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The Indian Institutes of Technology ( established by the Government Of India . They have been declared ''Institutes of National Importance'' by the Government of India and are known throughout the world for their degree programs. There are about 17,000 Undergraduate and 13,000 Graduate students in the seven IITs in addition to the research scholars. The IITs were established over a period of time starting with the establishment of IIT Kharagpur in 1951 . These institutes were created to train the scientists and engineers needed by India just after getting independent from the British Rule . The students and alumni of IITs are referred to as ''IITians''. The individual IITs are autonomous universities and are linked in the top of their organizational structure having common ''Visitor'' and ''IIT Council''. They also have a common admission program, the '' 2006 . The autonomy of IITs have helped them to create specialized degrees in technology at undergraduate level, and consquently award the ''Bachelor of Technology (BTech)'' degree as opposed to ''Bachelor of Engineering (BE)'' degree elsewhere in the country. THE IIT FAMILY The IIT family consists of 7 institutes across India - IIT Kharagpur , IIT Bombay , IIT Madras , IIT Kanpur , IIT Delhi , IIT Guwahati , and IIT Roorkee . Their locations are deliberately scattered throughout the country to prevent regional imbalance. The individual IITs function as autonomous universities and hence draft their own curriculum. All the IITs, with the exception of IIT Kanpur, are member of LAOTSE , an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia allowing them to Exchange Students and senior scholars. IIT Kharagpur was established in 1951, and is the oldest of all IITs. It is located in . IIT Bombay was established in 1958. It is situated in the Powai locality in Mumbai . It was set up with assistance from UNESCO and the erstwhile Soviet Union , which provided technical expertise, while the Government of India underwrote all other expenses including the construction costs and other recurring expenses. It is also the largest university in the state, and has an area of 2.23 km&2. The first academic session of the institute started on 25 July 1958 with an initial strength of 100 students. IIT Bombay moved to its present campus in 1959. There are a total of 24 departments, centres and schools. IIT Bombay has 13 student hostels and a total of 2000 students each in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In addition to the engineering education departments, IIT Bombay also has a management school (Shailesh J Mehta School of Management) within its premises. IIT Madras was established in 1959, and is located in the city of . and has nearly 360 faculty and 4500 students (2500 undergraduate and 2000 postgraduate). The campus is a located in a wooded land of about 2.5 km&2. It has 15 academic departments and research centres, and nearly 100 laboratories. The campus has 13 hostels. IIT Kanpur was established in 1959 in the city of Kanpur ( Uttar Pradesh ). During the first ten years of its existence, IIT Kanpur benefited from the Kanpur —Indo-American Programme, where a Consortium of 9 US universities helped set up the research laboratories and academic programmes. It is spread in over an area of 4.85 km&2. It has a total of approximately 500 faculty members. A total of 2000 undergraduate and an equal number of postgraduate students live in 10 hostels. Established as ''College of Engineering'' in 1961, IIT Delhi was given the current name and declared an Institution of National Importance under the "''Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 1963''". It is located in Hauz Khas region of New Delhi and has an area of 1.3 km&2. It has a total of 26 departments, centres and schools. The institute also has 426 faculty and 3500 students (2200 undergraduate and 1300 postgraduate) studying in it. The campus has a total of 11 hostels. IIT Roorkee was originally known as . URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . The College was renamed as ''The Thomason College of Civil Engineering '' in 1854 . The college was granted IIT status in 2001. The Institute offers Bachelor's degree courses in 10 disciplines of Engineering and Architecture and Postgraduate degrees in 55 disciplines. It has a total of 375 faculty members. The campus is about 1.45 km&2 in size and has a total of 8 hostels. IIT Guwahati was established in 1994 and the academic programme commenced in 1995. IIT Guwahati campus is situated on the northern banks of river Brahmaputra and the sprawling 2.85 km&2 campus also attracts many visitors because of its scenic beauty. It has a total of 18 departments and centres. There are 1300 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate student in IIT Guwahati with a total of 152 faculty members. ESTABLISHMENT OF IITS See Also: History of Indian Institutes of Technology The history of the IIT system dates to as early as 1946 . Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy 's Executive Council set up a committee to consider the setting up of Higher Technical Institutions for post war industrial development in India . The 22 member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar recommended the establishment of ''Higher Technical Institutions'' in various parts of the country, possibly on the lines of the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology ( Cambridge, Massachusetts , USA ), with a number of affiliated secondary institutions. The committee also felt that such institutes should not only produce undergraduates but should be engaged in research — producing research workers and technical teachers as well. The standard of the graduate education was recommended to be at par with those from elite institutions abroad. With the above recommendations of the Sarkar committee in view, the first Indian Institute of Technology was born in May, 1950 at the site of Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur , a town in eastern India. Initially the IIT started functioning from Kolkata and shifted to Hijli in September, 1950. