Latest news with #IITs
News18
20 hours ago
- News18
These 10 Exams Are So Hard, Even Geniuses Struggle To Pass
Last Updated: Here's a look at the top 10 toughest exams in the world that push the limits of human potential. Across the world, certain exams stand out not just for their academic rigor, but for the sheer determination, preparation, and mental stamina they demand. Here's a look at the top 10 toughest exams in the world that push the limits of human potential. 1/10 IIT JEE Exam, India: A highly competitive test taken to get admission to IITs. It is known for its problem-solving questions. Only a small fraction of the million take the exam annually. (Image: AI-Generated) UPSC Exam, India: This exam is conducted for the recruitment for IAS, IPS, IFS. It is a lengthy three-stage assessment that evaluates candidates on various subjects, including history, polity, economics, and language skills. (Image: AI-Generated) Mensa, England: The tests are designed to be difficult, measuring abstract reasoning and problem-solving abilities. (Image: AI-Generated) GRE, US/Canada: A standardised test for those pursuing graduate studies in US or Canada. It assesses verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing skills. (Image: AI-Generated) CFA, US/Canada: Succeeding the CFA charter in the US involves passing three rigorous exams covering various financial topics like asset valuation and portfolio management. (Image: AI-Generated) CCIE, US: The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification in the US is one of the prestigious recognitions for networking experts. This lab-based exam evaluates in-depth knowledge and troubleshooting skills related to complex Cisco networking technologies. (Image: AI-Generated) GATE, India: The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is a competitive exam in India. It serves as a gateway to postgraduate engineering programs and research opportunities. (Image: AI-Generated) USMLE, US: To become a licensed physician in the United States, one needs to pass the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is mandatory. The exam comprehensively evaluates a doctor's knowledge and skills. (Image: AI-Generated) Next Photogallery
NDTV
a day ago
- Business
- NDTV
Airports Authority Of India Hiring For Senior Consultant Posts, Monthly Pay Rs 1.5 Lakh
AAI Recruitment 2025: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has opened applications for the positions of senior consultants at its Corporate Headquarters in New Delhi. The recruitment is being conducted for two key roles, Senior Consultant (Planning) and Senior Consultant (Operations), on a contractual basis. The monthly consolidated consultancy fee is Rs 1.5 lakh. The last date for application submission is August 1. AAI Recruitment 2025: Vacancy Details Senior Consultant (Planning): 6 posts Senior Consultant (Operations): 4 posts Upper Age Limit: 45 years as of August 1, 2025 AAI Recruitment 2025: Eligibility Criteria For Senior Consultant (Planning): Educational Qualification: Bachelor's degree in Civil or Electrical Engineering and an MBA (any specialisation). Preference will be given to candidates with engineering degrees from IITs or NITs. Experience: 8-10 years in monitoring, execution, or MIS development of infrastructure projects, preferably in airport planning and construction. For Senior Consultant (Operations): Educational Qualification: Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Statistics, Economics, or Operations Research, along with an MBA (any specialisation). Experience: 8-10 years in data analysis and preparation of reports or official replies. AAI Recruitment 2025: Application Process Eligible candidates must submit their applications through or between July 21 and August 1. Those intending to apply for more than one post must submit separate applications. AAI Recruitment 2025: Selection Process The selection will be based on academic qualifications, relevant experience, document verification, and an interview. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted via email. AAI Recruitment 2025: Key Points To Note Appointments will be on a one-year contract basis. Only Indian nationals can apply. Applicants must ensure that all qualifications and experience are attained on or before August 1, 2025. No TA/DA will be paid for attending the interview.
