Bihar boy takes top rank in IIT entrance test

Patna/Kanpur: The Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) conducted for admissions to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) saw a boy from Bihar leaving all other candidates behind.

"I am really happy and celebrating my success as I never expected to top," said Shitikanth, who hails from Patna.

Surrounded by members of his family, besides relatives and friends, Shitikanth said he had been hopeful his name would figure in the top ten. He revealed a fondness for physics and mathematics of all his subjects. "I face no problems with physics, its' more or less the same with maths," he said.

Shitikanth completed his class 10 studies at Patna's St Michael School. He sought specialised coaching to crack the IIT test in Rajasthan's Kota district.

Meanwhile, a statement released by IIT-Roorkee, which conducted this year's JEE (joint entrance exam), said N. Vasuki from Chennai zone, with an all-India ranking of 14, had topped the list of girl candidates.

In all, 8,652 candidates passed the exams. This year 311,258 students appeared in what is considered the most gruelling of under-graduate entrance exams.

Raproolu Nikhil Simha, ranked 27, topped the other backward classes (OBC) category while Anandiya Jyoti Roy (rank 166) and Rohit Singwal (rank 429) were the respective toppers in the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories.

Three of 182 candidates who appeared in the exams from Dubai, also qualified.

About 840 out of 78,159 girls qualified while, of the 72,116 OBC students, 1,134 passed. Also, 690 SC and 159 ST candidates cleared the exam.

New locations

There are 6,872 seats in IITs at Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai, and Roorkee besides the six new IITs proposed by the central government in the eleventh plan. The new locations are in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Admissions to the six new IITs would begin during the 2008-2009 academic session, the release said. Counselling for the admission would begin on June 17 and continue till June 21.