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed an act known as the ''Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act'' declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru , India's first Prime Minister , in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said: On the recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, four campuses were subsequently founded at . Widespread student agitations in Assam led to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi prominsing another IIT in Assam. In 1994, a sixth campus at Guwahati was established as per the promise given. The University Of Roorkee (India's oldest engineering college) was conferred IIT status in 2001, as it had established itself as an excellent academic institution. Over the past few years, there have been a lot of developments towards setting up of new IITs. On 1 October 2003, the then Prime Minister of India, . URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . Subsequent developments led to the formation of ''S K Joshi Committee'' in November 2003 to guide the selection of the five institutions to be the five new IITs. As per the intial recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, it was decided that any more IITs created should be spread throughout the country. When the government expressed its willingness to correct this regional imbalance, sixteen states started demanding IITs. However, the Indian government laid strict guidelines for institutions aspiring to be IITs The march of the new IITs on . URL accessed on 2006-04-10 .
ADMISSION See Also: Joint Entrance Examination The admission to undergraduate programs in all IITs is done through the ''Joint Entrance Examination'' popularly known as ''IIT-JEE''. Candidates who clear IIT-JEE can apply for admission in BTech (''Bachelor of Technology''), Dual Degree (''Integrated Bachelor of Technology'' and ''Masters of Technology'') and Integrated MSc (''Master of Sciences'') courses in IITs. The admissions into the postgraduate programmes are made through various other exams, primarily the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering ( GATE ). The Joint Entrance Examination is a science-oriented entrance exam, testing applicant's knowledge of . Only students who have completed (or will be completing at the end of the current academic session) their higher secondary studies from a recognized board are allowed to sit the IIT-JEE. In 2000, a preliminary objective questions based test (called ''Screening Test'') was introduced with the intention of reducing the load on IIT-JEE Mains exam. In September 2005, an analysis group comprising of directors of all the IITs announced major reforms in JEE, implemented from 2006 onwards. The new test consists of a single objective test, replacing the earlier two tests system. The candidates belonging to the general category must secure a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate in the qualifying examination of the XIIth standard organized by various educational boards of India. Candidates belonging to SC, ST and PD categories must secure a minimum of 55% in aggregate in the Qualifying Examination. Eligibility Criteria for IIT JEE on IIT Madras' Website. URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . The age limit for appearing in IIT-JEE is 25 years. For candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories, the relaxed age limit is 30 years. Also, starting 2007, a candidate can take the JEE at most twice. This has been done mainly to reduce stress on students and discourage the concept of "cram schools" - where students are made to memorize all sorts of possible exam questions. Also from 2007 onwards, students who are selected for an IIT cannot attempt the examination again in the future. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE The President Of India is the Ex Officio ''Visitor'' of all IITs. The ''Visitor'' is the most powerful person in the organizational structure of IITs. Directly under the ''Visitor'' is the IIT Council. It comprises of the Minister-in-charge of Technical Education in Central Government, the Chairmen of all IITs, the Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of University Grants Commission , the Director General of CSIR , the Chairman of IISc , the Director of IISc, 3 members of Parliament, Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, nominees of the Central Government (three), AICTE , and Visitor. Following the IIT Council are the ''Board of Governers'' of individual IITs. Under the ''Board of Governers'' is the ''Director'', the chief executive of the IIT. The academic policy of individual IITs are decided by the ''Senate''. It comprises all professors of the IIT concerned and a few more representatives. Unlike most American universities which have (often elected) faculty senate, IIT's have an academic senate. