Aieee-08

States without a National Institute of Technology (NIT) or “highly deficient” in technical institutions will be allotted more seats in NITs from this academic session. This was decided by the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry after a meeting with Technical Education Secretaries of such States.This concession has been made in view of the apprehensions expressed by such States about the new admission policy introduced by the Ministry vis-À-vis filling of seats in the non-domicile quota of NITs. As per the fresh directive, this quota — 50 % of seats in each of the 20 NITs — will be filled from the all-India merit list of the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and not its State/Union Territory specific rank list.The chief ministers of 13 states and Union territories had written to HRD minister Arjun Singh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, calling the policy, unveiled on June 9, discriminatory against educationally backward states.