25% IIT seats grabbed by students from rural areas

Twenty-five per cent of the seats of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country were grabbed by students from rural areas this year compared withn only 10 per cent 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 1,600 students coming from families where the father's annual income is less than Rs one lakh. Meanwhile, 1,500 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 1,100 qualifying students are only Class X pass, while fathers of 250 are illiterate. The mothers of nearly 900 students are illiterate. Girls, this year, secured 900 out of 9,974 seats in IITs.

The report also said Rajasthan topped the list of states in cracking the IIT exam this year. A total of 1,965 students from Rajasthan secured seats in the 18 IITs.