BITS loses it's two gems

K K Birla, the Chancellor of BITS Pilani and Dr. C R Mitra, the director of BITS for two decades (from 1969), are no more. Dr C R Mitra passed away on August 27th, 2008 while Dr. K K Birla expired on August 30th, 2008. Both were visionary leaders; ones who understood the importance of education and brought revolutionary changes in it. Education was made available to even poorest of the poor, and made relevant to the indian context by them.

We pray for their souls; may they rest in peace.

Dr. K K Birla

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=228

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/condolence/condolence.pdf

http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/aug/30birla.htm

http://www.livemint.com/2008/08/30110518/KK-Birla-dies-at-90.html

Dr. C R Mitra

http://www.livemint.com/2008/08/30110518/KK-Birla-dies-at-90.html

http://www.pr-inside.com/former-bits-pilani-director-dr-cr-r775845.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/29/stories/2008082956181300.htm

http://www.prurgent.com/2008-08-28/pressrelease17522.htm

BITS Pilani Industry-University Collaborations

Here is a list of "some" MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) which BITS-Pilani has with various institutions/companies across India. It was made after extensive "Google" search and is in no way a complete list. Just the fact that it contains 75+ companies, including the likes of Texas Instruments, Yahoo!, HP, ST Microelectronics, Cisco, IBM, Dell speaks volumes. These MOUs put BITS at the very top of Industry-University collaborations among all the universities in India.

1	Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Bangalore
2	Yahoo, Bangalore
3	Sap Labs, Bangalore
4	Maytas Infra Ltd
5	Indian Institute of Quality Management (IIQM) Jaipur
6	Tata Chemicals
7	Texmaco
8	Patni Computer Systems
9	Dabur Pharma
10	Persistent Systems
11	HP India Bangalore
12	Bharat Forge
13	Mahindra British Telecom (MBT)
14	Honeywell Bangalore
15	Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI)
16	Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Hyderabad
17	RL Institute of Nautical Sciences - "RLINS", Madurai
18	TVS Motor
19	Intel India
20	Cognizant Chennai
21	Wipro
22	Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL)
23	ST Microelectronics
24	nLeague Services Inc, Hyderabad
25	Andhra Bank
26	Ashok Leyland Chennai and Hosur
27	HCL Chennai
28	HCL Bangalore
29	Accenture Bangalore
30	Essar Power Hazira
31	NTPC
32	Texas Instruments, Bangalore
33	Grasim, Nagda
34	CFCL, Kota
35	Hindalco Renukoot
36	Satyam Hyderabad
37	CMC Vellore
38	Valtech Bangalore
39	Qualcomm Bangalore
40	Hindustan Zinc Udaipur
41	Bombay Hospital Mumbai
42	NCSM Kolkata
43	NDPL Delhi
44	DELL Bangalore
45	Strides Arco Bangalore
46	Bharat Forge Pune
47	Tech Mahindra Pune
48	THDC Tehri
49	IBM
50	Elite School of Optometry, Medical Research Foundation, Chennai
51	Bausch & Lomb School of Optometry, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad
52	Madras Medical Mission, Chennai
53	Frontier Lifeline, Chennai
54	Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital (THONEH), Malaysia
55	Tolani Maritime Institute, Induri
56	Tolani Maritime Institute, Pune
57	Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad
58	Ford India Ltd
59	Finolex Industries, Ratnagiri
60	Indogulf Fertilizers & Chemicals, Jagdishpur
61	Development Consultants Ltd, Calcutta
62	Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad
63	Bhakthivedanta Institute, Mumbai
64	Consultancy Development Centre, New Delhi
65	SPIC, Chennai
66	DJ Academy for Managerial Excellence, Coimbatore
67	Tata Elxsi Bangalore
68	Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai
69	Bombay Hospital, Mumbai
70	Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases, Chennai
71	CISCO
72	EMC (Benelux) B.V. SARL (EMC)
73	Jindal South West Group (JSW)
74	Nasscom IT
75	Infotech Enterprises
76	L&T e-Engineering Solutions
77	Sabre Travel Technologies, Bangalore

BITS Pilani in Rankings

Though rankings should never be trusted while making final decisions for admissions, they do give a general perspective of the overall standing of a university. 

