Kolkata:
Results of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE advanced) were announced today with only five girls making it to the top 100 qualifying students.
Girls formed only 11 per cent of the total qualifying students, JEE in-charge and IIT Kharagpur professor M K Panigrahi told PTI.
Rajasthan's Chitraang Murdia topped JEE (Advanced) securing 334 out of a total of 360 marks. Aditi from IIT Roorkee zone is the topper amongst girl candidates securing seventh rank in the common merit list.
A total of 27,151 candidates out of the registered 1,26,997 qualified in the examination from across the country, he said.
When asked about the reason for poor performance of girls in the exam, Aditi told PTI over phone that girls are not encouraged by either their parents or the social system to get into engineering.
"I got family support for engineering but most of my friends opted for medical or commerce subjects. That is the reason why you have less girl students in engineering. It does not mean girls cannot become good engineers," she said.
Officials of FIITJEE, which conducts coaching classes for IIT aspirants, said the number of girl students were lesser.
"It is a trend that girls avoid engineering. We only had a handful of girl students," Debdoot Banerjee, deputy general manager of the coaching institute said.
Altogether, 19,416 students figured in the common merit list (CML).
Besides these, 6,000 students appeared in OBC, 4,400 in SC and 1,250 in ST merit lists.
A total of 243 candidates with disability cleared in the exam.
Compared to last year, 3,500 more candidates have qualified in CML and there was an increase of qualified candidates in all categories.
Candidates who have cleared the JEE (Advanced) can now seek entry into the 16 IITs and also Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad.
There are altogether 9784 seats available in all these institutes.
IIT aspirants have to clear two-phased JEE (Mains) and JEE (Advanced) exams to gain entry into the elite institutes.
IIT-Kharagpur had coordinated the test this year conducted on May 25.
To help JEE advanced qualifiers take the next step, it has now launched a website www.why.iitkgp.ac.in.
The joint implementation committee of JEE (Advanced) 2014 has decided to allow twice the number in each category to fill choices for various undergraduate courses in IITs, Panigrahi said.
The choice filling portal for qualifying candidates will be operative from June 20-24, he said.