Meet India's youngest IITian, cracked IIT-JEE at 13, had no formal schooling till Class 8, his name is..., he is now...
IIT-JEE is one of the most competitive exams in India. Several students start preparing for the exam after their Class 10 examination. Their sole aim is to get admission into the prestigious IITs in the country. But what if we tell you that there is one boy who cracked the JEE exam at just 12 years old? It is not a myth or a fiction. Well, Satyam Kumar of Bakhorapur village in Bhojpur district in Bihar cracked the JEE examination and became the youngest IITian in the country. Who is India's youngest IITian? Where did he grow up, and what was his family background?
In 2012, when children his age were learning primary mathematics in middle school, Satyam made history by achieving an All India Rank(AIR) of 8137 on his first attempt at the IIT-JEE. However, his ambitions were even bigger. In 2013, he sat for the exam again and topped the examination. He scored 292 marks out of 360 in the JEE Mains exam. He secured an AIR of 679 in JEE Advanced at the very young age of 13. Before him, the record was held by Sahal Kaushik, who achieved this milestone at the age of 14. However, it is reported that Satyam appeared for the JEE exam twice. What made his journey unique?
Satyam was born on July 20 to Sidhnath Singh, a poor farmer. According to his LinkedIn profile, he took admission at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he pursued a BTech-MTech dual degree in Electrical Engineering. In 2019, he pursued a Doctor of Philosophy PhD, ECE at the University of Texas at Austin. What was Satyam Kumar's IIT JEE rank?
After finishing his studies, Satyam worked as a research intern at Telecom Bretagne. Additionally, he worked as a teaching assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. In October 2017, he worked as a research assistant at ETH Zurich. As per his LinkedIn profile, he worked as a machine learning intern at Apple in 2023, graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin from 2019 to 2024. At present, he works as a machine learning systems research engineer.
'Research Interests: Deep Learning, Brain-Computer Interface, Speech Recognition, Time-Series Analysis, Human-Robot Interaction, Neuroengineering,' reads his LinkedIn bio. It is to be noted that Kumar appeared for the JEE exam twice. At first, his rank was 8137. Not satisfied with his result, he once again appeared for the exam, thus obtaining an AIR of 679.
As per the PTI report (2013), Satyam's uncle, Pashupati Singh, a clerk at Veer Kuer Singh College, stated that Satyam had no formal schooling till Class 8th owing to the family's financial struggles and the lack of adequate educational resources at the local government school.
Satyam started his academic journey in 2007, when he enrolled the Class 8. After passing the Rajasthan board, he took admission at Modern School in Kota. According to his uncle, Pashupati Singh, the principal of the school, R.K. Verma took full responsibility to pay for all of Satyam's educational and coaching fees in preparation for the IIT entrance exam, as per the report.
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Hindustan Times
8 hours ago
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Partial flood defence shifts risks toward vulnerable people in cities: IIT study
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These impacts are expected to increase further as populations expand into floodplains, economic activities intensify and climate change drives more extreme flood events, as per the study. Using Surat as a case-study, the researchers showed how partial flood defences shift risk toward vulnerable communities, raising questions about urban planning and equity. 'Adaptation must consider who is protected and who remains exposed, not just total risk reduction. Flood resilience is about ethics, not just about engineering. If our solutions protect some but leave others worse off, we haven't solved the problem; we've just reshaped it. This study shows that we can do better, and now we know how,' said Udit Bhatia, Associate Professor at IITGN's Department of Civil Engineering and the principal investigator of the study. Cities worldwide use partial embankment systems and levees against flooding, from Spain to India, the study stated while noting that these structures hold back water and shield urban cores but redirect waters to city edges and informal settlements. 'In many cities of the Global South, peripheral areas house informal settlements, agricultural workers, and artisanal communities with limited access to infrastructure or disaster support,' said Bhatia. The study uses Surat as a case study to generate what-if scenarios, a city on Gujarat's Tapi River that has suffered repeated floods, including a major one in 2006. The researchers used a hydrodynamic model built with river records, city data, and 49 years of Ukai Reservoir discharges to simulate a 100-year flood with and without partial levees. They combined this with land-use damage estimates updated to 2022 replacement costs and ward-level demographic data to assess how losses change. The results showed that partial levees reduced damages by ₹31.24 billion (US$380 million) in the city's urban wards and ₹10.34 billion (US$125 million) in surrounding villages. At the same time, damages became more uneven. The researchers measured this using the Gini index, which ranges from 0 (losses evenly spread) to 1 (losses concentrated in one place). In Surat, the Gini for flood damages increased from 0.55 to 0.66 after levees, and the Gini for population exposure rose from 0.31 to 0.39, meaning fewer neighborhoods bore a greater share of the impact. Ashish S. Kumar, the lead author and a PhD scholar in IITGN's Department of Civil Engineering, said their approach looked beyond standard flood maps. 'City planners need to know where water goes, how fast it arrives, how long it stays, and which communities are hit hardest,' he explained. The analysis showed that neighborhoods close to the river gained up to 12 extra hours before flooding, while some downstream areas flooded up to seven hours earlier. Of Surat's 284 neighborhoods, 119 experienced deeper floods and 134 saw less. In exposed areas, floodwaters rose by up to 2.38 meters, while protected areas saw water levels drop by as much as 10.13 meters. 'While core areas remained dry longer, downstream and peripheral wards, which are often less affluent and less protected, flooded earlier and more severely,' said Kumar, who is also the recipient of the Prime Minister Research Fellowship. Flood volumes declined overall, with reductions of 28.51 million cubic meters in the city and 37.42 million in the suburbs. Expected annual savings were estimated at ₹2.02 billion in the core city and ₹1.44 billion in suburbs. But some downstream neighborhoods could still face additional damages of up to ₹600 million (US$7.3 million) over the next 50 years. These impacts fell most heavily on wards with larger shares of marginal workers, showing that economic vulnerability and residual flood risk overlap. The authors describe this as a core–periphery dynamic, where central, economically important wards are protected while peripheral or rural zones remain exposed. They point out that similar patterns are seen elsewhere, such as in Valencia in 2024 when suburban areas were flooded while the city centre was shielded, and in cities like Chennai and Kinshasa where partial defences protect urban cores at the expense of the edges. Co-author Rajarshi Majumder of the University of Burdwan noted that the worst-hit neighborhoods in Surat also had more precarious workers. Vivek Kapadia, who has worked on Gujarat's water projects, said that choosing which areas to protect is as important as the engineering of the levees themselves. The researchers conclude that levees remain necessary but should be combined with early warning systems, wetland and mangrove restoration, flood zoning, bypass channels, and reinvestment of tax revenues from protected zones into unprotected ones. 'Cities in India face tough choices with limited budgets,' Bhatia said. 'But with the right tools, data, and intent, decisions can be better balanced.'