BITS has consistently ranked among the top engineering institutions not only in India but also in Asia. Notably, other than the Dataquest rankings, BITS Pilani has never been ranked lower than any university other than the IITs. Also, in last 11 years, BITS has ranked above IIT Roorkee 9 times and above IIT Guwahati 10 times. Shown below is a compiled list of rankings BITS-Pilani has participated in, since 1997. 

Government of India's National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rated BITS as a five star Institution (highest rating) for the period ending February 7, 2007. BITS has scored 82.55 out of 100, higher than comparable public universities (with a five star rating and a focus on science and technology) such as Anna University (75.7), Jadavpur University (77.35) and IIT Roorkee (77.15).   

Merit at BITS Pilani

As Camelpost once said:

BITS Pilani has ensured the creation of a classless, casteless society and thousands of BITS alumni take pride in identifying themselves as Indians and not belonging to any caste, religion or language.

Never ever did we see any discrimination towards or for a student@ BITS based on caste/language/religion and never will we see it too, for in India today we are the ONLY UNIVERSITY which does not entertain any quota; be it Management/NRI/SC/ST/OBC. The only admission criteria at BITS is Merit with equal rights to all, and it will always remain so.

BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay, NIT Trichy, NITK Surathkal, DCE, ISM Dhanbad and Jadhavpur University give Dataquest T-schools 2008 rankings a Skip

A revolution has started. 

After BITS Pilani decided to quit participating in India Today rankings since 2005, BITS decided to give the Dataquest 2008 rankings a skip too. IIT Bombay and NIT Trichy followed suit and quit participating in DQ rankings. Since 2006, NITK Surthkal has been giving rankings a miss too. Jadhavpur university, another very reputed university in east-India gave a miss to these rankings too. ISM Dhanbad isn't found in them either. DCE decided to ignore these rankings as well. Only 6 out of 20 NITs are visible in the rankings.

One wonders what credibility these rankings have, with India's major and most reputed universities deciding not to participate in them:

IIT Bombay

BITS Pilani

NIT Trichy

NITK Surathkal

Delhi College of Engineering (DCE)

ISM Dhanbad

Jadhavpur University

Arguably all the above universities have the potential to rank in top 15 universities in India, with 6 of them (IITB, BITS, NITT, NITK, DCE, ISM) having the potential to rank in top 10 too. If 6 out of top 10 potential frontrunners decide to give these rankings a miss, then surely the credibility of these rankings is doubtable.

Some Surprises in the rankings:

1. 14/20 NITs missing/did not participate.

2. DA IICT at 12th. Though I know it is an upcoming college, but surpassing IIIT-A, BIT-Ranchi, PSG Tech, MNNIT in a year? Sounds undigestible.

3. New Horizon College of Engineering at 20th.

4. Amrita School of Engineering at 21st.

5. Agrasen at 25th.

All these were placed above Manipal Institute of Technology.

6. Almost all the colleges (Except AIT, PESIT, Galgotia) below the 30th rank are relatively unknown.

7. In HR perception MIT tops the list, and IIT Kharagpur, Guwahati are no where to be found.

8. A major flaw in these rankings is that they equate T-Schools with IT schools and take into account majorly IT placements and IT recruiters (During perception rankings). It's about time that they understood that T-Schools are "TECHNOLOGY" Schools imparting complete "ENGINEERING" skills to their students.

9. On a lighter note, the ranking lists IIT Madras as "IIIT Chennai". Yes you read it right! "IIIT" and not "IIT". "Chennai" and not "Madras". The last time I checked they were still called by the name of IIT Madras. Also I didn't know that they were calling IIIT-A as Indian Institute of "Informantion" Technology now-a-days. 

It is about time that these magazines, which self-righteously take upon themselves the responsibility of publishing such rankings without any credibility, learn to either pursue responsible journalism, or decide to shut down their businesses. I would not be surprised if more reputed IITs/NITs decide to ignore these rankings which do nothing, but misguide the future generation of students.

http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/top_stories/2008/108060901.asp

http://dqindia.ciol.com/images08/Cover%20story%20table.pdf

BITSians develop India's first fully indegenous humanoid!

India's only entry in Robogames'08: World's largest Robo competition!

