Battle bots slug it out at Techfest

Mahafreed Irani | TNN

On the last day of IIT’s Techfest, robots battled it out in the grand finales of various contests: Robowars, mini F1 and a maze-solving game.

The fiercest looking automatons were undoubtedly the battle bots of Robowars. The arena saw metal clash with metal as robots of different shapes and sizes, equipped with choppers, blades, hammers and flippers, clashed. The contest’s winners, a team from Government Engineering College, Aurangabad, designed their robot for two years. “We won because of our sleek design. The flipper helped us fling the opponent, turning it upside down,” said Hemant Chambhare, who named the robot One-Shot Killer. “We spent about Rs 70,000 to build it.”

Jayvis Gonsalves won ‘the most innovative robot’ prize for his Bluetooth-controlled creation. “My robot, Blitzkrieg, is wireless. I didn’t have to worry about any wires getting entangled,” Gonsalves, a student of Dikshit Junior College, Vile Parle, said.

While the robots were locked in battle, nearby, remote-controlled mini cars were racing on an off-road dirt track full of obstacles. Two participants from Chennai, Sharadh Uday and Riten Satra, built their car in just four days. “It is powered by an internal combustion engine and made of aluminium,” said Uday.
One of the attractions at Techfest, that drew large numbers of Mumbaikars, and not just students, was a couple of vehicles designed by students of Adelaide University. Called Micycle and Diwheel, their makers called them environment friendly modes of transport. While Micycle is a stylish self-balancing electric unicycle (a cycle with one wheel), Diwheel, as the name suggests, has two giant wheels, with the rider’s seat in between. It has a joystick for navigating and uses regenerative braking to recoup some of the energy lost during the process of stopping. In another hall, Hakon Wium Lie, the chief technical officer of Opera (the browser) and inventor of the language CSS, used to design websites, spoke to a packed audience about his days at CERN, the laboratory that is at present engaged in the search of the Higgs boson, and how the web was created there. Emphasizing the importance of open, or free, data, he said: “In the early days, we Norwegians would have to pay the government to get access to the laws of the country. So one day, we uploaded all the laws on the CERN server, making it freely available to all.”

In the convocation hall, autonomous robots were trying to figure out a complex maze. This made the International Robotics Challenge perhaps the most complex contest of them all. Participants watched as the robots found their way in the maze, transporting blocks. The winners were a group of engineering students from Sri Lanka. “We love robotics and were kicked about the contest as soon as we got the invite,” said Nipuna Illangarathne of the group.

EXTREME MACHINES: Electric vehicles Micycle (bottom left) and Diwheel (bottom right). The Sri Lankan team (above left) that won the International Robotics Challenge. Cars (above right) at the starting point of the mini F1 racing contest

IITian scores with lassi bar

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: Walk into hostel rooms on any IIT campus and you’ll probably find every other aspiring engineer glued to his computer screen, feverishly setting up a website. Prabhkiran Singh is a different story; he is a civil engineering student busy whipping up chilled lassi every evening after class.

The 20-year-old from Punjab who came to IIT-Bombay three years ago, didn’t find a decent lassi joint in the city, and hence would rely on his mother’s recipe every time he craved one. That marked the birth of Khadke Glassi — now a stall set up on a computer trolley, operating after classes at IIT close.

The Rs 10,000-venture now has a fan following of close to 500 on Facebook and apart from IIT students, alumni and faculty, residents of Powai, crowd around this little corner every evening. Though 20-dayold, Khadke Glassi is now profit-making. However, like any new undertaking, it has weathered not just ups and downs, but several wrong starts and break-down of financial plans.

How crazy are Mumbaikars about lassi? Where would the best raw material be available at the cheapest cost? Start small or take off really big? These were some of the questions that Singh and Himanshu Dhiman, the initial two promoters, faced. They bought a heater so that milk could be set to curd in the hostel room. Every evening, the duo would make 15 to 20 glasses of lassi and ask friends to review it. Fifteen days later, in November 2009, they started the stall. It’s not your run-ofthe-mill lassi. Flavours include black currant, strawberry and chocolate. You can have it with or sans ice cream.

