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Showing posts from January 26, 2014

JEE Advanced 2014: Important dates and how to apply

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JEE Advanced 2014 is the final exam for admission to undergraduate courses at the prestigious IITs and ISM Dhanbad. However, only the candidates securing the top 1.5 lakh ranks in JEE Mains 2014 will be eligible to apply for the JEE Advanced exam. The registrations for JEE Advanced begin on May 4, 2014 and end on May 9, 2014, giving aspirants only 5 days to apply. With such less time available, it's best to be prepared beforehand.  Important Dates Online registration opens: May 4, 2014 Online registration ends: May 9, 2014 Last date of receipt of registration fee through e-challan mode: May 12, 2014 JEE Advanced 2014 exam: May 25, 2014 JEE Advanced 2014 results: June 19, 2014 Online IIT/ISM course selection opens: June 20, 2014 Online IIT/ISM course selection ends: June 24, 2014 Online release of first round of seat allocation: July 1, 2014 Online release of second round of seat allocation: July 7, 2014 Online release of third round of seat allocation: July 12, 201

Kejriwal vs Parrikar: BETTER IIT ALUMNI ??

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Kejriwal vs Parrika Both Parrikar and Kejriwal are automatic contenders for comparison, given the remarkable similarity of their background, political rise and even sombre appearances. While Parrikar has a degree in metallurgical engineering, Kejriwal is a mechanical engineer. Alumni of the IIT-Kharagpur have thrown a phalanx around Kejriwal, India's second IITian Chief Minister, especially, after Parrikar made snide remarks against the Aam Aadmi Party leader earlier this week. “Parrikar’s comments are way too partisan and uncalled for. We are very proud of Kejriwal's achievements. What he has accomplished is truly historic," Silicon Valley-based Pran Kurup said via email. Parrikar, a BJP politician serving as Chief Minister for the third time and an IIT-Bombay graduate, had claimed that he was embarrassed at being called an ‘IITian CM’ after the Delhi ‘nautanki’ (farce). “Nowadays, I don't want to be introduced as an IITian Chief Minister after the ‘nautanki’ of

Nine NIT Students Suspended for Ragging

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Eight engineering second year students and one final year student of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, were suspended for one year on Tuesday for ragging juniors.                                          NIT director T Srinivas Rao issued orders suspending the nine students based on the report submitted by the disciplinary committee constituted to investigate the complaint of ragging against them. Further, the suspended students will no longer be eligible for campus interviews in NIT. The suspended students are: P Venkatasurender Reddy, Jitin Manar, K Chandrashekhar, K Anilkumar, T Vamshi Krishna, M Tarunkumar, U Venkatesh, B Arunkumar and K Pavankumar (B.Tech final year). According to NIT sources, one week ago, some B.Tech first year students had approached the director complaining that the nine ragged them. Parents of those students also met the director to enquire about the issue after the victims, who went to their native places during holidays, told the

IIT Bombay to establish entrepreneurship centre

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                                       Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay will establish an  entrepreneurship centre  in its premises, with funds received from Syntel co-founders Bharat Desai and Neerja Sethi, under the aegis of the Desai Sethi Family Foundation (DS Foundation). The new centre, to be named Desai Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship, will foster entrepreneurship and technology innovation through new programmes for education and research, multi disciplinary courses, research labs and partnerships. Students will also receive mentorship from  IIT Bombay  faculty and guest faculty from global institutions. "The entrepreneurship centre will enable IIT-B to become the hub of entrepreneurship in the region, similar to role played by the Stanford University in the Silicon Valley," said Prof. Devang V Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay at the institute's entrepreneurship summit here today. Khakhar said Desai donated $1 million for this centre. IIT Bombay alread

Increase in Placements at IIT Guwahati

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                                             This placement season is proving to be a winner at IIT-G, with the institution showing a  remarkable  improvement in offers. Information made available by IIT-G's training and placement cell stated that over 400 students have been offered jobs since December last year, with the highest package being 125,000 USD. "Despite recession,  IIT-G  has been able to attract companies. This season, the placement team faced difficulties but the hard work paid off and individual branches registered commendable improvement. Many firms have shown an interest in conducting on-campus recruitments, including a number of PSUs," said Natesan Srinivasan, faculty in charge at IIT-G's training and placement cell. Srinivasan said more IT companies offered foreign postings this year, which resulted in better salary packages across departments. For B Tech and B Des students, the average salary offered in 2013-14 is Rs 13 lakh per annum. The same

