JEE-Adv eligible candidates: IIT Bombay zone loses first spot for second year in a row

The office of the organising chairman of Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Adv) 2018, on Saturday, released information on the distribution of candidates eligible for the upcoming exam. The IIT-Bombay zone (which constitutes several states) has lost its top position second year in a row, with IIT-Madras and IIT-Delhi zones taking the first and second positions. 28,813 students from the zone have qualified for the JEE-Adv exam, as compared to 38,321 students from IIT-Madras zone and 31,884 students from IIT-Delhi. The IIT-Madras zone has maintained the first position for the second year in a row.

“These numbers in no way reflect where the candidates come from. A student residing in Guwahati may have registered for JEE-Main from a centre in Rajasthan, and therefore will be considered from that zone,” said a senior official from the office of the organising chairman of JEE-Adv 2018.

“Off late, more and more students are migrating to different parts of the country to find the best possible coaching to crack the code so that they could find a seat in an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) with courses of their choice,” he added.

HT had previously reported how over 32% students who were eligible for the JEE-Adv exam this year have opted out of the race. Registrations to the JEE-Adv exam ended on Tuesday evening, and while the top 2.31 lakh JEE-Main candidates were eligible for the exam, only 1.64 lakh candidates finished the registration process on Tuesday. Last year, 1.71 lakh of the 2.20 lakh eligible candidates had registered for the JEE-Adv exam.

This year, the exam conducting authority decided to increase the number of eligible JEE-Main candidates for JEE-Adv to 2.24 lakh candidates, from 2.20 lakh candidates in 2017, in order to bring down vacancies in IITs. Of the 10,998 seats in the 23 IITs, the number of vacancies after seven rounds of counselling stood at 121 in 2017, up from 96 in 2016, 50 in 2015, and three in 2014.

Zone wise distribution of candidates qualifying for JEE-Adv exam

38,231 —IIT-Madras

31,884— IIT-Delhi

28,813—IIT-Bombay

20,428—IIT-Kanpur

19,145—IIT-Kharagpur

14,414 —IIT-Roorkee

11,907—IIT-Guwahati

36—Total number of foreign candidates appearing for JEE-Adv 2018

1.64 lakh— Total