A panel has recommended 20% quota for female students at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology, PTI reported on Monday. The students, however, need to be in the top 20 percentile in their board examinations, besides qualifying JEE-Advanced, for being considered for the reserved seats, reported Hindustan Times.
A panel, led by professor Timothy Gonsalves, was set up by the joint admission board to look into the decreasing number of female students at the IITs. In 2016, a 2% dip was reported in the number of girls who cleared the JEE-Advanced as compared to 2015. The final decision on this recommendation will be taken up by the joint admission board and it will be decided later if the reservation would come into effect in 2017 or 2018.
The decision on the number of seats to be reserved will be ultimately taken by individual IITs depending on available facilities. The number of seats for male candidates will not be affected by this reservation and this will help IITs achieve the 1 lakh target by 2020, according to the news agency.
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