481 - 500 IIT-M students yet to be placed, 2nd phase of placements on

500 IIT-M students yet to be placed, 2nd phase of placements on

CHENNAI: IIT-Madras, which had a good run in the initial phase of the campus placements this year, has a tough task ahead. With more than 500 students yet to be placed in various departments, the institute's placement office expects only around 16 companies to visit in the second phase of the campus season.

Around 60% of the 1,263 students were placed in the first phase. As many as 210 companies visited the campus between December 1 and December 22, 2012, and made 844 offers to 750 students. Seventeen students received more than one offer.

This year IIT-Madras students were offered among the highest pay packages in the country. Samsung Electronics offered six students US$1.5 million. Four of the students took up the offer, while computer science graduates Sujeet Gholap and Nitin Motiani decided to take up positions at Google and Goldman Sachs.

On Wednesday, the first day of the second phase of the campus placement season, at least three students were offered jobs. Students and faculty expect the second phase to be slower than the first. "Hereafter, only one or two interviews will be scheduled because classes have begun for the students," said B Nagarajan, deputy registrar of placements at IIT-Madras. In the beginning of the placement season in December 2012 as many as 12 companies visited the campus.

Among companies visiting the campus in the second phase are Honeywell and DRDO. The second phase is expected to go on till the end of March.

While many of the BTech and dual degree students have been placed, students in courses such as MSc, MS and PhD are yet to find jobs through the placement process. The institute has called on the faculty members to help pull strings in industry to get students in these courses find jobs in areas they are interested in.

Speaking to TOI earlier about BTech and dual degree students being more in demand than PhD and MSc students, IIT-Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said that students in these courses had a different agenda when compared to BTech students. We are trying to get the students interested in research and not just employment, he said.

By M Ramya, TNN | Jan 17, 2013, 04.10 AM IST

408 - All this started with IITM Senates Proposals

The IITM JEE Committee 2012

The faculty association of IITM nominated 

• Profs. S.K. Das (ME), 
  Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BE & ME from Jadavpur University and PhD from Sambalpur University; President of the IITM faculty association
• Vijayan (Physics), Professor in Physics, office bearer of Faculty Association
• Shaligram Tiwari (ME), Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, office bearer of faculty association, B.Tech IIT KGP 1991, M.Tech.
  and Ph.D. from IITK

The Director of IITM Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthy added 

• Profs. Nandita Dasgupta (EE), Prof of Electrical Engineering,  BE from Jadavpur 1982, M.Tech, and PhD. from IITM 
•  Mahesh Panchagnula(AM),  associate prof in Applied Mechanics department, IITM Mech B.Tech. 1992, graduate degrees from Purdue
• and Prof. Idi Chandy (Ocean Engineering) as Chairman of JEE Committee.  MSc Physics from Kerala, MS and PhD from IITM Ocean Engineering department, former chairman of JEE and also been on some previous JEE review committees

The Senate of IIT Madras deliberated the proposal for the new JEE based on a single exam.

The Senate favoured a single-day entrance exam consisting of a Main test with MCQ questions in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and an Advanced Quantitative test based on the same subjects. The latter test will have problems with numerical answers, possibly in multiple parts. The answers will be entered by the candidates on a machine-readable form.

The Senate recommended two options as described below for ranking the candidates for admission to the IITs. Of the two, Option 1 is thepreferred option.

 In Option 1, the concept of gating is introduced. All candidates with weighted marks above a pre-announced (at the time the examination brochure is released) Minimum Qualifying Mark (MQM) only will be considered for ranking using the marks obtained in the Advanced Quantitative paper. 

In Option 2, a weighted mark obtained from Board percentile rank, Main test marks and Advanced Quantitative test marks will be used for ranking.

The weights recommended by the Senate for the three components, namely, Board percentile rank, Main marks, and Advanced Quantitative marks, are
given in brackets.


Option-1 (preferred):

A weighted mark obtained from Board percentile rank (0.4) + Main test marks (0.6) will be used for gating purpose alone. Advanced Quantitative paper marks alone used for ranking the candidates for IIT admission. Only those candidates with the weighted mark higher than the pre-announced MQM will be ranked using the Advanced Quantitative paper marks.


Option-2:
A weighted mark obtained from Board percentile rank (0.2) + Main test marks (0.4) + Advanced Quantitative test marks (0.4), will be used for ranking candidates for IIT admission.

398 - Govt fears IITs batting for coaching centres - Millenium Post

Govt fears IITs batting for coaching centres

23 June 2012, New Delhi, Tania Ameer Khan

Sibal convenes emergency meeting with central institutes afer IIT-D rejects CET.

With the war between the human resource development minister Kapil Sibal and the the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) intensifying deeply, the ministry has called a special meeting next week to discuss the controversial issue of the  new Common Entrance Test (CET) proposed by the government.

