Patna/Kanpur, May 30 : A Bihar boy, Shitikanth, has topped this year's Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) conducted for admissions to the country's premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Shitikanth, who hails from Patna, said: "I am really happy and celebrating my success as I never expected to top."

Surrounded by his family, relatives and friends, Shitikanth said he was expecting that his name may figure in the top ten. "It is all a result of hard work and positive surrounding, nothing else," Shitikanth told IANS.

He said his favourite subject is physics followed by mathematics. "I love to study physics all time. I have no problem in physics, more or less the same with maths," he said.

Shitikanth did his class 10 from St. Michael School in Patna. He joined Bansal Classes in Kota in Rajasthan to prepare for the IIT entrance exam.

Meanwhile, a statement released by IIT-Roorkee, which conducted this year's JEE exams, said N. Vasuki from Chennai zone, with an all-India rank of 14 topped the list of girl candidates. In all, 8,652 candidates passed the exams. This year 311,258 students appeared in what is considered as one of the most gruelling under-graduate entrance exam.

Raproolu Nikhil Simha, ranked 27, topped the other backward classes (OBC) category while Anandiya Jyoti Roy (rank 166) and Rohit Singwal (rank 429) were toppers of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.

Three of 182 candidates who appeared in the exams from Dubai, have also qualified.

About 840 out of 78,159 girls qualified, while of the 72,116 OBC students 1,134 passed.

Similarly, 690 SC and 159 ST candidates cleared the exam.

There are 6,872 seats in IITs at Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai, and Roorkee besides the six new IITs proposed by the central government in the eleventh plan.

The new locations are in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Admissions to the six new IITs would begin during the 2008-2009 academic session, the release said. Counselling for the admission would begin June 17 and continue till June 21.

(IANS)

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