The IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB) that met on Sunday at IIT Kharagpur to discuss the modalities for conducting the Joint Engineering Exam (JEE) 2009 has decided to raise the marks relaxation for SC/ST candidates, introduce a more realistic subject cut-off system and propose to the HRD Ministry to open the second foreign JEE exam centre at Singapore.The relaxation for SC/ST applicants in the JEE will increase from 40 per cent to 50 per cent in the 2009 session. The JAB decision comes in the backdrop of an expected increase in number of seats next year particularly for SC “While IITs implemented 9 per cent OBC reservation of seats this year, this will rise to 18 per cent in 2009 and to 27 per cent in 2010. Also, next year at least two more IITs will be opened in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh which will further increase the number of seats at IITs. The relaxation for SC/ST candidates in JEE 2009 has been agreed upon in the view that besides increased SC/ST seats there will also be vacant SC/ST seats of the new IITs carried over to next year. So, if general category students needed 100 marks for qualifying JEE, SC/ST candidates so far had a relaxation allowing them entry at 60 marks; in 2009 it will be 50 marks,” an IIT Director told The Indian Express.While this is the first of the three major decisions taken at the JAB meeting, the second major change proposed is to ‘tune up’ the subject-wise cut-off system“While this is not a major change it will just mean that technically the subject-wise cut-off system will be made more realistic in JEE 2009. While it is some 0-1-2 at times for the three sciences, it will be made just a little higher and realistic. The new cut-off formula will be out in a couple of days and posted on JEE websites,” said another official who attended the meeting.The last major decision taken at the JAB was to propose that Singapore be made an offshore JEE exam centre. While Dubai was agreed upon, with consensus from the HRD Ministry, as a the first JEE exam centre outside India in 2008, Singapore is likely to be the second foreign test centre.