Here is more:

About ACYUT

ACYUT is India's first humanoid Robot conceptualized, fabricated, assembled and programmed by five students from BITS, Pilani. ACYUT has been created on Pilani soil in its very own workshop and labs and is the only entry from India into RoboGames 2008. Check out http://acyut.wordpress.com/ to know more about how ACYUT was

born and how it is gearing up for the biggest contest in robotics. Catch a glimpse of ACYUT at http://www.youtube.com/v/QjAIaNiB1KI&hl=en

About RoboGames

Robogames is the world's largest open robot competition (even the Guinness Book of World Records says so!), being held at Fort Mason, San Francisco, from June 13, 2008 to June 15, 2008. The 2007 event had 249 teams participating from 28 different countries, in 70 different competitive events. There is only one Indian team participating in the 2008 event. www.robogames.net

Kudos to Samay Kohli, Arpit Mohan, Harsh Sinha, Prayag Mukherjee and Sushma Vallabhaneni for keeping the BITS flag flying high!! :D

Here is another video of Acyut:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhxYAeBOROs

MS/PhD admission statistics for BITS-Pilani, Pilani, Goa and Dubai Campuses, Fall 2008

Here are the admission statistics (for MS, MS/PhD and PhD) for all the three campuses of BITS for 2008.

BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus has done very well in its first ever admit scene ( The first batch of the Goa campus is passing out this year) with admits with full scholarships to universities like University of California – Berkeley, Harvard University, Stanford University, Purdue University etc. 

Average no. of admits per student stood at 3.27 (Total 454 admits for 139 students)

The list given below is NOT exhaustive.

Also,

Approx. 34% of applicants received some form of aid or the other (Fellowship, RA, TA, Tuition Waiver).

Top colleges like CMU (14 students), Stanford (11 students), Cornell (12 students), Purdue (29 students), Georgia Tech (16 students) etc. took a large number of BITSians this year.

These are the best (arguably!) admission statistics I've seen for any Indian University!

Kudos to BITS and BITSians!

MOUs with Foreign universities (Foreign collaborations of BITS)

Here is a list of reputed universities abroad, with whom BITS has collaborations with. The collaborations range from Exchange Programs (For both faculty and students) to joint research facilities. This is again not an exhaustive list and does NOT include Indian companies:

For more information go to: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/iru_site/mou.html

1. Advanced Business Language Group Inc, USA
2. Altera International Limited, Hong Kong
3. Arizona State University, USA
4. Ben Gurion University of Neger, Israel
5. Binghamton University (State University of New York), New York, USA
6. Braton Bitech Inc, Maryland, USA
7. Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute
8. Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore and Tulane University, Louisiane, USA
9. Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
10. ETA Ascon, Dubai
11. Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland
12. Hogskolan I Boras(University College of Boras), Sweden
13. Iowa State University, Iowa, USA
14. Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
15. Kathmandu University, Nepal
16. Lund University, Sweden
17. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA
18. Motorola Inc., USA
19. Nokia Research Centre, Finland
20. OSTN, Cleveland, UK
21. Purdue University, Indiana, USA
22. State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
23. Techlead Software Engg Pvt. Ltd, USA
24. The Commonwealth of Virginia George Mason University, USA
25. The George Washington University, USA
26. The Jacob Blaust Institutes for Desert Research of Ben Gurion University(BIDR-BGU), Israel
27. The Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital, Malaysia
28. Transtech International Inc., Maryland, USA
29. Tulane University Medical Centre, New Orleans, USA
30. Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, USA
31. Universities Of Ontario, Canada
32. University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
33. University of Dundee, UK
34. University of Maryland, College Park, USA
35. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
36. University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA
37. University of Southern Califonia, USA
38. University of Windsor, Canada
39. Utah State University, USA
40. Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
41. Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
42. York University, Canada

BITSAA and IPL Partnership! Wow! :D

Ahh! Finally BITSians joined the IPL frenzy!! Here is a first of its kind honor bestowed on ANY college community (read: BITSians!) by IPL, Rajastan Royals. This a mail I received sometime back:::: 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Dear BITSians 

BITSAA is glad to announce that Rajasthan Royals (IPL Cricket Team based in Jaipur) and BITSAA have signed an exclusive partnership deal to create the first International fan base of an IPL team. A press release to this effect went out to the India Newswire today (see below). 

