The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) has admitted five athletes with national accomplishments under its ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA) category. These students have qualified JEE Advanced 2024 to secure admission in IIT-Madras. This initiative is offered through two supernumerary seats in each of its undergraduate programs for Indians, of which one is reserved for a woman student. This initiative is taken to recognise and reward talented students who have excelled in sports. This program encourages deserving students to pursue higher education while continuing to excel in their sports. Prof V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said, “The sports excellence admission is an initiative of IIT Madras primarily to send the important message that young children must be encouraged to play during their childhood. I sincerely hope this reaches to all concerned.” The five athletes admitted under ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ during the 2024-25 academic year are: 1. Arohi Bhave, (volleyball player) from Maharashtra - Admitted into BS (Medical Sciences and Engineering) 2. Aryaman Mandal (water polo and swimming) from West Bengal - Admitted into BTech (Computer Science and Engineering) 3. Nandini Jain (squash player) from Delhi - Admitted into BTech (Computer Science and Engineering) 4. Prabhav Gupta, (table tennis player) from Delhi - Admitted into B. Tech (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science) 5. Vangala Vedavachan Reddy (lawn tennis player) from Andhra Pradesh - Admitted into BTech (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science) Prof Mahesh Panchagnula, head, Center of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics (CESSA), IIT Madras, said, “This initiative was conceptualised about two years ago. Prof V Kamakoti is very keen to see diverse and meritorious talent come into IIT Madras. After a lot of deliberations internally and with various stakeholders, the Institute admitted the first cohort of Sports Excellence Admission students in July 2024 to our undergraduate programs.” Prof Mahesh Panchagnula, who is also Dean (Emeritus), IIT Madras, added, “We had several applications but finally, we were able to admit five students of excellent standing and yet academically qualified. They have passed JEE (Advanced), like any other IIT student. In that sense, there is no compromise on the relative quality of academic merit that is expected but at the same time, rewards sports pursuit and excellence.” Further, Prof Mahesh Panchagnula said, “Our endeavor is to bring technology into the world of sports to help athletes and coaches improve their performances. We are also focused on making sure that sports is mainstream by offering courses in the domain of Sports Science through Sports Physiology, Sports Psychology, Sports Biomechanics and many other research areas. CESSA is at the forefront of working with a lot of sports federations and agencies to help our National athletes excel on the world stage.” The admission process for SEA is through the JEE examination and requires candidates to qualify JEE (Advanced) but would not be through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) portal but rather through a separate portal operated by IIT Madras. To be eligible for admission through this program, candidates must have secured a position in the Common Rank List (CRL) or category-wise rank list in the JEE (Advanced) and must have won at least one medal in any National/International-level sports competition in the last four years. A separate ‘Sports Rank List’ (SRL) will be prepared based on the total score obtained by the candidates based on their performance in a specific list of sports. The seat allotment will be done based on this list.