Mint
a day ago
- Business
- Mint
Interview: Rahul Mehta of MFF on why India needs strategic philanthropy - 'you can't innovate without talent'
Founded in 1996 in Houston, Texas, in the United States, by the Mehta siblings—Nisha, Rahul, Jainesh, and Dharmesh—in honour of their parents Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta, the Mehta Family Foundation (MFF) is today a top philanthropic force strengthening India's knowledge infrastructure through transformative investments in higher education. With a firm belief that scientific and technological excellence is key to national progress, MFF partners today with top IITs to establish interdisciplinary schools focused on data science, biosciences, AI, health tech, and sustainability. With over 1,400 students currently enrolled across IITs at Madras, Guwahati, Roorkee, Kanpur, and Palakkad and a target of graduating 12,000 by 2031, MFF's collaborative model goes beyond traditional funding. Under the leadership of CEO Rahul Mehta, it shapes programs, recruits faculty, and aligns with long-term national goals. In India to announce two new schools at IIT Indore on July 22, Rahul Mehta spoke to LiveMint about the Mehta Family Foundation's journey, the state of academic philanthropy in India, and the road ahead. Excerpts from the interview: Q: Can you tell us about your background and how the Mehta Family Foundation started? A: I left India when I was 17. I didn't come from a wealthy or highly educated family—my parents had no formal education. But I worked hard, started multiple companies, and after selling my first one, I had more money than I ever thought I would need. I decided to start the Foundation. I've always believed I am just a steward of this wealth—my goal was to give it away meaningfully. Initially, I donated to small nonprofits, gave $500 here, $1000 there, even to Indian charities. But over time, I realised I needed to decide to donate where I felt the deepest impact. That's when my philanthropic journey became more focused on education and institution-building. Q: What was the first major project you funded in India? A: It started around 2005–06. On a trip to the Aurobindo Ashram, I stopped at IIT Madras and had a conversation with the then-director, Dr K Kasturirangan. We discussed their vision, and that led to the creation of the School of Biosciences and Bioengineering—the first such school I funded. Later, in 2010, they returned asking for support to expand lab space, animal hubs, and research infrastructure, which became our second project at IIT Madras. So we've supported two major projects there. Q: How did you choose the areas of focus—Bio, AI, Sustainability? A: I looked at trends in US academia. By the early 2000s, half of engineering faculty in the US were shifting their focus to healthcare and bio. But Indian campuses hadn't even considered biosciences yet—they still offered only traditional disciplines like mechanical or chemical engineering. Similarly, I saw that Indian institutions were slow to adopt AI and data science. In 2018–19, I even hosted a meeting in Delhi with several IIT directors to pitch data science and AI schools—no one was interested. Then came ChatGPT and suddenly everyone saw its relevance. The same is happening now with sustainability. I havve been pushing for formal education in this space for the last three years. We need a new generation of talent explicitly trained in sustainability. Q: You have been talking about the 12,000 deep-tech graduates goal. What does that mean? A: Across eight schools we've funded so far, each school typically includes BTech, MTech, and PhD programs. A typical school has: ● 40–60 BTech seats per year → 160–240 BTech students at steady state ● 50–75 master's students With a firm belief that scientific and technological excellence is key to national progress, MFF partners today with top IITs to establish interdisciplinary schools focused on data science, biosciences, AI, health tech, and sustainability. Every school supports around 300–400 students. With eight schools, that's over 3000 students in steady-state enrollment—equivalent to the size of a new IIT. If you project this over 10 years, it adds up to over 10,000–12,000 graduates, which is critical for India's intellectual and innovation capacity. Q: Are these schools integrated into existing IITs or independent? A: They're integrated within existing IITs but are independently funded and branded—like the Mehta Family School of Data Science and AI. So far, we've supported biosciences, AI, and sustainability schools. Each has its own set of faculty, curriculum, and students. Q: What is your long-term vision for the Foundation in India? A: To help India build a critical mass of intellectual talent across future-critical areas. For example, one school in sustainability isn't enough. We probably need three or four. Public health is another area I'd like to enter. The idea is to look at long-term capacity creation—not just short-term programs. Q: Are there specific challenges in setting up these departments in India? A: Many. The philanthropic ecosystem isn't as mature as the West. In India, people still ask: 'Why do you want to give us money?' Universities often don't know how to write proposals. Even when they agree, internal processes like Senate approvals, faculty alignment, curriculum design—it all takes 18 months or more. In contrast, if I offer money to Harvard, I get a proposal in 24 hours, and they fly out to meet me. Q: So it's a 10+ year commitment to build each department? A: Absolutely. From planning, curriculum design, faculty recruitment, to graduating the first batch—it's easily a decade-long journey. But that's what strategic philanthropy requires: focus, patience, and long-term commitment. Q: How do you assess the impact of your work—what keeps you going? A: The students. When I visit campuses, I meet them in classrooms and ask about their lives. Most come from small towns I have never heard of. Many are the first in their family to go to college. Getting a job post-graduation changes their lives—and their families. That's what keeps me going. One student's transformation is enough to justify all the effort. But here, we're talking about thousands. Q: Do you worry about brain drain—will these students stay in India? A: I don't dictate that. They should do what's best for them. But global forces are shifting—many will stay in India because opportunities here are growing. The goal is to empower them to lead wherever they are. Q: Where does India stand in the innovation economy today? A: We're just beginning. Our innovation capacity has to scale massively. Take healthcare—MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, US, has more cancer researchers than all of India combined. In battery tech, China and the US are far ahead. We must build deep talent pools in these sectors to compete. You can't innovate without talent. You can't innovate without talent. Q: And where do you see philanthropy in India going from here? A: It's getting better. Compared to 2006, people are now more welcoming, more appreciative. But strategic philanthropy is still rare. Many want quick wins—whereas real impact, like building academic institutions, takes 15–20 years. You have to pick one mission and stick to it. That's what we are doing.