This deal came to BITSAA through Dreamcricket.com (founded by BITSian Venu Palaparthi- 1987 batch). Given that Rajasthan Royals is the natural home team for BITSians because of the memorable times we spent at Pilani, BITSAA was more than happy to oblige to kickstart a new trend in Indian sport history. 

As part of this deal BITSians around the world will get: 

• 50% discount on all season tickets for all Home Games (Played at Jaipur) 

• 20% discount on purchase of 10 or more tickets for specific games (i.e not season tickets). 

• Free tickets for home games that BITSAA will raffle to its members for specific promotions 

• 50% discount to BITSians who may want to purchase a VIP box for the season 

• Special tickets to RR away games like the ones in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata 

• Discounts on RR merchandise 

• Articles from Shane Warne and other Rajasthan Royals players for the Alumni Magazine, Sandpaper 2.0 

Please watch out for an announcement on how BITSians can avail of these benefits for IPL games. Send your thoughts and feedback to garg@bitsaa.org 

Thanks, 

Ashish Garg 

CEO, BITSAA International 

www.bitsaa.org 

Here is the link:: 

http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=66592&lmn=1 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Rajasthan Royals announces Global Fan Community alliance with BITS Pilani International Alumni Association! 

The first international fan base by an IPL team is launched! 

Jaipur, 30th April 2008: Emerging Media, owners of the Jaipur IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals announced a first-of-its-kind global fan alliance by signing an exclusive relationship with BITS Pilani International Alumni Association. 

With this association Rajasthan Royals will induct over 30,000 BITS Pilani Alumni into the Rajasthan Royals support base, providing all members of the community with special offers, free tickets and discounted merchandise of the Rajasthan Royals. In addition, the Rajasthan Royals will also contribute to the BITSAA community with special articles written by Shane Warne and a charity auction at a later stage. 

BITS Pilani, the premier engineering and sciences institution is located in Rajasthan, only 5 hours away from Jaipur. Rajasthan Royals is also extending the benefits of this alliance to over 5000 students and members of faculty of BITS Pilani. 

Manoj Badale, Chairman of the Rajasthan Royals said, “We are extremely excited about this partnership. BITS-ians worldwide are a fine representation of India, highly educated, well settled and truly global citizens, yet deeply connected by a certain bond they share. With this alliance, we hope to provide them another reason to bond: supporting a fierce team in the Royals.” 

“BITS Pilani alumni around the world are rooting for Rajasthan Royal’s victory in the IPL tournament. Go Royals!”, said Professor S.P.Kothari, Chairman of BITSAA, who is currently Deputy Dean at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“This is the foundation of what will be a huge community for us in due course. We have a number of initiatives on the anvil, both online and offline for increased interaction between our global members and of course, the Warnie Army has begun to take shape”, said Ravi Krishnan, Vice Chairman of the Rajasthan Royals 

Commenting on the relationship, Fraser Castellino, CEO of the Rajasthan Royals said, “Of course, the fact that Pilani and Jaipur share a home in Rajasthan was the primary connection between us. This is another first for us and we look forward to support from the BITS-ians.” 

With Shane Warne being the only international captain of an IPL franchise and a few fine winning performances, the Rajasthan Royals are already attracting fans from all over the world. 

"Rajasthan Royals is the natural home team for the global BITS Pilani Alumni because of the memorable times we spent at Pilani, Rajasthan. BITSians all around the world are rooting for Shane Warne and the team", said Ashish Garg, CEO of BITSAA. 

BITSians of Note - I

Here goes the inaugural profile:

Name: Mr. Mahesh Ramasubramanian

Batch: 93, Computer Science

Present designation: Digital Effects Supervisor

Company: Dreamworks Animation, Greater Los Angeles, USA

After completing his under-graduation from BITS in 97 Mahesh went on to the Cornell University to do an MS in Computer Graphics. After completing his MS he went on to work at Pacific Data Images as a Visual Effects Animator where he worked on movies like Shrek, Shrek-2. The company was then bought by Dreamworks SKG where he worked on movies like Madagascar. Presently he is working at Dreamworks Animation and has also worked on movies like Over the Hedge, The bee movie, etc. (Been the lead!)