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results. It appoints committees to look into specific academic matters arising from time to time. The teaching, training and reseach activities of various departments of the Institute are periodically reviewed to improve faciliites and maintain standards. The ''Director'' of the Institute is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate. Under the Director in the organizational structure is the ''Deputy Director''. The ''Director'' and the ''Deputy Director'' together oversee the functioning of the ''Deans'', ''Heads of Departments'', ''Registrar'', President of the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. There are a number of ''Deans'' who oversee various departments individually. Among the various Deans are Dean (Academic Affairs), Dean (Student Affairs), Dean (Postgraduate Studies and Research), Dean (Alumni Affairs), and a few more who are specific to various IITs. ''Deans'' and ''Heads of Departments'' are administrative postings and not career paths (i.e.) faculty members are posted as ''Deans'' and ''Heads of Departments'' for a limited period, typically 2-3 years, before returning to regular faculty academic duties. The ''Registrar'' overviews the day-to-day operations of the IIT. Below the Head of Department (HOD) are the various faculty members (Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors). The ''Wardens'' come under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. Organizational structure of IITs from IIT Kharagpur's Website. URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . EDUCATION The Indian Institutes of Technology receive disproportionately higher grants as compared to the other engineering colleges. Performance based funding of IITs on IISc 's Website. URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . While the total Government funding to most of the good quality engineering colleges is around Rs. 100-200 million per year, for each IIT, it varies between Rs. 900-1,300 million per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding from industry. The IITs subsidize undergraduate student fees to the tune of 80% and provides scholarships to all ''Master of Technology'' students and ''Research Scholars''. This has translated into superior Infrastructure and better faculty in the IITs and consequently higher competition among students to gain admissions into the IITs. The cost borne by undergraduate students including boarding and messing expenses is around Rs. 50,000 per annum. The entrance test for undergraduate programs in IITs (the IIT-JEE) aims to select intelligent students through questions specifically set up by an expert panel to test the candidates' intelligence level. Consequently, the reputation of IITs as centres of excellence gained acceptance in industry as well as academic institutions as the standard of education and quality of IIT students was consistently better than other colleges. This led to the establishment of what is popularly known as the ''IIT Brand''. Various nationwide educational surveys over the past years rated IITs over other colleges confirming the eliteness of the IITs. The various IITs function autonomously, and the special status as ''Institutes of National Importance'' facilitated the smooth running of IITs virtually free from both regional as well student politics. The autonomy in education meant that IITs can set up their own curricula and hence made it easier for them to adapt rapidly to the changes in educational requirements. The government has no direct control over internal policy decisions (like faculty recruitment and curricula) of IITs but has representation in the ''IIT Council'', the chief policy making body of the IITs. The medium of instruction in all IITs is English. The class hours vary in most IITs though classes are usually held between 7:30 AM and 5:30 PM. All the IITs have Public Libraries for the use of their students. In addition to a collection of prescribed books, the libraries also have literary section for Fiction and other Literary Genre s. The electronic libraries allow student to access online Journal s and other Periodicals . Although IITs offer a range of degrees including Bachelor of Technology, Masters of Technology, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Science, etc. the most widely sought degree of IITs has been the BTech degree. It is based on a 4-year program with eight semesters. All the IITs follow the credits system, with proportional weighting of subjects based on their importance. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance throughout the semester. Each semester's evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to evaluate the cumulative Grade Point Average (known as CGPA or CPA). In all the IITs, the first year of BTech courses are marked by common courses for all the students, though in some IITs, a single department introduction related course is included. The common courses include the basics from most of the departments like electronics, mechanics, chemistry, physics, etc. At the end of first year, an option of department change is given to highly meritorious students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters. However, only a few students end up changing departments. This is because of two reasons. Firstly, the meritorious students already opt for their favorite course before joining the IIT. Secondly, the criteria for change is usually very strict to allow only the hightly meritorious students. From the second year onwards, the students proceed to study subject exclusively from their respective departments. However, the students have to take compulsary advanced courses from other departments in order to broaden their scope of thinking and understanding. Separate compulsary courses from Humanities and Social Sciences department and sometimes from management courses are also enforced. The IITs also have a unique academic program known as Dual Degree. It is an intergrated graduation and postgraduation program that completes in a total of 5 years rather than 6 years in the conventional BTech degree (4 years) followed by an MTech (2 years). The main reason behind starting this program was to encourage IITians to complete postgraduate studies from IIT itself rather than going to