Date:31/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/31/stories/2007053104550600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

IIT-JEE: Andhra Pradesh students strike it rich

Special Correspondent

Over 600 students from State may get admission into IITs

HYDERABAD: Students from Andhra Pradesh have reaped a rich harvest in the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) this year and more than 600 students are likely to get admission into various IITs.

The top ranker from the State this year is Santosh Kumar, who secured the all India 15th rank and belongs to Narayana IIT Academy at Habsiguda. The second best rank from the State is Varun Tripuraneni, a student of Ramaiah coaching institute. Varun secured 18th rank.

Mr. Ramaiah's institute continued its good performance with 115 students out of the 135 getting ranks and these include 12 ranks below 100. Satish Kumar got 7th rank in the SC category. Mr. Ramaiah said 80 out of the 115 are from areas other than Hyderabad indicating the growing awareness of IIT education in the State.

Corporate colleges too

Corporate colleges also contributed heavily to the success story. Narayana Group of institutions claimed that 1,149 students from its institutions would get into IITs this year of which 623 were from the State alone. About 180 students from the reserved category were also successful. Similarly, Sri Chaitanya Institutions claimed that 344 students from its institutions in the State would get into IITs. Another 259 qualified for other institutes such as IIST and AISR.

Both the institutes claimed the all India 6th ranker Ankit as `their' student. However, Ankit later at a press conference, clarified that he had registered for Test Series of Sri Chaitanya but also pursued Intensive Condensed Classroom programme of Narayana institution.

State topper Santosh Kumar prefers to join Computer Science at IIT Kanpur. He scored 962 marks in Intermediate and 41st rank in EAMCET.