On Thursday, IIT, Kanpur, was joined by IIT, Delhi, in taking on Sibal against the CET. They have decided to hold their own separate examination for undergraduate engineering courses from next year.

Reacting to this development,the ministry issued a statement on Friday that called a special meeting of the IIT Council on 27 June to discuss the impasse. In a press release, Sibal said, 'The uncertainty faced by the student community, consequent to the resolutions of the Senates of IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi, requires to be addressed. Consequently, a special meeting of the IIT Council is being convened on 27.6.2012.'

An IIT, Delhi, Senate official said the institute will conduct the exam in association with IIT, Kanpur, which too is against the new format. 

However, IIT, Madras, is keen to go with Sibal's proposal. Its director Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi told Millennium Post: 'Various senates gave their view, and we have supported the proposal of the HRD ministry, as its close to our viewpoint.'

The sources in the ministry have said that the reason behind these two IITs vehemently opposing the CET is that the new proposal will hit at the Rs 10 to 15 crore coaching industry, in which faculty of the IITs have a direct say. The sources said that the IIT faculty fear that if Class XII marks are counted for admission to IITs, the importance of coaching centres will be lessened.

However, Ramamurthi said, 'Coaching centres are not our concern at all. We just want a good exam and good students to come out from it.'

While sources in the Congress say that they believe the government is competent enough to handle the situation and will ultimately resolve this issue.

In an attempt to resolve the issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier met members of the All India IIT Faculty Federation and assured them that the autonomy of the IITs would be protected.

IIT-DELHI COUNCIL TO MEET HRD MINISTRY

A day after Indian Institute of Technology [IIT] Delhi rejected the entrance exam format announced by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on 28 May, it announced a special meeting of the IIT Council on 27 June with the ministry to address the concerns of students, sources in the IIT. Apparently, they want the ball to be in the ministry’s court and that they would react according to the situation.

‘We are very clear about our stance and as far as preparations for Wednesday’s meeting is concerned we can only comment on that once we would know what the ministry wants to say,’ said the source.

When contacted IIT-D, Deputy Director Ishtiaque said, ‘I’m not aware of anything.’ But he added IIT-D is not happy with the 2013 changes. He also added that the faculty federation insists that implementing the new system would put a lot of pressure on students already in the midst of preparing for the IIT-JEE next year.’

He also added that new format would increase the stress of students as students aspiring to join institutes other than the IITs need not sit for two test as proposed. ‘The IITs advance test should be subjective type, just for the candidates aspiring to join the IITs. This advance test would be held on a day different from the main test and would be administered to only shortlisted candidates from the main test [50,000 to 70,000] by the IITs, but HRD wants to include all the short listed students in that advance test and wants objective type test, which is unpractical,’ said Ishtiaque. 'This is impossible because how one can check five to six lakh copies.'

291 - Students ready to take up CET - Asian Age

Students ready to take up CET

Jun 12, 2012 - N. Arun Kumar | Dc | Chennai

With the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, Delhi and Kharagpur opposing the HRD ministry’s move to do away with the AIEEE, IIT-JEE and change the exam format to a single common entrance test (CET), students feel that a single CET would help them a lot.

According to N. Aakaash, a final-year electronics and communication engineering student at VIT University, Vellore, he welcomes the ministry’s decision and said it would help eliminate multiplicity of entrance examinations as most of the top, higher education institutions in the country conduct entrance examination.

“On an average, a student spends a minimum of Rs. 15,000 on application forms itself. If the student comes from an affluent family, then he may buy all applications but he hails from a poor economic background, will he be able to apply to all institutions? In this case, we are denying him his right,” he said.

N. Venkatakrishnan, an alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchy, said board exam marks should also be included for admission to Central institutions, including IITs, as it would make students focus on their school studies.

“In the past, IIT aspirants did not study the school lessons as they knew that if you cleared the eligibility in board exam and scored more marks in the joint entrance examination, then your IIT seat is confirmed. So, they did not concentrate enough on board exams,” he said.

Prof Baskar Ramamurthi, director of IIT Madras, said, “The idea of combining board exam marks is to make sure that one test does not determine the student’s entry into IIT.

You have to be a good student with comprehensive board marks and if you have one-lakh seats in IIT, you don’t need an advance test to select students but that’s not the case in our country.

Earlier, the board was ignored completely, which led to a lot of problems, as students ignored languages. As we need to have a fair way of selecting students, we proposed adding board marks to the CET score.”

Pointing out that Indian school education system had two problems, Prof Ramamurthi said India had no uniform board or single board examination in the school system, besides there being huge shortage of seats.