Sceptics had an obvious question: “Why did you come to IIT if you wanted to sell lassi?’’ Singh and Dhiman were always interested in the food and beverages industry; both love cooking. “Also, my dad’s venture failed miserably and he wanted his sons to join college and take up a secured job. Hence IIT,’’ added Singh. A few days after this lassi bar started, Dhiman quit; two of Singh’s friends help him. “Initially my friends teased me, saying that all I learnt in life was to make lassi. Now they are proud of me that I got out of the hostel room and started doing something I love.’’

IIT agrees to bare JEE marks, but only just

Insists On Hard Copy That Makes Detecting Anomalies ‘Impossible’ Manoj Mitta | TNN New Delhi: Stung by the exposure of admission anomalies in recent years, the IIT system has come up with an innovative method of blocking transparency even as it agreed to give data under RTI on the marks obtained by the four lakh candidates in this year’s joint entrance examination (JEE). It insisted on giving the data only in the hard copy running into hundreds of thousands of pages rather than in the more convenient form of a CD. The information seeker, Rajeev Kumar, a computer science professor in IIT Kharagpur, is crying foul. For, the hard copy would not only result in a steep increase in the cost of information (running into six figures) but also make it almost impossible for him to detect irregularities in the latest JEE as he did in the three previous ones by analyzing the electronic data that had then by given to him under RTI. As a result of this change in the strategy of the IIT system, central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi fixed a hearing for November 6 specially to resolve this soft vs hard debate. The hearing follows the unusual reasons given by Gautam Barua, director of IIT Guwahati and overall incharge of JEE 2009, for his failure to comply with the CIC’s disclosure direction passed on July 30. In his first mail to CIC on October 2, Barua said that as there were a number of RTI applications seeking the CD, “we are apprehensive that this request for electronic data is to profit from it by using it for IIT JEE coaching purposes (planning, targeting particular cities, population segments, etc).” The reference to the coaching institutes is reminiscent of the recent controversy over the move to raise the bar on 12th class marks to be eligible for IIT selection. Asserting that IITs had “nothing to hide regarding the results”, Barua said “we are ready to show the running of the software with the original data to the CIC, if it so desires.” As a corollary, Barua made an issue of the fact that Kumar “has not asked to see the data, but he wants an electronic version delivered to him. Why is this so?” Faculty to accept new pay structure The stand-off between the IIT faculty and the government over the “anomalies” in pay structure finally ended on Saturday with the teachers’ body deciding to accept the new package in the “interest” of the institutes, but maintained that concerns still remain. The All India IIT Faculty Federation asked the teachers of the seven IITs to agree to the new pay structure. “We have requested the faculty to accept the pay package in the interest of the IIT system. But we will pursue with the HRD ministry and the board of governors of the IITs on certain issues till they are resolved,” federation president M Thenmozhi said. AGENCIES

‘IIT faculty makes money in consultancy’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday denied IIT faculty’s allegation of interference in the functioning of the institutes and said neither he nor his ministry officials had ever interfered in the functioning of the IITs, be it in their consultancy work, syllabus or appointments.

But he made it clear that autonomy did not mean no regulation at all. “The government gives 100% funding and is answerable to parliament. We have to have some eligibility condition for entry and promotion in faculty. They (the faculty) are opposed to the eligibility conditions. This is unfair,’’ he said.

Justifying the criteria of assistant professor aspirants requiring to have a first class at undergraduate level, he said even the Fifth Pay Commission had made it a condition. Questioning the logic behind IITs’ opposition, he pointed out that it would only enhance quality.

Defending the government’s insistence on fresh PhDs joining IITs on contract for three years and before becoming full-time faculty members, he cited the example of his alma mater, Harvard Law School, and said it took years to get a tenure posting in any university the world over. Moreover, Sibal argued that three years on contract would be factored in and a person could become a professor in IITs in 10 years unlike the UGC system where it takes 15 years.

However, his argument has been disputed by the IIT faculty. “It will take 13 years to become a professor. After three years of contract, a person needs another six years to become an associate professor and then four more years to become a professor,’’ a teacher at IIM-Bombay said.

