More than 23,000 candidates appearing for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in February have joined a petition demanding the exam be postponed in view of the third wave of COVID-19. GATE is an examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science for admission to the master's programme and recruitment by some public sector companies. This year, the exam is being conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur from February 4-13. "With the current third wave, COVID-19 due to its new variant Omicron has spread severely in several states, cities. Several studies including one done by IIT Kanpur predict that the peak of the 3rd wave is expected in early February and the wave will end by April. Therefore, the peak is most likely to coincide with the usual exam dates of GATE," the petition read. "If the exam dates are not postponed, the candidates appearing for GATE 2022 run an imminent risk of getting infected and spreading it thereby getting threat to their life as well as their family member's lives," it added. There was no response from the IIT Kharagpur on the issue. The result of the exam is scheduled to be declared on March, 17.
