GIRLS IN IIT

Out Of the 54,025 girls who appeared for JEE-2007, 587 have qualified, up from 394 who qualified through JEE-2006. The difference is about 200, a rise of almost 50 per cent in the number of successful girl candidates, though this will still remain a small proportion of the overall number of students across the seven IIT campuses. The fact that girls have come a long way is evident when one looks at the data on student composition in the past. Back in 1972, of the 342 seats for the BTech course, IIT-Bombay had merely six girl students. In the intervening decades, the proportion remained more or less the same. In fact, even 30 years later, it had not more than 13 girls studying on its Powai campus. The change has come about in the last five years.The highest-scoring girl candidate this year is Ankita Sharma from Mumbai who is ranked 55th in the overall merit list.Apart from her, there is just one other girl in the top 100 IIT-JEE rankers: Saloni Khandelwal from the northern zone.