(Pasted from TOI. Original article here)
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MUMBAI: The composition of the elite technological club has changed. A decade ago admission to the IIT-Kanpur ensured demi-god treatment. Only
the brightest and the best could get past the gates there.
No longer. Mumbai is the new Kanpur, with Delhi and Chennai snapping at its heels. A look at the students’ choice of institute by the top 100 JEE rankers down the last half-a-decade reveals that preferences have changed dramatically. A number of factors have been responsible for the reordering, from geography to gastronomy and placement records to what coaching classes preach to students.
Of the top 100 JEE-2009 rankers, considered the elite group among engineering aspirants around the country, 69 students preferred to join IIT-Bombay over any other IIT. This was followed by Delhi — where 19 of the top-100 — have been admitted. While Bombay has been bettering its performance over the years, number of toppers going to Delhi has slipped.
"IIT-B's decision to introduce minors in all programmes has seen more students wanting to come to the Powai campus," reasoned the institute's JEE-2009 chairman A Pani. In 2008, the institute ushered in academic reforms and permitted students to pick a minor course along with the core area of specialisation. This, explained Pani, has resulted most streams opening and closing admissions at higher ranks than previous years.
On each IIT campus, the top 100 students are considered as the rich creamy icing. Twenty years ago IIT-Kharagpur was the engineering mecca. The oldest IIT of the country, IIT-Kharagpur did not receive a single student from the top hundred this year; and before that, in 2004, only three of the top 100 went there.
A former JEE chairman explained, "While Bombay and Delhi were still building themselves, Kharagpur's students had already occupied top positions in big companies. Students looked at Kharagpur's illustrious alumni and rushed there. Now this has changed."