263 - IIT-Madras to go with Centre's JEE proposal - The Hindu

IIT-Madras to go with Centre's JEE proposal

CHENNAI, June 10, 2012

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Senate recommends two options for ranking candidates

The Indian Institute of Technology – Madras is ready to go with the Centre's Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) from the next academic year for admission to its undergraduate engineering courses, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-M, said on Saturday.

After the original request came from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the IIT-M's Senate had a fairly thorough discussion in its 254 meeting on May 3 and recommended two options for ranking candidates for admission to IITs.

Deliberating on the proposal for the new JEE based on a single examination, the Senate favoured a single-day entrance examination consisting of a main test with multiple choice questions in mathematics, physics and chemistry and an advanced quantitative test based on the same subjects.

The latter test would have problems with numerical answers, possibly in multiple parts.

Option one was the introduction of the concept of gating. All candidates with weighted marks above a pre-announced Minimum Qualifying Mark (MQM) would be considered for ranking using the marks obtained in the advanced quantitative paper.

Stating that this was its preferred option, IIT-M's Senate suggested using weighted mark obtained from Board percentile rank (0.4) + main test marks (0.6) to be used for gating purpose alone. The Centre's proposal has given it a 50-50 weightage. Otherwise, the proposal is pretty much the same as recommended by the IIT-M Senate, says Mr. Ramamurthi.

It also strongly recommended that advanced quantitative marks alone be used for ranking the candidates for IIT admission. Only those candidates with the weighted mark higher than the pre-announced MQM will be ranked using the advanced quantitative paper marks. This recommendation is also in sync with the Centre's proposal.

(The weights recommended by the Senate for the three components, namely, Board percentile rank, JEE-Main marks and JEE-Advanced marks are given in brackets).

As the Council of IITs was eager to include the weightage of Board marks for screening, option two suggested a formula of weighted mark obtained from Board percentile rank (0.2) + main test marks (0.4) + advanced quantitative test marks (0.4) to be used for ranking candidates for IIT admission.

In this option, the IIT-M Senate basically suggested reduction in weightage given to Board marks. “We came up with the second option since we need not go back and forth,” said Mr. Ramamurthi emphasising that the institute was ready to admit students as per the new JEE from 2013 itself.

262 - Academia, students hail new entrance criteria - IBN Live

Chennai | Updated May 30, 2012 at 08:54am IST

Academia, students hail new entrance criteria 

CHENNAI: The announcement, by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday, that Class XII results would be given substantial weightage in the proposed Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering courses from 2013, came in for much praise from students and academia alike.

However, some were of the view that the decision would turn futile unless it helps the system move towards a national standard in school education.

The decision to hold such a common test for central institutions was announced in a press meet in New Delhi on Monday.

Director of IIT-Madras, Bhaskar Ramamurthy, who attended the meet, told Express over the phone that the new system will provide 50 per cent weightage to Class XII marks for initial short-listing of candidates for the IITs.
“We expect such a system to ensure that only students who do very well at the school level and take Class XII seriously make it to premier institutions,” he said.

The NITs will give 40 per cent weightage to Class XII Board marks and 30 per cent weightage for performance in JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced, the two parts of the common exam, and a combined merit decided accordingly.

State Planning Commission member and former vice-chancellor of the Anna University, E Balagurusamy, said it would help reduce the impact of coaching centres in determining the future of students.

“One of the main reasons for Tamil Nadu abolishing engineering entrance was the role played by coaching centres. Poor rural students neither had the means nor the access to such training and found it difficult to compete,” he said.

Balagurusamy said the move should pave the way for a national standard in school education.

“There is a huge disparity between systems in quality. It has to be bridged. Only two from Tamil Nadu made it to the top 50 this year in IIT and they were from CBSE,” he said.

245 - IIT Madras backs HRD ministry - The Asian Age

IIT Madras backs HRD ministry - Asian Age

Jun 10, 2012 - N. Arun Kumar |DC / chennai

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has decided to go ahead with the common entrance test (CET) for engineering courses in central institutions, supporting the HRD ministry’s stand, even as IIT Kanpur and Delhi have raised their voice against the CET.

IIT Madras would go along with the HRD ministry’s decision to go for a CET as accepted by the IIT council, though two other IITs had opposed the move, IITM director Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi told Deccan Chronicle on Saturday.

“Nobody here (IIT Madras) is agitated. We had proposed 40 per cent weightage for Class XII board exam marks and 60 pert cent for the CET but the council made a minor change to make it 50:50.

We will use a combination of board exam marks and entrance exam marks to gate a student,” said the IITM director.

Prof. Ramamurthi pointed out that a single test should not determine a student’s entry into IIT as the students should have comprehensive board exam marks also.

89 - Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy- IIT MAdras Director shares his thoughts on IIT Madras