NRI Quota Reduced to 5% in BE Colleges

Non-resident Indian quota seats in engineering colleges have been slashed to 5 per cent from the existing 15 per cent. The government will issue the orders after the announcement of Eamcet results on June 30. The decision was taken to prevent college managements from misusing the NRI quota by selling the seats. There have been complaints that colleges were giving admission to fake NRI students by collecting huge capitation fees and donations. The new rules stipulate that only five per cent of seats can be allotted to NRI students whose parents live abroad. No “sponsorship” from NRI relatives or friends will be allowed.

Students and parents vie for NRI quota seats in the top 50 engineering colleges. Even though the AICTE clearly stipulates that the 15 per cent NRI quota within the 30 per cent management quota should be strictly allotted to “genuine NRI students” whose parents live abroad, the powerful college managements’ lobby brought pressure on the government to dilute the rule by incorporating the words “NRI or NRI-sponsored students.”

This allowed managements to admit local students if they have a letter from their NRI relatives stating that they will sponsor them. The advantage of the NRI quota for the college was that the government-prescribed fee for these students was $5000 or Rs 3 lakh per annum. The fee for the non-NRI management seats is Rs 95,000 per annum. That apart, it is an open secret that the colleges collect “donations” of up to Rs 20 lakh depending on the demand.

IIT-Kharagpur top technology college in India: Survey

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, in West Bengal is the top technology and engineering college of the country, edging out IIT-Madras which held the position last year, a survey said on Tuesday. According to the survey by Data Quest, a technology magazine in India, and International Data Corporation (IDC), a US-headquartered research firm, the seven IITs have bagged the top seven positions. IIT-Kharagpur climbed two places to the first slot. The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, has stormed into the top 10 list for the first time. While IIT-Madras has slipped from the top slot to second position, IIT-Bombay climbed two spots to occupy the third slot. The premier IIT-Delhi had slid to fourth from No.2 last year, while IIT-Roorkee has jumped two places to fifth spot. IIT-Guwahati is ranked sixth, while IIT-Kanpur is surprisingly the last in the rung of IITs at seventh spot. Describing the National Institute of Technology (formerly, Regional Engineering College) Warangal, being in the top 10, the study said that for the "first time, a second-rung school broke into the Top 10 list". It was at number eight, up four notches from last year. While Indian Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, bagged the ninth spot, Institute of Technology of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was at 10th spot. Dataquest and IDC had surveyed 117 top technology and engineering colleges of the country. The ranks were awarded based on composite scores arrived on the basis of parameters like placements, infrastructure, academic environment, industry interface and HR perception. The survey found that over one-third of the engineering students from the top 100 engineering colleges were recruited by IT companies in 2007. The number of students employed on campus rose to 87 percent this year against 72 percent last year. The survey underlined the growth of second-tier engineering schools - six NITs formerly known as Regional Engineering Colleges (REC) have entered the Top 20 list. Of these, NIT-Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh) showed the most remarkable progress, moving up 14 places to rank 20. The survey attributes the rise of NIT-Hamirpur to a marked improvement in every parameter like increase in the number of IT companies visiting the campus for placements and average number of research papers. NIT-Calicut (Kerala), NIT-Kurukshetra (Haryana) and IIIT-Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) registered the highest growth in terms of companies visiting campuses for placements. Over 22 technology schools have shown a shift of more than 10 positions. Private institutes increased their placement performance to 75 percent from 60 percent last year. The survey found that private institutes are lacking in the number of faculty members with a PhD, which it said was as low as 21 percent compared to NITs (64 percent) and IITs (94 percent). The survey underlined that in 2007 the average annual salary has gone up by 28 percent to Rs.341,000 from Rs.266,000 in 2006. The maximum salary offered by IT companies has increased from Rs.1.5 million per annum last year to Rs.1.8 million this year.