other reputable institutes. The benefit of saving an year coupled with scholarships made this an attractive choice. Although most of the research work in IITs is done by doctoral students, the doctorate program of IITs is considered average on the basis of indicators like research output in terms of publications and Patent s. The IITs are also frequently employed by government organization for geographical surveying because of the presence of experienced professors and required technology. These are usually carried out by the geology and geophysics department of the corresponding IIT. All IITs (except IIT Guwahati) have schools of management that offer an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) degree program. However IIT Bombay offers an MMgt (Master of Management) degree instead. See Also: Education in India EDUCATIONAL RANKINGS Most of the IITs have been consistently ranked over other engineering colleges in India in almost every engineering education 's Website. URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . prominently includes research output. The IITs being strong only in their undergraduate programs fail to get sufficient point here. Secondly, since the IITs don't get international students and faculties (because of paying in Indian Rupee which is heavily Devalued against the U.S. Dollar ), the rankings of IITs have suffered. Even in the rankings conducted within India, it was felt that ranking between the IITs create unhealthy competetion and the survey parameters are largely subjective. This has led to a call to Boycott participation in these surveys. The Indian Institutes Of Management (a group of premier management schools in India) have already opted out of the surveys and the IITs are planning to follow suit. See Also: College and university rankings India Today's top 10 colleges of India SUCCESS STORY strip, '' Asok '' claims that as an IIT graduate, he's mentally superior to most people on earth, and trained to sleep only on National Holidays ]] The IITs are considered highly successful institutions compared to other engineering colleges in India according to a number of educational surveys. One of the contributing factors behind the success is the special status of the IITs as ''Institutes of National Importance'' under the ''Indian Institute of Technology Act (1956)''. The IIT Act ensures that the IITs get special privileges and lays the foundations for them to keep evolving as world-class institutes. The autonomy ensured by the Act means that the IITs have been able to imlement changes quickly in order to keep up with changing scenarios in both the educational world and society in general. Student politics has also largely been kept controlled with strict monitoring over the way elections are held. The ''Joint Entrance Examination'' (IIT-JEE) is considered to be the another important factor behind the success of IITs. This is because the IIT-JEE enabled IITs to get a selective group of students to compete and qualify for the IITs. This combination of success factors has led to the concept of the ''IIT Brand''.[http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/02/18/stories/2003021800090900.htm How to extend the IIT brand] from . URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . It is largely attributed to the success of the IIT alumnus that contributes to people making this popular, yet still widely criticised Hindsight Bias . Another factor that has contributed to the success of IITs are the stringent faculty recruitment procedures and IITs' industry collaboration. The procedure for selection of faculty is more stringent compared to the other colleges offering similar degrees. Example of Faculty Recruitment Page from IIT Kharagpur's Website. URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . Staff are only accepted if they have a PhD degree and have teaching/industry experience for a reasonable period of time. In contrast to this a typical college in India, would employ postgraduate students with or without experience as lecturers and professors. The IITs have a relatively better interaction with the industries as compared to most other Indian colleges. CRITICISMS The IITs also have had their share of criticisms from academia and also the society in general. The major criticisms include the allegations that they encourage Brain Drain and set dangerous precedents in the society because of extemely tough entrance examination. Other notable arguments include insufficient representation of women and backward sections of the society. Brain drain Amongst the criticisms of the IIT system by the media, academia and the people in general, the most prominent is that it encourages brain drain. Many IIT graduates go abroad for better job opportunities, despite the country having spent large amounts of money on the students’ education. The critics argue that putting money into IITs is useless as eventually it benefits other nations like the USA. However, the extent of brain drain has dropped susbtantially in the past few decades, with the percentage of students going abroad dropping from as high as 70% to around 30% today.