The BTech textile engineering programme at IIT Delhi, a premier engineering school where seats are rarely vacant, has experienced a growing number of unfilled seats, a scrutiny of the last five years data shows. According to the institute's annual report since the academic year 2017-18, the number of student admitted to the programme via JEE Advanced has dropped from 104 (against 105 sanctioned seats) to 95 (against 116 sanctioned seats) in 2021-22. While in absolute numbers the decrease seems marginal, in terms of proportion, the drop is more concerning. The proportion of vacant seats in the first year of the BTech textile engineering programme has gone up from 0.9 per cent in 2017-18 to 18 per cent in 2021. The drop is more significant in percentage since the total number of sanctioned seats for the programmes has increased even as the number of unfilled seats has gone up. IIT Delhi is among the top three most sought-after institutes among the top 1000 JEE advanced rankers. Seats here rarely fall vacant. However, according to Professor SM Ishtiaque, former head of the textile engineering department at IIT Delhi, this branch is increasingly becoming less popular among students. "Normally, textile and biomedical are becoming the lowest preference of the students opting for IIT Delhi. We have a provision that in the first year, if any students are performing better, they can change their discipline, so definitely students change to more sought-after branches like electrical, mechanical etc.subject to availability of seats at the end of the year, leaving a vacancy in textile technology seats" he said. When asked why the number of seats had increased since 2019 Ishtiyaq said "Due to the reservation for girls and OBC category, the number of seats increased in all disciplines."
