In a first, no seats vacant at IITs in 2019: HRD Ministry
New Delhi: In a first, no seats have been vacant this year at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country, according to HRD Ministry officials.
"There have been a total of 13,604 undergraduate admissions in IITs this year with nil vacant seats. This is the first time ever to fill all seats in all IITs leaving no vacant seats which has been achieved by proactive cooperation of all IITs," HRD Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam said.
Last year, 118 seats in all 23 IITs were vacant.
Then HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had attributed the vacant seats to students not showing interest in certain disciplines.
Noticing the number of seats lying vacant in the premium institutes as rising trend in the five years, except in 2014, the HRD ministry had in 2017 set up a panel which made several recommendations to address the issue.
According to the ministry data, of the nearly 11,000 seats across the IITs, a total of 274 seats remained vacant from 2013 with IIT BHU recording maximum vacancies.
The Indian School of Mines (which was upgraded to the status of an IIT in 2016) recorded 23 vacancies each in 2016 and 2017.
The IIT-Kanpur and the IIT-Hyderabad had all their seats taken between 2013 and 2017, while the IIT-Delhi recorded zero vacancies between 2013 and 2015.
In 2016 and 2017, the IIT-Delhi had two seats vacant in each year. As far as IIT-Bombay is concerned, it had all its seats filled in 2013, 2014 and 2015, while had two vacancies in 2016 and one in 2017.
"In order to minimise the vacancies in IITs, NITs and other Centrally-Funded Technical institutions (CFTIs), the HRD ministry had constituted a committee to recommend suitable measures," a senior ministry official said.
The committee recommended the institutions may review seats in each discipline based on employment opportunities, national requirement, available infrastructure and scope for future.
"The committee also suggested streamlining the counselling process by having multiple rounds as well as taking other pro-active measures such as launching helpline to facilitate students in making choices," the official said.
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K'taka bypolls: 11.87 percent voter turnout in Bagalkot, 9.01 percent in Davanagere South till 9 am
Bengaluru (PTI): In the first two hours since voting began for bypolls to two Bagalkot and Davanagere South assembly constituencies, the voter turnout stood at 11.87 percent and 9.01 percent, respectively, on Thursday.
The voting for the bypolls in two constituencies necessitated by the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa, began at 7 am, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer said.
While the Congress faces the challenge of retaining both seats, the BJP is aiming to wrest them and deliver a setback to the ruling party, which is currently witnessing an "internal power struggle" over leadership.
A total of over 2.59 lakh eligible voters are expected to cast their votes at around 319 polling stations in Bagalkot, where nine candidates are in the fray.
In Davanagere South, over 2.31 lakh eligible voters are expected to vote across 284 polling stations, with 25 candidates contesting.
Officials said elaborate security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of bypolls.
The BJP has fielded former MLA and 2023 defeated candidate Veerabhadrayya Charantimath from Bagalkot, and a fresh face, Srinivas T Dasakariyappa, from Davanagere South.
The Congress has given tickets to family members of the late legislators in both constituencies. Bagalkot candidate Umesh Meti is the son of H Y Meti, while Samarth Mallikarjun from Davanagere South is the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
Samarth’s father, S S Mallikarjun, is a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Cabinet and in charge of Davanagere district, while his mother, Prabha Mallikarjun, is a Member of Parliament from the region.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, H Y Meti defeated BJP’s Charantimath by a margin of 5,878 votes in Bagalkot, while Shivashankarappa defeated BJP’s B G Ajay Kumar by 27,888 votes in Davanagere South.