[http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=21668 Trend of brain drain on reverse to India] on New Kerala Newspaper. URL accessed on . as it was a net importer.Add to this the preferential quotas for a reserved class of society called the SC/ST and OBC's in India drives the brain drain yet more.Astonishingly the government has plans to reserve seats for less meritious students of the reserved classes in the IIT's and IIM's,two of India's most respected universities ,when there are only a 1000 annual intake in the IIM's and 4000 in the IIT's and more than 300,000 students aspire to get into these universities each year.As much as 50% are reserved for the SC/ST and OBC's in India though they occupy only a minor part of the population. Dangerous precedents The importance of selecting only the bright candidates is usually given as the reason that IITs prefer to keep the level of IIT-JEE higher than normal standards. This has led to establishment of innumerable number of coaching institutes throughout the country giving IIT-JEE specific education and charging very high fees. It is argued that this has created a situation that is favouring the rich over the poor. Some coaching institutes have claimed that they have individually coached nearly 800 of all successful candidates year after year. Brilliant Tutorials' Result claim for JEE 2005 on Brilliant Tutorials' Website. URL accessed on . URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . EXTRA-CURRICULAR LIFE All the IITs provide residential facilities to its students, research scholars and faculty inside their campus. The students live in hostels (sometimes referred to as ''halls'') throughout their stay in the IIT. Most of the students have single accommodation though a sizable number of students have to live in double or triple rooms also. The usual structure of the hostels is an array of rooms, clubbed usually in groups of 11 or 12 rooms to form a ''wing''. The standard size of a single room is 12 feet by 9 feet. Every hostel has its own common room and provides facilities to its boarders. The IITs also have high-speed LAN and internet connection infrastructure helping students to do their assignments online (wherever applicable) and even view video recordings of their lectures. Technical seminars by experts are organized from time to time in various IITs. Students in various IITs have to compulsarily choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organization (NSO) in their first years. The choice for later years vary from one IIT to the other. The National Cadet Corps (India) is the Indian military cadet corps. Most IITs force student to take up NCC in the first year to instil in them a sense of patriotism and discipline. The NSS is another national organization that strives to reach out to the needy population of the country through its volunteers by organizing camps at regular intervals of time. Both the NCC and NSS hold a camp at the end of the first semester at a location near the IITs and the students attend these as a part of the curriculum. The NSO is a national level sports organization that strives to improve the quality of sports talent in the country by providing coaching facilities to budding athletes. All the IITs have playgrounds of various sports including Cricket, Football, Hockey, Volleyball, Lawn Tennis, Badminton, Athletics, and swimming pools for aquatic events. Usually the hostels also have their own sports grounds. All the IITs have their own students' council elected through an election among the students. The students are represented in the ''IIT Senate'' and other forums through the Vice President of the Student's Council, elected through the elections. The election process in IITs is quite unlike the other colleges. Formation or affiliation to political parties is strongly discouraged. Poll Graffiti , rallies and processions are also not allowed. Use of loudspeakers for election purposes is also banned. Technical and cultural festivals Many IITs also organize annual technical festivals in which students from the IIT and even other colleges participate. Usually the technical festivals last 3 to 4 days. The various technical festivals organized by IITs are certification. Apart from the technical festivals mentioned above, some IITs also organize annual Robotics contest and other technical events for the students. Annual Cultural Festivals are organised by the IITs. These include Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay) (also known as ''Mood-I''), Spring Fest (IIT Kharagpur) (also known as ''SF''), Saarang (IIT Madras) (previously ''Mardi Gras''), Antaragni (IIT Kanpur) , Alcheringa (IIT Guwahati) , Rendezvous (IIT Delhi), and Thomso (IIT Roorkee). These cultural festivals are organized by a student group within each institute, and typically last 3 to 4 days. All the money required for the organization of these events are sourced from sponsors of the event, and if required the remainder from the students of the institute. The institute remains closed during these festivals to allow better participation of the students. Students from other colleges are also invited to participate in the various events of the festival. Although all IITs have different set of events for their festivals, there are usually a set of literary events (like extempore speech and debate), fashion shows and art-related events (like dramatics, singing, and instrumentals). In addition to the cultural festivals mentioned above, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay celebrate festivals unique to them. IIT Kharagpur celebrates Illumination Festival , a festival unique to it. It is celebrated on the eve of Diwali . In this festival, large bamboo structures (called ''chatais''), sometimes even as high as 20 feet are made and earthen lamps ( Diya s) are placed on them forming outlines of people of showcasing a monument or an event. Held in a competetive environment as a competetion between the hostels, it even gets a lot of outside visitors. A lot of care is taken to avoid fire hazards and the placing of ''chatais'' so as to minimize the effect of breeze. Coupled with the Illumination festival is the Rangoli festival. In this, large panels of an event or a concept are made on the ground by fine powder and sometimes even by crushed Bangle s. A festival unique to IIT Bombay is the Performing Arts Festival , popularly known as ''PAF''. Though