Mahesh has his own IMDB page (Wow!) which lists:

1. Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) (digital effects supervisor)
   
   
   
2. Bee Movie (2007) (head of effects)
3. Over the Hedge (2006) (head of effects)
4. Madagascar (2005) (visual effects lead)
5. Shrek 2 (2004) (visual effects)
6. Shrek 4-D (2003) (visual effects)
   
   ... aka Shrek 3-D (USA: DVD title)
   
7. Shrek (2001) (effects artist)

In 2005 Mahesh also won the "Global 30 under 30" award under Arts and Culture category instituted by BITSAA in recognition of thirty students or alums for their extraordinary achievements before the age of 30.

Hats off to you Sir!

Updates: Facts!

This one is going to be a regular one. 

1. 25% teams in Eureka finals (2 out of 8 teams in finals, one from Goa and another from Pilani)

2. The first book on verilog was written by a BITSian. (Mr. Yatin Trivedi, Director Industry Partnership Programs, Magma Design Automation, USA)

3. The two indians on the 50 topmost connected people on Linked in: BITSians. :)

4. Ipv6 standard developed at BITS-Pilani.

5. Only college in India to have not agreed to reservations based on caste! BITS only entertains reservations based on Merit!

6. The first online examinations in India: BITSAT.

7. The admission selectivity is around 2%.

8. The Entrepreneurship Cell, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is one of the Top-5 such cells in India.

9. Companies like Onida, Tanishq, Amkette found by BITSians (Full list will be up soon!).

10. ISB topper for this 2008: BITSian, Chitra Raghunath (http://www.isb.edu/gradday2008/ScholarsofExcellence.shtml)

More to come...

More about Goldman Sachs Leaders

To read more:

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=214

Goldman Sachs Foundation conducts the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program with the motive to train and develop tomorrows educators, policy makers, business leaders, research scientists, social entrepreneurs, and other professionals and to create an international network through which they can share ideas, work collaboratively, and begin to change the world, together. In this regard, the Institute of International Education (IIE), in partnership with educational organizations in selected countries, conducted an annual international competition at 100 top-ranked universities in about 19 countries. Initially, the foundation named 150 Goldman Sachs Global Leaders, Class of 2008 from the world. They were further interviewed for the next level to select a group of fiften (from 75 all over the world) to receive an all-expense-paid trip to represent the group at the Global Leadership Institute in New York City in July 2008.

Last two years

100 universities --- 1 BITS Pilani

300 winners      --- 10 from BITS

The universities are allowed to nominate maximum 10 students, i.e., an yield rate of 50%, if BITS nominated 10 each year! Wow!

Congratulations to Srikumar, Rachit, M Harsha Vardhan and Anantha Padmanabhan! :)

PS-II list out

233 companies registered for provinding internships (Practice School) to BITSians.

Surprise Entrants

----------------------

Dreamworks, USA. (Wow!)

Insead, Singapore (Finally Infineon, Singapore guys will have lots of company!)

Stipend has increased for a lot of companies with the highest in India being Rs. 30000 (by infinera) for BE and Rs. 35000 (by Cisco) for Higher Degree Students. The highest stipend outside India is by Insead, France - 1440 Euros followed closely by Cypress Semiconductors - 3000$. Dreamworks has yet not released the stipend amount (Which I guess will more than the others)

Way to go Mighty BITSians!

4 BITSians named Goldman Sachs Global Leaders 2008

Disclaimer: All the posts on this blog are meant to talk about BITS and not intended to offend any other college/university students. (You exactly know what I am talking about!) Please do not claim anything until you can give facts/news clips. Do not make comparisons between various colleges until they serve a higher purpose. The aim of this blog is to talk about achievements of BITS and BITSians and not to undermine others. Unless comparisons are fruitful to our discussion, they will be duly rewarded with a click on the delete button.

You can read the original article here:

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=203

Four students of BITS Pilani - Anantha Padmanabhan (2006B1A3338), M Harsha Vardhan (2006A7PS156), Srikumar Murthy (2006A3PS235) and Rachit Chandra (2006A7PS012) have been named as Goldman Sachs Global Leaders. The Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program identifies exceptional, second-year college students and provides them with training that will enhance their leadership abilities. Thee four students are among the 29 Global Leaders selected from top 10 universities of India and among the 150 students selected worldwide from close to 100 top universities and colleges. Each student will be awarded US$3,000, and given the title of Goldman Sachs Global Leader in the Regional Recognition Ceremony at Mumbai. In the next round, 15 of them shall be selected through personal interviews at Mumbai to represent India at the annual Global Leadership Institute in New York. During the week long stint at the Institute, students shall participate in leadership training and seminars on timely international issues. Last year, six students from BITS, Pilani won the Global Leader title taking the tally to 10 in two years. Goldman Sachs Foundation conducts the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program with the motive to train and develop tomorrows educators, policy makers, business leaders, research scientists, social entrepreneurs, AND other professionals AND TO CREATE an international network through which they can share ideas, WORK collaboratively, AND BEGIN TO change the world, together.

