IITs in support of common test, says Sibal -Governance Now

IITs in support of common test, says Sibal

Minister says out of the seven senates, IIT Guwhati, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee and IIT Bombay, support the common test

Jasleen Kaur | June 6, 2012

HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said he did not break any promise made to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) faculty on common test for admission in engineering colleges.

He said IIT senate's viewpoint was also considered. "I categorically said if there will be any dissent in the IIT council, there will be no common test. And there was no dissent by IIT council, which consists of IITs, IIITs and NIITs."

He said out of the seven senates, IIT Guwhati, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee and IIT Bombay, supported the common test.

He added IITs had two disputes which were agreed by the council. "They wanted the entire control over the IIT exam and we agreed. They wanted that school weightage to be part of only the filtering process, we agreed to it too."

Sibal got enough support from the state governments on common engineering entrance test, but the decision did not go down well with the All India IIT Faculty Federation and IIT alumni association.

The IIT Alumni of Delhi has written to the prime minister asking for his intervention on the IIT entrance row. The association has also threatened to take HRD minister Kapil Sibal to court, saying his decision for a new entrance format is weak as per the IIT Act.

The common entrance exam for admission to all centrally funded technical institutes in the country will be conducted from 2013.

Sibal on May 28 had announced that the two exams of the test - main and advanced - would be multiple-choice question based instead of subjective as the IIT faculty wanted.

IIT alumni in its letter said IIT council chaired by HRD minister overruled the majority opinion of institute faculty. IIT Delhi senate met on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Except IIT Guwahati and IIT Madras, other IITs - Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Kanpur - voted to advance the test to 2014 and wanted to have screening test with IITs free to design an advanced subjective type test for final admissions.

IIT council had decided that IITs would screen 50,000 students from main exam of the proposed JEE by adding 50% scores each of school board and the main test. Advanced component of JEE would be designed by IITs and would be the admission test for them.

"We just want the due process of law must be observed. Senate needs to pass an ordinance to decide the admission process of IIT as senate has the supreme power to decide. IIT council does not have the locus to pass the admission process,” Somnath Bharti, president IIT Delhi Alumni Association, said.

He added, “In the history of IITs, JEE never faced any problem. It's only because IIT had complete control over it." He said the standards will be diluted as the common entrance board will have representatives from various states.

Comments

Other News

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

“Indians, yet treated like outsiders”

Moving to Delhi-NCR for education can be an exciting experience for students from Northeast India. It gives us a chance to meet new people, experience a different culture and become more independent. But living away from home also comes with challenges that people who have not experienced them may not al

Import duty on major edible oils cut

The government has reduced the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on major imported crude edible oils with a view to moderating domestic edible oil prices, providing relief to consumers and mitigating inflationary pressures arising from the sharp increase in international edible oil prices.