provided a platform to the students to make innovative working models using their engineering skills or to make a profitable Business plan, but also gave them a chance to compete against the best geeks in coding to f1 car making!

What made this pragyan special was not just the participation from across the country, which even turned global in many events, but the strong desire of organizers to deliver the participants, ‘the best’. From 3D movie shows to guest lectures on breathtaking topics like ‘time travel’, from the so-called humanoid robots performing dance on ‘dhoom’ song to the workshop on investment management, it was where everybody found something, which they had always wished they could!

Day 1 – After witnessing one of the biggest contraptions ever at the inauguration ceremony, junta pulled up all their seat belts, to be a part of this classic journey for the next 3 days. The morning crowd puller was the robotic workshop by Mr. Amir Shapiro, where he shared various invaluable fundas with the robotic enthusiasts. It was the day where all the participants made their best attempts to clear the prelims of different events and reach the finals. The results brought smiles on the face of some alongwith the awareness of tough challenge lying ahead in finals! And glimpse of sadness on the faces of those who could not clear the prelims. But as someone has rightly said, ‘success is never ending and failure is not an option’, these high spirits pulled up their sleeves for rest of the events, to give their best shot next time.

Day 2 – After gaining momentum in its very first day, pragyan still had a lot more to unveil and this was proved on the 2^nd day, when the participation in the next round of events touched new heights. Starting off with Ventura, one of the biggest Bplan competitions of India, which had more than 4 million INR at stake, the day saw engineering enthusiasts building bowling machines with simple materials and mind-boggling creativity! The day ended with an admirable alumnus of college enlightening the future engineers about the importance of renewable energy and entrepreneurial aspects it offers.

Day 3 – where there is a beginning there is an end, but at pragyan they seem to believe not in the end but in continuous improvement. With a promise to come back next year, better than ever, this year’s pragyan came to an end. The day witnessed the final results of various events, eminent guest lectures including the one by mr. subramania swamy on indian economy, jagriti- the ‘contribution to society’ aspect of pragyan and pengufest- the linux workshop.

Nostalgic it was for all those who had witnessed previous editions of pragyan and an unforgettable experience for others.

p.s. – The things that I liked the most, as NOT mentioned above, included food stalls and few temporary maals (or hot-chicks, as they are called) in the campus. Special thanks to www.findnearyou.com team, for giving me a pen drive for writing this blog :)

festember'07

September is here again and so is the annual cult fest of NIT trichy. Festember is one of the biggest cult fest of south India and this year its going to be just better. With a pronite by Kaykay and semi pro Rock contest the fest already seems attractive, but for all those who ever wished if they too could try their hands on RJ-ing.. the workshop on Radio Jockeying is like a dream come true. Apart from this there are workshops on origami, caricature, theatre etc. and loads of lits and cult events.
20-23 september is the time when its all gonna happen... So just be there and enjoy... read the offical blog and check the festember website for more details.

are you listening Mr. HRD minister??

Thank god.. that obc quota is put on hold at least for one yr... a relief to all the talented aspirants of IITs , IIMs , and other govt. colleges..
but while everyone is concerned abt quota based on classes...
i want to highlight some other important quotas in some of the top institutes of our country...
as most of you might be knowing about AIEEE, all India engg. entrance exam... for admission to National institutes of Technology( NITs) and other deemed universities..
well i'm not here to comment abt that exam.. sure its a very good and reputed exam..
but what i'm trying to focus here is on the admission process that is followed after the exam..
Anyways before that i must tell u about the results of the exam ... every selected candidate is given an all - India rank(AIR) and a state rank... (ur standing in ur state)
while the private colleges and institutes like IIITs (including hyderabad, allahabad etc.) give admission on the all India rank basis...
All the NITs give admission on the basis of state ranks (SR)...
well... u may ask, so wats the big deal..
but there is a problem..
actually in these NITs there is a quota for every state like particular no. of seats in specific branch for a particular state..
50% of the total seats are reserved for the state in which that NIT is located and rest 50% is divided among rest of the states..
and here comes the difference... while a student in andhra pradesh of an AIR under 100 will have an SR of around 40 or more... and rajasthan just close to that...
a candidate from other state may have a SR under 10 at the same AIR !! (if u still can't get my point ... don't worry... continue reading..)
And the bigger problem is as ofcourse all the NITs are not of equal status ,some are of course much better than others and which aspirant would like to join...
but because of this state quota system .. he may not be able to..
to show you an example..
if u look at the statistics of yr. 2006..
the opening and closing rank for Andhra Pradesh for comp. sci. engg. in NIT trichy was AIR - 127... (only one seat for AP in comp. sci. engg.)
for delhi it was AIR - 2235...
for Tamilnadu (the state where NIT trichy is located) had an opening rank of AIR 1406 and closing rank of "AIR 7721" !!!

check it on here.

the same trend follows for other branches too..!!

now just tell me how fair is that to give admission to a student in TN at an AIR of 7000+ and NOT to a student at the same AIR from other state...!!!

while he perfectly deserves admission in a better college (which may not be located in his state)... because he performed better in the AIEEE....
his only mistake is that he did his 12th from (or he is born in) AP or rajasthan or some other state and he has to pay for it!!

will anyone come answer me for that..?
even if u support caste based quota ... then i must tell u that this is the trend in the same category (general)... the only difference is state...!!

The trend is following since these colleges had the REC (regional engg. college) status...
what i think is while converting RECs to NITs Mr. Murali manohar joshi (ex-HRD minister) might have thought of changing this state quota system in near future as his next step towards making admission process to engineering colleges easy for aspiring students...
but the present scenario is not at all going that way..
with the changed govt. and our very GREAT Mr. Arjun Singh... i have no hope to see any correction in this procedure...

i just wish if i had the right to vote for HRD minister... but unfortunately he's not from my constituency...!