Over 200 IIT seats find no takers

The IITs offer 9,885 seats — 4,844 in general category,2,599 to OBC students,1,437 to SC,721 to ST and the remaining to others.

“There are around 44 vacancies in phamaceutics at IIT-BHU (Banaras Hindu University),some in the chemistry programme at IIT Kharagpur and in paper and pulp engineering at IIT Roorkee.

At ISM-Dhanbad,there are many vacancies in mineral engineering and environmental engineering,” said H C Gupta,organising chairman of JEE (Advanced) 2013.

Till a few years ago,the IITs had only one round of seat allocation. The rounds increased to three with the number of IITs.

The new IITs have gained popularity and there are no vacancies at Ropar (Punjab),Indore,Mandi (Himachal) and Hyderabad.

Gupta said JEE (Advanced) toppers went for the tried and tested computer science and engineering,electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.

“Everyone wants to study these three courses. Hence,no matter how many rounds of admission,some seats not popular among students are likely to remain vacant,” he said.

At IIT Bombay,for instance,the opening rank for computer science was 1 and it closed at 57.

At IIT Delhi,the ranks were four and 107.

For electrical engineering,the opening and closing ranks at IIT Bombay were 7 and 126 and 80 and 287 at IIT Delhi.

For mechanical engineering,the ranks were 24 and 477 at IIT Bombay. At IIT Delhi,they were 272 and 617.

“A large number of students opt for consulting and finance during placements. Hardly 10 per cent go for higher studies. Hence,it doesn’t matter which IIT they opt for. The last five-six years we have seen that IIT Bombay has become the first choice for JEE toppers. Better placements and preference for metros could be the reasons,” said a senior faculty member.