Life of a Girl at IIT Delhi

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                                       Life of a Girl at IIT Delhi So, we are talking about  IIT Delhi , one of the most prestigious engineering colleges in India, supposedly a home to the brightest and smartest minds of the country! When you read 'the brightest and smartest', I'm sure the image that flashed in your mind was that of a bunch of nerdish guys rattling their brains over some unsolvable problem. How many of you imagined a girl doing that? Very few indeed! Here I present experiences of Sanju Ahuja, a second year sole Mechanical Engineering girl at IIT Delhi: 'This is how a  girl's life  begins in  IITD , being crammed in a classroom with boys about 10 times in number or more. I am a Mechanical Engineering student at  IIT  Delhi and the lone girl in my batch; so basically, I am the extremity of poor sex ratios in IITs. Honestly, 70% of my time here, I never felt that was a bad thing. I made a couple of great friends, people I can count on. We have a

No extension for 2 IIT directors

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Two of the six  IIT directors  whose terms are ending by June 2014 have been denied clearance by the HRD ministry for renewal or selection to another institution.  Madhusudan Chakraborty, director,  IIT-Bhubaneswar  and Anil K Bhowmick, director, IIT-Patna will not get another term.  In case of Chakraborty, the ministry said though he had vigilance clearance, it was found that he had overdrawn travelling allowance. Though he had refunded the extra amount, a complaint was forwarded to Central Vigilance Commission and a warning issued to Chakraborty. The CVC is yet to take a view on Chakraborty's actions.  The ministry said it had also received some complaints about irregularities by Chakraborty in recruitment, purchase of equipment, fraud etc. The board of governors of IIT-Bhubaneswar has been asked to send a report on these complaints.  Bhowmick, the ministry said, was "not clear from vigilance angle as regular departmental action for major penalty is underway against him&q

IIT Kanpur announces dates for JAM 2014

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JAM 2014 The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Kanpur has announced the dates for Joint Admission Test for M.Sc (JAM) Exam 2014. The exam will be conducted on February 09 (Sunday), 2014. JAM is conducted for the following courses: M.Sc. (two year), Joint M.Sc.-Ph.D., M.Sc.-Ph.D, Dual degree M.Sc.-M.Tech and other Post-Bachelor's degree programmes in IITs and into Integrated Ph.D. programmes at IISc. Eligibility Criteria: For IISc Bangalore: The un-reserved/OBC category candidates should possess first class/first division marks whereas candidates belonging to the SC/ST and PD category require second class/second division (50 per cent aggregate without rounding off) marks in the qualifying degree to be eligible for admission. For All Other IITs: Applicants belonging to the un-reserved/OBC category need at least 55% aggregate marks without rounding off, whereas candidates belonging to the SC/ST and PD category require at least 50 per cent aggregate marks in the qualifying d

Road to better IITs

There is no doubt that IIT has been the prime face of technical education in India. If the IITs are not ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide, it is really a question of research than scholastic ability.  Since 1970s, each year, at least 500 IIT graduates come to the US and have successfully illustrated to the Americans what people from India are capable of. The pity is that most of them never looked back. To call it brain drain is an understatement. Students from other Indian universities also come to the US in equal numbers and are doing well. I realised the fact, when I came here for my graduation. Though I am not an IIT graduate, I studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad. I did my graduation from a small university in Texas, where I got a PhD in engineering. And I hope, it pains no one if I state that even my university, ranked absolutely nowhere in the US, and still produces better PhDs than any IIT in India. This may be hard to believe, but in India, the emphasis is p

IIT-Guwahati readies for Alcheringa Atlantis annual festival

Popular guitarist of the American glam metal band 'Nitro', Michael Angelo Batio will perform at IIT-Guwahati during the institute's annual cultural fest - Alcheringa Atlantis - to be held on it premises from January 30 to February 2. Organizers are expecting Batio, considered to be one of the fastest guitarists in the world, to draw a huge crowd. "We are sure that the event will make the headlines in Guwahati. The organizers expect crowds to swell on February 2 as the inventor of the 'double guitar' and the 'quad guitar' takes the stage," said Utkarsh Gupta, this year's coordinator of Alcheringa. Udit Singh, the fest's media head, said, "During the day, there will be a number of pro-shows like BETTY, an alternative rock group from New York City. Activist-entertainer BETTY is known for its performance at rallies on equality and women's rights." He added that the Femina Miss India auditions will be an added attraction this y