The top 10 universities which were shortlisted from India can be found here:

http://www.iie.org/programs/global_leaders/universities.htm

• Birla Institute of Technology and Science
• Fergusson College
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
• Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi
• Loyola College, Chennai
• Mt. Carmel College, Bangalore
• The National Law School of India University
• Nizam College
• Presidency College, Kolkata
• St. Stephen's College, Delhi
• St. Xavier's College

It is a proud moment for us all. Best of luck to these future leaders!

BITSAT: Selectivity of 1.71%, 2008-2009!

Disclaimer: All the posts on this blog are meant to talk about BITS and not intended to offend any other college/university students. (You exactly know what I am talking about!) Please do not claim anything until you can give facts/news clips. Do not make comparisons between various colleges until they serve a higher purpose. The aim of this blog is to talk about achievements of BITS and BITSians and not to undermine others. Unless comparisons are fruitful to our discussion, they will be duly rewarded with a click on the delete button.

You can read the original article here:

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=196

For the first time in India, in 2005,BITS Pilani introduced a computer based online admission test known as BITSAT (BITS Admission Test). BITSAT has been witnessing a phenomenal increase in the number of applications. BITSAT 2008 has received 1,16,980 applications for 2000 seats ( 800 in Pilani and 600 each in Goa and Hyderabad Campus). As compared to last year, the number of girl-applicants has increased by 4% and this year it is 32% (37460). Last year the test was conducted in 16 centres across India. To cater to the increase in number of applications BITS has announced three new centers ( making the total number of centers 19 )in Delhi , Bhubhaneswar and Nagpur. BITSAT2008 will be offered from 9th May to 12th June. Another significant change BITS has introduced this year is that it has allowed students with Physics Chemistry and Biology also for BITSAT-2008 and they are eligible for its M.Sc(Hons) Biologial Science and B.Pharm(Hons) programmes.

A selectivity percentage of 1.70969% in 2008-2009. Perhaps the best in Asia. The statistics on the other university(s) with best selectivity (IITs) are here: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Indian_Institute_of_Technology_Joint_Entrance_Examination?t=3.

(Their authenticity needs to be verified) according to which for 2006 their selectivity is close to 1.81%. (I am unable to include 2008-2009 data here, since I don't have access to it. Can someone help me here?) I have included IT-Bhu and ISM-Dhanbad because:

1. ISM and BHU have long been admitting students by JEE. They definitely deserve to be in the list.

2. Due to the more technical problem of all 300000 students giving JEE for all the IITs, ISM and BHU. If I count only 4078 seats for IITs, then the number 300000 should also be reduced to an appropriate number which I am unable to estimate correctly.

Here are the acceptance percentages for various US universities:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-02-collegerates_x.htm

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

19,690 2,054 10.4%

STANFORD UNIVERSITY 

19,172 2,486 13.0%

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

10,466 1,665 15.9%

DUKE UNIVERSITY

17,749 3,804 21.4%

I'd like to add that best selectivity does not mean the best input of students. Nevertheless, the input in BITS has always been one of the best in the country and that is proven by the amazing distinctions which BITSians have held over time.

Finally!

Ahh! It's two in the night, I have lots of work to do and have office tomorrow. But I have something sacred to do! I am writing this post! Why you ask?!

Well, I love BITS-Pilani and this has been the blog I've always wanted to write/compile! I am damn proud to be a BITSian (some people tell me that i'm infatuated with it!) and I just love it when I read news about BITS! I've always wanted to compile it all under one roof and this blog is an effort exactly to do that. And of-course as long as you are related to BITS, you are invited (read: urged!) to contribute. Just send a mail to akaash[dot]bits[at]gmail[dot]com and I will add you in the authors list.

The journey begins here...