News18
3 days ago
- Politics
- News18
State Universities in Higher Education and Research
Last Updated: We are at a crossroads with respect to education. Unless we train a very large number of young men and women in an all-round holistic manner, we are doomed as an aspiring country In an aspirational country like modern India, there is an urgent requirement of education at all levels. Education is like defence, finance, health and external affairs. It is essential to our strategic well-being and as such, a primary responsibility of the central government. Education in the Concurrent List presently and the responsibility for its spread and dissemination is shared by the centre and the states. There are also some players in the private sector. This number has been growing recently. Education ennobles and if rightly imparted, it teaches us to think, apply logic and rationality in our daily lives, and removes bigotry and superstition—in short, it enriches our lives substantially. These lofty long-range goals apart, there needs to be, at the very least, a direct connect between the quality and level of education received and the employment prospects for the person who has been educated. With regard to this last and rather basic need, our education policies, both at the central and state levels, have been unsatisfactory. There is a limit as to the coverage that can be given by the central educational institutions like the IITs, IISERs, AIIMSs and Central Universities. The graduates from these institutions are largely from the STEM subjects and search for jobs after acquiring degrees like BTech, MTech, MBBS or PhD. The central universities are generally not able to take care of the very large numbers of students who study the humanities, social sciences or any subject that does not fall within the scientific domain. My guesstimate is that it is only a small number of students (say 10%) are able to secure admission to a central government institution and that an even smaller number secure decent employment in India after their studies. The responsibility for educating the other 90% young people in such a way that they are able to secure some employment after their studies lies fair and square with the state universities and therefore with the respective state governments. There needs to be much understanding between the centre and the states in the matter of education, implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) and a language policy that helps all and offends none. Any modern, advanced country is supposed to have one decent university for each million population. By this token, India needs 1400 good universities. We have around 450 state universities that exist formally but many of them are languishing, and practically lifeless. The solution to this huge imbalance between demand and supply with regard to employment cannot be solved by opening new universities in remote places, or by handing over the whole education enterprise to the private sector, but rather by a total cleansing and bettering, of what I would term, the salvageable state universities. The NEP 2020 is well aware of this problem but has not been able to offer meaningful and implementable solutions. I shall try and proffer some solutions here. There are many problems endemic to the state universities. In an overall sense, the extent of corruption in these places is at an all-time high. The complicity of politicians and bureaucrats is undeniable because of the overwhelming influence that the state governments have in the running of universities. In certain states, the problem is extremely grave and high-level posts are routinely for sale. The options for corruption through examinations, ghost thesis writing, faculty and non-faculty appointments, building construction, purchases and patronage are simply too many. In certain states, caste- and religion-based reservations have secured a vise-like grip on the running of the organization and criminal elements roam around freely. The system of affiliated colleges is also a back-breaking burden on the system and no solution is in sight. Yet, a closer inspection shows that all the state universities should not be tarred with the same brush. Roughly, I would categorize the 450 odd state institutions existing today as follows: (1) 100 old universities which once had better reputations and are located in the centres of cities. These places are floundering because of the lack of adequate funding. Formerly well-known research departments have become inactive in these universities. Corruption is not always the problem; (2) 150 old and well-known private colleges, once again in large cities, which have maintained their teaching standards but can only aspire to modest research goals because of the lack of funding and infrastructure. Many of these colleges enjoy varying degrees of administrative and academic autonomy and some have been upgraded into universities. Corruption and caste are usually not the issues here; (3) 100 universities in smaller places that lack the critical mass, infrastructure and talent to perform productively and exist in name only, drifting along with no finances; (4) 100 organizations that have gone beyond the pale—the debilitating factors of corruption, caste, religion and criminality are so deeply enmeshed in the ordinary functioning so that there seems to be no point in even trying to improve them. These places are just dens, and serve no useful purpose, at least not for honest citizens. Let us now look at the financial inputs that are required for a respectable teaching and research profile in universities. The recent central budget figures tell the whole story. The average outlay for an IIT is 500 crores for FY 2025-26. For a central university it is 135 crores. For an IISER, it is 200 crores. The IISc gets 900 crores. Each state university gets on average, 75 crores as the UGC component. Undeniably a state university also gets funding from the state government. But how much does it get? And how fast is it given? Problems that can be solved with money are often the easiest problems to solve. And we are told that India is no more a poor country. To solve the financial problems of our state universities, I would suggest that the central government sanction 500 crore per year for five years to each of these 200 institutions. These places have the most valuable asset for which the government need not pay: prime land and solid buildings. Students prefer to commute short distances from their homes to decent