IIT Hyderabad to get Rs 1,336-cr loan from Japanese agency

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The Japan International Cooperation Agency  (JICA) will grant a loan of Rs 1,336 crore to act as an aid in constructing some part of the campus of the recently built Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad ( IIT, Hyderabad ).  Chief representative of JICA's Indian office Shinya Ejima and joint secretary (bilateral cooperation) in the ministry of finance, government of India, Rajesh Khullar has signed the agreement for Japanese Official Development Assistant ( ODA ) loan. The loan is at a concessional rate of 1.40 per cent and needs to be paid in a period of 30 years. The repayment has a grace period of 10 years, besides that. As per a JICA statement,  IIT  Hyderabad expects the completion date of the project to be 2018. The loan is meant to be utilised for the purpose of constructing a permanent campus building and for attaining high-end research equipments for the institute. Some eminent professors from the University of Tokyo will help in the preparation of concept desi

GATE 2014: IIT graduates to help you with free mock tests

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The Graduate Engineering Aptitude Test (GATE) 2014 is egginging from the 2nd of February next month. Students who are appearing for the GATE 2014 tests are in a tense mood, preparing for the exams. At such an hour a bunch of IIT graduates have come out to help aspirants. The IIT graduates have created a website called  Testbook.com , an EdTech company which has been designed to provide the best online learning experience to the aspirants. You can compete your GATE preparations here asyou undertake mock tests online. You can get test in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computer Science & Information Technology and Computer Science & Information Technology What is interesting about the website is that it is free to use. There is full and partial mock tests on the website designed by 30+ GATE toppers. There are 50+ tests in 4 categories for each course with a bank of 20000+ que

Manohar Parrikar said the nautanki of Delhi CM has negatively impacted the reputation of IITs

Opposition leader in Goa assembly and long time Goa chief minister Pratapsing Rane, criticized Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, though without naming him, for holding protest meetings in Delhi. "Responsible people should behave in a responsible manner," Rane said. Rane who has never lost assembly elections since he first contested elections in early 1970s said in India, a parliamentary system of government is followed. "In parliamentary system of government, I have gone to the best of parliaments and nowhere people are seen shouting and walking out," he added. "I don't want to criticize anybody, but somebody goes out and sits on the streets but that doesn't done like that. If you are the lawmaker and you only seat on the streets, then it is not correct. You are putting the Aam Admi into trouble," Rane made a point without naming Kejriwal.

IIT-Madras to set up Cancer tissue biobank

A  cancer tissue biobank  would be set up on the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) campus, the institute announced on Tuesday. The biobank, a first of its kind community-based venture, will be the result of a collaborative effort between the department of science and technology (DST), Government of India, and IIT-M. The DST has awarded Rs 27.81 crore towards the opening this facility at IIT-M. This project will be headed by S Mahalingam of department of biotechnology at the institute. IIT Madras initiated the biobanking process with Cancer Research and Relief Trust (CRRT), Chennai, and aims at collaborating with several institutions and organizations. The project also aims at attracting voluntary contribution of cancer tissues by patients, doctors and institutions. Measures will put in place for appropriate collection, transport and storage of such tissues in centralized tissue bank. This effort has become important with the advent of genomic medicine. This community-based

IIT-B makes solar power plant

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The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has gone the eco-friendly way and established its own solar power plant. From today, the first phase of the 1MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the institute’s premises will whirr to life, illuminating several departments through a local grid. The remaining two phases of the plant, which is being manufactured by Mahindra EPC, will be ready by March. With this plant in place, the elite engineering college hopes to generate 13% more power than it consumes now, while cutting down the cost at the same time.  Every month, IIT Bombay consumes approximately 6,500KW of power, which costs the exchequer Rs2 crore. The institute hopes to cut down the bill by Rs50 lakh a month. The plant is expected to produce around 1.45 million units of energy per year, for a minimum period of 20 years. “The cost of solar energy would be approximately Rs4.1 per unit. The institute currently pays almost double the amount under the commercial tariff,” sa

IIT-M Students Create App To Help Track Attendance

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For those who hate 80 percent  attendance  system in classes and for those who loves 'oozing around, here is an app to help you track your attendance record in the college. 'Bunk Monitor', an app developed by a team of students at  Indian Institute of Technology, Madras  (IIT-M), will have timetable details, including the electives and students can indicate if they 'bunked' or 'attended' or if a class was cancelled. At a time set by the user, the app will send daily notifications prompting the student to attend a class, indicate the attendance level, and also send warnings in case of borderline attendance. According to Awanish Raj, third-year electrical engineering student and part of the developing team who developed Bunk Monitor, while it is preferable to attend all lectures, sometimes, missing classes  is unavoidable. An app that can tell students if it is alright to miss a class at a particular time will save them from future trouble. As per reports,