In a first for the Kashmir valley, 4 students have made it to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), the results for which were declared recently. IITs are regarded as one of the best engineering colleges of the world, and its qualifying exam, JEE Advanced, taken by 2 lakh aspirants across the country, one of the toughest.
Every year hardly one or two Kashmiris make it to IITs, that too after having to avail expensive coaching from institutes in Delhi or Kota. It’s for the first time since the inception of the first IIT in 1951, that so many Kashmiris have made it to IITs in a single year. What makes their achievement even more significant is that they achieved the feat by preparing for the exam in Srinagar itself for past two years.
The students who made it to IIT include Kaleem Khan from Hyderpora (Rank: 5002). Aneeb from Shopian (Rank 24 (PwD)) and Aquib Amin (Rank 99 PwD) from Bandipora. Arif Reyaz from Bandipora also made it to the preparatory courses at IIT. All of them are students of RISE, where they were mentored and taught by a team of dedicated IITians, a statement here said.
“Mubeen Masudi, an IIT Bombay alumnus, founder of RISE, is exhilarated by the news and sees this as a first step towards increasing the number of Kashmiri students studying across IITs,” it said. “This is very encouraging for our students who aspire to be at IIT. This result gives them a belief that if they work hard, just like these 4 students did, they deserve as much success as anyone else,” Masudi said.