The HRD minister also did not see any reason for the faculty to be agitated over the government cap on only 40% professors with six years of experience at that level being eligible for the next academic grade pay of Rs 12,000 per month, introduced for the first time. He said the 40% cap was much more than the 3% cap recommended for all faculties by the Goverdhan Mehta committee. “In UGC, the cap is 10%, AIIMS 25% and in NITs 20%,’’ Sibal said. “There have to be eligibility conditions and pay bands.’’

Taking an indirect dig at the faculty, he said, “The salary is anyway an icing on the cake for IIT teachers who earn so much from consultancy.’’

HRD sets up panel to suggest ways for revamping school education
New Delhi: In move to promote public-private partnership in school education, HRD ministry has set up a roundtable consisting of educationists and representatives of the private sector. Though the mandate of the 11-member roundtable, which will hold its first meeting on Thursday, is to suggest ways in which school education can be revamped in the country, sources said, “The ministry wants a synergy between government and private sector. There are big plans in school education and such a roundtable will help thrash out issues.” The ministry has already proposed the setting up of 6,000 model schools. Of these, 2,500 will come up in the PPP mode. TNN

CBSE to roll out grading system from October

To Check Implementation In Schools

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: With the CBSE board set to kick-start its ambitious new system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) in Class IX from next month—the first step in moving away from an exam-based system to one focussed on learning—there are apprehensions over just how well individual schools will implement the system.

But here’s a note of caution for any school that intends to cheat on the CCE. In a letter on September 20 to all CBSE school principals, board chairperson Vineet Joshi wrote that there will be a random verification of the assessment procedures carried out by schools. This verification will be carried out by board officials as well as nominees appointed by the board.

There will be wide-scale teacher-training programmes across India for all CBSE schools starting next month. The training will be compulsory for all school principals. Schools will also have to send two teachers each for the training, the letter said. The CBSE has asked its teachers to assess students using unconventional methods such as quizzes and conversations through “Formative Assessment’’. This focusses on continuously monitoring students in a non-threatening and supportive environment. The system calls for an active involvement of students. The CBSE Class X board exam will be compulsory in 2010 but, from the following year, it will be optional.

IIT profs’ hunger strike on 24th
Kolkata/Ahmedabad: Around 1,500 faculty members, including professors at the IITs across the country, will go on a hunger strike on Thursday (Sept 24) over “anomalies’’ in the pay structure but there will be no disruption in classes. The decision putting the faculty on a collision course with the government was taken at a meeting of its federation at IITKharagpur. The structure put restrictions on promotions and lacked performance-based incentives, the federation said. The action by the IITs came even as the IIM-Ahmedabad board decided to meet on September 25 to deal with the situation arising out the faculty members rejecting the the HRD ministry’s latest order on pay structure. AGENCIES

IIT faculty to go on hunger strike today

Hemali Chhapia I TNN

Mumbai: Faculty members across all Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) will resort to a hunger strike on Saturday. They are protesting against the ministry of human resource development’s failure to re-examine the pay structure that was designed under the Sixth Pay Commission.

“We are extremely disappointed and hurt by the recently announced pay scales. IITs have long been regarded as pillars of excellence in higher education. Instead of giving recognition to this fact, the government has offered a pay package that is not helpful in filling the shortfall of faculty in IITs,’’ said Kishore Chatterjee, joint secretary, IIT-Bombay faculty forum.

Faculty members fear that with such “unattractive’’ pay scales, even existing staff may consider other options, “resulting in a dilution of the high standard that the IITs are maintaining today’’.

On August 23, IIT teachers from across the country had submitted a memorandum regarding their minimum expectation to the ministry. “We had also mentioned that if the government did not come up with a new notification addressing concerns of IIT faculty by September 4, we would hold a day-long fast at the premises of IIT Bombay on the Teachers’ Day, September 5. Contrary to newspaper reports that appeared on September 3, there has not been a satisfactory resolution to the problems highlighted in our memorandum,’’ added a press note from the faculty forum.

Faculty in other IITs will also see similar hunger strikes on Saturday.

FOREIGN STAFF INDUCTION PLAN

Battle over IIT wages finally comes to an end

Akshaya Mukul & Hemali Chhapia | TNN

New Delhi/Mumbai: HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s meeting with IIT directors on Wednesday resolved the salary imbroglio that had seen IIT faculty, including those in IITBombay, go on strike. A detailed presentation by the ministry—showing that IIT faculty after revision got more than UGC scale and even DRDO scientists—seems to have done the trick. The few unresolved issues, Sibal promised, would be immediately looked into.

IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua said the discussion with the minister regarding payscales was “very positive’’. “The ministry gave its word on looking into the apprehensions that faculty members had regarding pay scales,’’ he said.

Though a final decision has not been taken, there is a possibility that common counselling for AIEEE and JEE could be held for successful candidates of both entrance tests from 2010. However, a decision on merging IIT-JEE and AIEEE to become a common entrance test for entry to the country’s tech schools will be taken later.

The meeting, a sequel to Sibal’s earlier meeting with IIT directors on June 30, discussed progress of new IITs. It also saw the minister assuring the directors that a special cell would be set up in the ministry to facilitate entry of foreign faculty in IITs. The meeting also discussed the need to create, subject to ministry’s approval, an international pool of faculty for IITs. The matter will be discussed in a separate meet of IIT directors.

Sibal presented an example about his own success story when he, as a science and technology minister, set up a website and invited top scientists who were interested in collaborating with their peers in India for research. “We too will similarly shortlist a pool of faculty who are interested in coming and teaching at the IITs for short durations,” said a director who was a part of the meeting.

To deal with faculty shortage, IIT directors have been told to double PhD intake and prepare a list of students who were awarded PhD degrees this year. The list may be exchanged with directors of other IITs who can consider them for appointment as faculty.

Told about the Bologna Accord, Sibal said India should also evolve its own model. The accord, specific to European Union, aims to create European higher education area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards comparable and compatible throughout Europe. Most of the EU countries are its members.

IIT directors were told about the white paper promised by them on research and development in IITs including details of publications in high impact journals, patents, and other educational details.

The ministry told IIT directors about the SC order that asked IITs and other educational institutions to help SC/ST students at each stage.

FOR THEM IIT NO GREEN PASTURE

The agitation by IIT teachers, demanding better pay, reveals the frustration of young engineers who opted for academics over an industry job which would have ensured lucrative salaries

Neha Pushkarna | TNN

Dr Vinod Kumar joined the faculty at IIT Delhi in 2007 after working in the industry for nearly 17 years. Amitabh Bagchi came on board as an assistant professor in 2005 after working as a postdoctoral fellow in foreign universities. Vinay Ribiero became a teacher at IITD in 2006 after getting a PhD in Houston. All these young engineer-turnedteachers came back to academics only because they chose to follow their hearts. Otherwise, teaching as a profession was quite unattractive, like it is for hundreds of engineers who graduate from the IITs every year.

An assistant professor (a PhD) gets anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 as the starting salary while an associate professor can expect to get Rs 35,000 after five to six years of experience. Though the Sixth Pay Commission will bring about a jump of Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000, it will still not be comparable with what their own students get right after BTech. Even a postgraduate teacher (PGT) is earning Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000 after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

‘‘Students on the lowest rung of the batch get placed at Rs 5-6 lakh per annum. They earn in double lakh figures after a few years of experience, which we can’t even think of,’’ says Bagchi. According to IIT-D officials, the lowest salary package offered to any student,even this year, was a little over Rs 4 lakh per annum.

Better salaries can help fight the faculty crunch at IITs — many young faculty members have left over the past five years even as opening of new IITs and implementation of the OBC reservations have increased the demand for teachers.

Prof M Balakrishnan, deputy director, faculty, says: ‘‘The crunch is not in the number of applicants — it’s in quality. We don’t get many PhD scholars with a good academic background.’’ While the sanctioned strength of the faculty is 528 (which includes teaching, scientific & design and visiting faculty), only 456 positions have been filled.

The institution managed to appoint 25 new faculty members this year with an aim to keep the student-teacher ratio at 10:1. With more than 5,000 students studying on campus and more to join next year with the last leg of OBC reservations, maintaining this ratio will be a daunting task if enough teachers are not recruited. ‘‘The pay structure is not the only problem,’’ says Prof Balakrishnan. ‘‘The latest recommendations have made it even more difficult to recruit. They want us to recruit at least 10% lecturers, they want the assistant professors to be recruited only if they have a three-year experience after their PhD. Earlier, we used to include the period of PhD.’’ He adds that most teachers appointed for IIT-Punjab, being mentored by IIT-D, have one to two years of experience after PhD. ‘‘Who knows what will happen to those recruitments if the recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission are implemented,’’ he wonders.