technically a drama, each PAF is a combination of all cultural arts including dramatics, literature, music, fine arts, debating, dance, etc. All PAFs are held in the Open Air Theater (OAT) located within the main campus of IIT Bombay, inside the Students' Activity Center. Typically two or three hostels (out of 14) tie up by random draw for each PAF. A pecularity about PAF is that all the dialogues are delivered as Voice Over s and not by the actors, mainly owing to the structure and the huge size of the OAT. Inter IIT Sports Meet All the IITs compete in a variety of sports held under the purview of the ''Annual Inter IIT Sports Meet''. The competition is organized every year in the month of December in one of the seven IITs by a policy of rotation. The first ''Inter IIT Sports Meet'' was held in IIT Bombay in 1961. The total number of participants in any ''Inter IIT Sports Meet'' is usually around 700. The award consists of a running shield that is passed over to the winning IIT every year. The winner is decided based on the weighted average of the points of the events. There are three prizes for every event: ''gold'', ''silver'' and ''bronze''. Separate events for boys and girls are organized and points are tallied separately for determining the final winner. The twelve events in the Inter IIT Sports are Athletics , Badminton , Basketball , Cricket , Football , Hockey , Swimming , Lawn and Squash Tennis , Table Tennis , Volleyball , Water Polo and Weightlifting . As swimming and water polo are played in water, which is usually very cold by the month of December, the ''Inter IIT Sports Meet'' for them is usually held in the first week of October and is called ''Inter IIT Aquatics Meet''. See Also: Student Life in IIT Kharagpur RESERVATION POLICY India is one of the country that practices Affirmative Action . B. R. Ambedkar , the father of Indian Constitution , made provisions for reservations for minorities in government run institutions in the 1950s. Consequently, IITs have been offering reservation for ''Backward Classes'' of society since 1973. However, while a policy of quota system exists throughout the country for reservation of ''Backward Classes'', a different scheme exists in IITs as they are ''Institutes of National Importance''. Currently, as per the rules of admission to IITs, there exists a reservation of 15% for . No separate reservation exists for Other Backward Class es (OBCs). However, the IITs are not bound to fill these seats, and many of them remain unfilled owing to the nature of selection process. As per the rules, all the ''Backward Class'' candidates have to appear in the Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) with the rest of the students. Based on the results of IIT-JEE, those ''Backward Class'' candidates that qualify by a relaxed selection criteria of scoring more than two-third of the marks scored by the last ''General Category'' student are admitted directly to IITs. Another slab of candidates who do not meet this relaxed admission crietria are offered a ''Preparatory Course'' of physics, chemistry and mathematics at the IIT concerned. After one year of study, only those candidates who are able to clear a cut-off in the ''End Semester Exams'' are allowed into regular studies at the IITs. The seats reserved for ''Backward Class'' students are not transferable to ''General Category'' and roll on to the next year's students from the ''Preparatory Courses''. The IITs had initially implemented a quota system, but the quota system was scrapped and the modified scheme described above was introduced in 1983. This procedure was evolved based on the experience of implementing a quota system for ten years (1973 - 1983). The logic cited for this procedure is that IITs being ''Institutes of National Importance'', there should not be any compromise on the quality of students studying in them. Moreover, as the IITs have a very rigorous curriculum, it will result in higher cases of depression and suicides among the below-average students. Some people consider the additional procedures for admission into the IITs as unnecessary and counter-productive. The opposition to the policy of reservation, and favoring direct admission is based on the following arguments: Dalits at the Indian Institutes of Technology on ''People's Union for Civil Liberties (pucl.org)''. URL accessed on 2006-04-10 . # In the present scheme, a large number of seats remain vacant. According to some estimates, only 10% of seats actually go to the ''Backward Class'' candidates.Equality Through Reservations (A study) - ''Viney Kirpal'' and ''Meenakshi Gupta''. Statistics from 1989 - 1992 . # The current procedure is humiliating for the ''Backward Class'' candidates as they have to study separately. # They face a wasted year, as they go through the additional year of studying the Preparatory Course. In 1989, Prime Minister . URL accessed on 2006-04-10 ALUMNI A lot of IIT Alumni Associations are active in India and abroad. The IITians are known to be very attached to their '' Alma Mater '' and have contributed in the form of donations to their institute. The '' Vinod Gupta School Of Management '' (VGSOM) in IIT Kharagpur and ''Shailesh J Mehta School of Management'' (SJMSOM) in IIT Bombay are management schools inside IITs set up largely by alumni donations and named after the donors. Other notable alumnus of IITs include N.R. Narayana Murthy (Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys ), Rajat Gupta (Managing Director, McKinsey ), Arun Sarin (CEO, Vodafone ), Victor Menezes (Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup ) and Vinod Khosla (Co-founder, Sun Microsystems ). See Also: List of notable IIT alumni IIT Schools of Management SEE ALSO
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