colleges and universities. They now travel to far flung places and live in insanitary conditions in hostels because of the lack of educational opportunities closer to their homes. The total outlay for my suggestion is 1,00,000 crores per year for five years and this is not a large sum of money for a country of our size to address such a critical need that has been neglected for 75 years. This amount should be used for both appointments, which should be of ad hoc five-year duration (no permanent tenure, therefore no reservations but a compensation that is comparable to what an entering assistant professor gets in a central university), and for equipment, infrastructure and support especially in undergraduate labs. The state governments may follow suit and they probably will, if the centre were to take a bold step like this and the enterprise will need a lot of centre-state financial cooperation. Universities need to be formally grouped as I have done above, and the third group of 100 barely existing state universities and colleges should be converted into teaching institutions with all pretences of research removed. Here again, contractual five-year appointments should be the norm and active financial inputs from state governments are necessary. The goal here is to produce well-rounded and well-trained individuals, mostly at the BA/BSc level who can be absorbed into meaningful employment. The students should ideally come from homes close to these universities or colleges and they should also be able to secure jobs in nearby locations. As in other countries, some of these universities may be upgraded into research institutions based on their performance in teaching, but this would necessarily be a slow process. The final group of 100 unsalvageable and ungovernable universities should be simply abandoned and whenever possible, should be wound up. This might be difficult in the short run, and politically sensitive, but there is no viable alternative. No tears need be shed. I am merely asking for a closure. If they cannot be formally shut down, they should not be funded, which is effectively saying the same thing. I come now to a major difficulty. The behemoth University Grants Commission (UGC) is a real roadblock between the political establishment, which in the end, must have the necessary conviction to implement major reforms in the education sector, and the universities which would implement the reforms. The UGC has outlived its usefulness long ago and like the Planning Commission it needs to be morphed into a faster moving, facilitating and progressive body, free of vested interests and corruption. In this regard, I do not feel that the proposed Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) as a single overarching regulator for higher education in India is a good idea. Its aim is to replace existing multiple regulatory bodies like the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), with the goal of streamlining governance, improving academic standards, and enhancing institutional autonomy. While the concept of HECI was proposed under the NEP 2020, and a draft bill (The Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill, 2018) was introduced for public consultation, it has faced delays and has not been passed by Parliament. I am afraid that HECI, even if it comes into being, will be another UGC or AICTE is a new garb. The same people will be running the new place. top videos View all We are a crossroads with respect to education. Unless we are able to train a very large number of young men and women in an all-round holistic manner, we are doomed as an aspiring country. There will be no Viksit Bhārat unless we address the education crisis. The way forward seems obvious to me at least but hard decisions need to be taken by the central government. Gautam R. Desiraju is in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. tags : AIIMS iit NEP 2020 university grants commission view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: July 21, 2025, 15:22 IST News opinion Opinion | State Universities in Higher Education and Research Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Maharashtra CET Cell issues clarification after video alleges discrepancy in provisional merit list
After the emergence of a viral video alleging discrepancies in the provisional merit list for engineering admissions in the state, Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell has issued a clarification stating that the claims in the video are baseless. Stating that such baseless allegations cast doubt on performance of hard-working candidates, CET Cell has appealed to candidates and parents not to believe such claims. As engineering admissions are underway in the state, the provisional merit list was declared on July 19. Soon after a video is being circulated among engineering aspirants where an unknown person alleges that there are problems in the provisional merit list for BE/ (Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Technology) admissions. The video alleged that among the candidates who have scored 100 percentile and are ranked at the top of this provisional merit list, there are some who have low scores in Physics Chemistry Mathematics (PCM) combination of subjects in Class 12 marks; further raising questions on how this is possible. However, CET Cell in a written clarification issued for information of candidates and parents, states, 'There is a difference between calculation between percentile and percentage. The method of calculation is declared before the CET exams and the candidates are well versed with it. The performance of a candidate in CET cannot be compared with his/her Performance in HSC exam as candidates focus the effort and study on CET exams as it is an eligibility test for admission.' Further appealing to candidates and parents to not to believe such baseless claims, the clarification note further states, 'In CET 2025 results, there were 22 Candidates across 15 sessions who have scored 100 Percentile. Out of these 22 Candidates, only 8 Candidates have applied for the CAP process. It means that others have opted for other higher education institutes such as IITs and NITs. Therefore, they were toppers in both the exams. Further, other candidates have scored more than 95% Percentile in JEE (Main), however they have considerably lower Percentile in CET exam. Other Candidates have high JEE (Main) Percentile score against low HSC score. Therefore, such selective comparison is futile and irresponsible.'
