25 % IIT seats grabbed by students from rural areas in 2015

KOTA: Twenty-five per cent of the seats of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology across the country were grabbed by students from rural areas this year, as compared to only 10 per cent seats last year.

According to a report JEE Advance 2015 by IIT Mumbai, 25 per cent of the seats, this year, were secured by students, from rural areas who have completed their upper primary schooling in Hindi medium as compared to 90 per cent seats which were secured by students from urban areas last year.


A considerable number of students from low earning families have also earned seats in the 18 IITs this time with over 1600 students coming from families where the father's annual income is less than Rs one lakh.

Meanwhile, 1500 students come from families where the annual income of fathers is over Rs 8 lakh.

As for the educational background of parents, the study said fathers of about 1100 qualifying students are only matric pass (Class X) while fathers of about 250 are illiterate.

The mothers of nearly 900 students are illiterate.

Girls, this year, secured 900 out of 9974 seats in IITs, a share of 9.03 per cent as compared to 8 per cent of the seats secured in 2014.

The report also said Rajasthan topped the list of states in cracking the IIT entrance exam this year, with 19.7 per cent students, who gained admission to the IITs, belonging to the state.

1965 students from Rajasthan secured IIT seats.

Uttar Pradesh has secured second position in the list with 1259 qualifying students, while Andhra Pradesh which topped last time, has 776 students.

770 students from Telangana secured seats this year.

The detailed report also said the fathers of 888 qualifying students practiced agriculture whereas fathers of 232 students were doctors and of 466 students were engineers.

The fathers of 1548 qualifying students were involved in business while mothers of 6690 selected students were housewives with a modest level of education.

The fathers of 479 students were teachers while of 2989 qualifying students were government employees.

The report also mentioned that every fifth of the qualifying students had prepared for the exam in Kota.