Soumyo Mukherji, who teaches in IIT-Bombay, feels the faculty at the premier institutes deserve a better deal than what has been handed over by the Sixth Pay Commission. Mukherji passed out of IIT-Kharagpur in 1989 and joined Tisco as a graduate-trainee on a monthly salary of Rs 3,700 and a scooter allowance of Rs 500 apart from an annual bonus of Rs 5,500 and leave travel compensation of Rs 5,000. “All this sounds ridiculous, but it was a great salary for a fresher. While I earned Rs 5,200 per month, a full professor at IIT, after putting in 20 years, took home Rs 5,100,’’ says Mukherji.

After completing his master’s and PhD in the US and declining a job that was to pay him $60,000 annually, he joined IIT-Bombay in 1997 “to give back to the system that I benefited from.’’ Today, Mukherji’s peers in the industry earn “much, much more’’ than him. But the 42-yearold professor isn’t complaining. “I feel coming to IIT has been the best move I have made. Nothing is more satisfying,’’ he says.

Ribiero of IIT-D adds that teachers who leave either join the industry or go to foreign universities. Private universities are also a major draw. According to Prof Kushal Sen, placement officer, IIT-D, nearly 100 MTech and MSc students were placed with private engineering colleges as teachers this year. ‘‘You need six to seven years to be eligible for teaching at IITs. But many other engineering colleges are willing to recruit at good salaries,’’ Sen says.

Monthly pay structure of teaching staff at IITs

LECTURERS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 6,000 Rs 7,000 after one year of post-PhD experience. At least 10% of the faculty to be recruited as lecturers

DEMANDEDAbolition

ASSISTANT PROFESSORS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 8,000 Minimum Pay | Rs 30,000 At least 3 years of experience after PhD

DEMANDED
AGP | Rs 8,000 with less than 3 year of experience Rs 9,000 with 3 yrs of experience Minimum Pay | Rs 30,000

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 9,500 Minimum Pay | Rs 42,800

DEMANDED
AGP | Rs 10,000 with the perks offered at this band Minimum Pay | Rs 42,800

PROFESSORS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 10,500 Only 40% professors to placed at Rs 12,000 AGP after six yrs of service Minimum Pay | Rs 48,000

DEMANDED
AGP | Rs 11,000 with the perks offered at this band No limit on the number of professors placed in Rs 12,000 AGP after six yrs of service Minimum Pay | Rs 48,000
AGP: Academic Grade Pay

The government in any case can’t pay as much as the industry does. So to get teachers for IITs, it should only rely on the inner calling of a core group of people who want to teach
Subodh Kumar ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Quite a few teachers at IIT often take up research or consultancy jobs with industry to augment the income
Vinay Ribiero ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Sometimes I feel selfish. I could have been earning 10 times more had I been with the industry. But I joined teaching because I liked it
Amitabh Bagchi ASST PROFESSOR

Now, IIT counselling system goes online

Students Can Submit Their Preferences From Home

Hemali Chhapia I TNN

Mumbai: If you’ve made it to an Indian Institute of Technology, you no longer need to travel to the campus to book your seat. The tech schools have decided to take the counselling process online, thus allowing students to submit their preferences—a mix of streams and IITs—from home.

Currently, students from across the country travel to the closest IIT after they make their mark in the Joint Entrance Exam. “Now, all general category students will be allowed to submit their preferences online. However, all other candidates will have to travel to the nearest IIT campus for the same as they have to submit their certificates to us,’’ said IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua.

The decision to conduct the counselling online was taken when the directors recently met in Chennai to discuss plans for the upcoming JEE in April 2010. In another key decision, the IIT directors agreed to centrally conduct two or more rounds of seat allocation to ensure that seats don’t lie vacant.