India.com
8 hours ago
- India.com
Meet India's youngest IITian, cracked IIT-JEE at 13, had no formal schooling till Class 8, his name is..., he is now...
Meet India's youngest IITian, cracked IIT-JEE at 13, had no formal schooling till Class 8, his name is..., he is now... IIT-JEE is one of the most competitive exams in India. Several students start preparing for the exam after their Class 10 examination. Their sole aim is to get admission into the prestigious IITs in the country. But what if we tell you that there is one boy who cracked the JEE exam at just 12 years old? It is not a myth or a fiction. Well, Satyam Kumar of Bakhorapur village in Bhojpur district in Bihar cracked the JEE examination and became the youngest IITian in the country. Who is India's youngest IITian? Where did he grow up, and what was his family background? In 2012, when children his age were learning primary mathematics in middle school, Satyam made history by achieving an All India Rank(AIR) of 8137 on his first attempt at the IIT-JEE. However, his ambitions were even bigger. In 2013, he sat for the exam again and topped the examination. He scored 292 marks out of 360 in the JEE Mains exam. He secured an AIR of 679 in JEE Advanced at the very young age of 13. Before him, the record was held by Sahal Kaushik, who achieved this milestone at the age of 14. However, it is reported that Satyam appeared for the JEE exam twice. What made his journey unique? Satyam was born on July 20 to Sidhnath Singh, a poor farmer. According to his LinkedIn profile, he took admission at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he pursued a BTech-MTech dual degree in Electrical Engineering. In 2019, he pursued a Doctor of Philosophy PhD, ECE at the University of Texas at Austin. What was Satyam Kumar's IIT JEE rank? After finishing his studies, Satyam worked as a research intern at Telecom Bretagne. Additionally, he worked as a teaching assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. In October 2017, he worked as a research assistant at ETH Zurich. As per his LinkedIn profile, he worked as a machine learning intern at Apple in 2023, graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin from 2019 to 2024. At present, he works as a machine learning systems research engineer. 'Research Interests: Deep Learning, Brain-Computer Interface, Speech Recognition, Time-Series Analysis, Human-Robot Interaction, Neuroengineering,' reads his LinkedIn bio. It is to be noted that Kumar appeared for the JEE exam twice. At first, his rank was 8137. Not satisfied with his result, he once again appeared for the exam, thus obtaining an AIR of 679. As per the PTI report (2013), Satyam's uncle, Pashupati Singh, a clerk at Veer Kuer Singh College, stated that Satyam had no formal schooling till Class 8th owing to the family's financial struggles and the lack of adequate educational resources at the local government school. Satyam started his academic journey in 2007, when he enrolled the Class 8. After passing the Rajasthan board, he took admission at Modern School in Kota. According to his uncle, Pashupati Singh, the principal of the school, R.K. Verma took full responsibility to pay for all of Satyam's educational and coaching fees in preparation for the IIT entrance exam, as per the report.
The Hindu
11 hours ago
- The Hindu
India's easternmost railway zone shifts to compostable bio-plastic on trains
GUWAHATI The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has become India's first railway zone to shift to compostable bio-plastic on trains. As a pilot initiative, the NFR introduced a biodegradable bag to distribute linen to passengers on August 15, coinciding with the celebration of India's 79th Independence Day. The ISO17088-compliant bioplastic used as the packaging material was developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G). The initiative was rolled out under the supervision of NFR's General Manager, Chetan Kumar Shrivastava, and an IIT-G team led by Professor Vimal Katiyar. NFR spokesperson Kapinjal Kishore Sharma stated the pilot project involves distributing 40,000 bioplastic bags across 25 trains originating from the railway zone's terminals in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Tripura, and West Bengal. He stated that the project aligned with the mission of the NFR, India's easternmost railway zone, to adopt green initiatives for its transportation system. 'The zone has implemented rapid railway electrification, solar energy generation, artificial intelligence-based intrusion detection systems to safeguard elephants and others, rainwater harvesting, quick watering systems, automatic coach washing plants, bio-toilets, a mechanised cleaning system, composting of solid waste, afforestation, and the transformation of wastelands into green areas,' he said. Mr. Sharma said that an inoculum generation plant at Kamakhya (a railway station near the NFR's headquarters in Guwahati) has played a vital role in recycling biodegradable waste, which helps in reprocessing used bedroll bags into new ones, further reducing plastic pollution. NFR officials said the collaboration with IIT-G marks a practical and scalable approach towards greener railway operations and enhanced passenger convenience through environmentally responsible solutions.