While this year, the IITs for the first time conducted a second round of seat allotments, it was held at the institute level. Students who took admission were offered internal betterment before the second allotment had taken place. So, if a student with a ranking of 1,104 in JEE-2009 did not take the seat allotted to him in IIT-B, another candidate with a lower ranking got his place (if he had opted for that subject and IIT-B in his preference form).

Also, if a candidate signed up at IIT-Delhi in the first round, s/he were not allowed to move to say IIT-Madras or IIT-Bombay even if a slot opened there and these institutes were listed in his/her choices.
“Now, we want to remove that barrier. A student will be allowed to move out of one IIT and join another, if he prefers to do so in the later rounds of seat allotment,’’ added Barua. In another relief to students, the IITs have decided to put out the answer key of the entrance exam, soon after the exam ends.
hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com

Non-PhDs can be IIT lecturers

But Asst Profs Must Have 3-Yr Experience, A Clause That May Drive Away Talent Akshaya Mukul & Hemali Chappia | TNN

New Delhi: Close to three decades ago, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) upped the bar for selecting faculty: only PhDs were allowed to take classes. Diluting that lofty standard, the HRD ministry has now allowed non-PhDs to join as lecturers. What’s more shocking is that at least 10% jobs have been reserved at the lecturer’s level, an obsolete term that has been scrapped from academia around the world.

Making it tough for IITs to attract talent at the level of assistant professor is another clause that mandates the tech schools to take only those with three years’ experience. IIT directors fear it might result in bright students preferring to take up posts at foreign universities where a fresher begins his career as an assistant professor and not as a lecturer. Earlier, the IITs too were taking fresh, bright PhDs at assistant professor level.

While the directive on taking non-PhDs as lecturers is optional, the directors are clueless why it was inserted. “We don’t need it. The four-tier recruitment concept is regressive and I don’t understand why the government needs to disturb something that is in good equilibrium,” asked an IIT director, who refused to be named.

Currently, none of the IITs has faculty members who are non-PhDs, barring a few of them who joined the tech schools in the 70’s when the country did not have too many PhDs. But the ministry says the decision to take non-PhDs has not been thrust upon IITs. “There is no coercion involved. Faculty crunch is a fact,” one official said.

“That clause was fine at the development stage. In the early years of the IITs, when we advertised for two posts, we used to get five applications. Now we get about 40 to 50, all of who are PhDs. But even now there are vacant posts for faculty merely because we are extremely choosy about who we pick,” said a dean from IIT-Bombay. But some see no harm in this optional clause. “Allowing us to take non-PhDs is just an enabling clause. But what worries most of us is the provision that does not allow us to take bright PhDs fellows as assistant professors,” said Gautam Barua, director of IIT-Guwahati. Several directors are seeing red over the fact that drawing up a rule to take 10% faculty as lecturers puts them in a “peculiar notvery-good position”. Whether to take a candidate as a lecturer or as an assistant professor, said another director, “must be left to the good judgment of the selection panel”. The same rules apply to other central technical institutes like IIM, National Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research.

Full interest subsidy on edu loans for the poor

In a significant move, the government on Thursday decided to provide full interest subsidy on education loans taken by poor students to pursue technical and professional courses and fixed their parental income limit at Rs 4.5 lakh per annum for them to avail of the benefit. A meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs, chaired by the PM, gave its nod to the scheme to enable students from economically weaker sections to continue any approved course in recognised technical and professional institutions in the country. The scheme would benefit over five lakh students to pursue higher education in technical and professional streams, home minister P Chidambaram said, adding that the number of loans as on March 31 this year was 16 lakh and the total outstanding amount Rs 24,000 crore. The scheme, to be applicable from the ongoing academic year, would provide full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium on loans taken by students from scheduled banks. AGENCIES

Centre extends OBC reservation to NIT
The government on Thursday decided to provide reservation to students belonging to OBCs in the National Institute of Technology in Tripura. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet, which approved the implementation of reservation for students belonging to SC/ST and OBCs to NIT at Jirania in the Tripura Tribal Autonomous District Council, a release said. Earlier, the NIT was unable to extend the benefit of reservation to OBC category students in view of the nonapplicability of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act. AGENCIES

The law will at one stroke boost the number of women politicians at the grassroots and make the administration more gender-sensitive