IIT Bombay : Choice or Craze

I recently read an article on the choices of this year's JEE qualified candidates. And the break-up of top 100 was startling. 69 of top 100 rankers have opted for IIT Bombay. This is a highly skewed distribution of top 100, considering the fact that there are at least 4 other IITs which are comparable to IIT Bombay. I thought of some plausible explanation for this phenomenon.

One factor is the number of selections from Kota. One of my friends told me that the coaching classes there paint a rosy picture of IITB and IITD at the expense of IITK and IITKGP. This time however, even Delhi has witnessed decline. May be that has something to do with placement performance of IITD in last two years.

Other factor of course is location. Candidates prefer cities like Mumbai and New Delhi to Kanpur. IITM takes a beating here because it is in South India. Most of selections from South India are from Andhra and students from that state are in considerable number even in IITK, so I suppose the number would be even more in IITB.

The third factor is the placement record. Clearly the placements are best in IITB.

That is what I could think of right now as reasons for this skewed distribution. However, JEE chairman of IITB offered the reason to be introduction of "minors". Minors were already in existence in Kgp and IITM and still Kgp could not get a single student in top 100. In my opinion this trend is very bad for other IITs. Each IIT has its own fort. Like CS department of IITK is best and same is the perception about Chemical of IITB. Civil is best in Roorkee. So anyone must consider his interest before deciding on any IIT and not the craze which these coaching wallahs create without having any experience of either industry or research.

P.S. : These are my own views expressed on the basis of perception and information from some of my fellow students. If you feel these are not correct feel free to drop a comment.

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The cricket related posts have been moved here.

Twenty20 World Cup final

So, it is Pakistan vs Sri Lanka in the finals of the Twenty20 World Cup. I never thought Sri Lanka will make it to the final perhaps influenced by poor performance of Mendis in the IPL and under estimat8ng Dilshan's performance in the same tournament. Due to really poor display by India, Australia and New Zealand my predictions for this cup have gone awry. However, not many would have predicted Pakistan in finals and I chose them as my favorites in the tournament. So, all is not lost in my predictions and that gives me inclination to predict in future tornaments.

Coming to the final. If there is any player who can nullify the threat posed by Murali & Mendis, it is Younis Khan. Along with Misbah he can score runs at a decent pace against these two. However, Pakistan's best chance rests with dismissing Dilshan cheaply. He has been mainstay of Lankan batting. The Lankans rely heavily on him, Sanath, Sanga and Jayawerdene in their batting. It will be an interesting final as we witness yet another South Asian title clash. Congrats to Pakistan for making it to both the finals.

IPL and EPL

So the dreaded thing has happened. With all the hype and glitterati of the IPL, very few of us would have thought India will not reach semi finals. But then the only test playing nation Indians have defeated is Bangladesh. Yes, they are still better than 2007  World Cup squad. But they lost to West Indies (without a significant contribution from Gayle) and England. England is the same team which was branded "chokers", a group of snobbish players and a team lacking talent after their loss against Netherland. Now the same team whose players play insipid county cricket "bounced" us out of the tournament as the Cricinfo reports. At the beginning of this tournament i had no hopes from England but they have left Indian team in hopeless situation.

With all the glitz and glamour of the IPL Mr. Modi and co. wanted us to realise what good the IPL has done to India. May be the IPL has made life easier for an ordinary domestic cricketer but scheduling it so close to an ICC event was bound to leave players jaded. Remember all these Indian players were subjected to intense pressure in their respective teams for about 40 days. A bit of pressure is good but to have 14 twenty20 games within a span of 40 days is just too much. I never thought anyone in India will celebrate dismissal of Tendulkar by Warne. But commercialism did that too. Team bonding? What is that man? Now they want 2 IPLs a year and add to it the Champions League. Where is the time for test cricket or for that matter any form of international cricket?

India is fast turning into England of World Soccer. All hype and no value.

Future of Symonds

So Mr. Symonds has done it again. Just when everyone was debating his omission from Ashes squad, he made it clear what could have been on Aussie selectors' mind. After a sterling performance in the recently concluded IPL, both with the bat and the ball, his fans were expecting similar exploits in Twenty20 world cup. Today Cricinfo reports that Symonds' retirement seems imminent. It would be a huge loss for International Cricket if this happens. I am not a fan of Symonds in longest version of the game but for limited versions he is right there at the top. Australia will surely miss his services as an all-rounder. With Symonds gone Aussies only have two Davids (Warner and Hussey) as destructive hard-hitters. However, Australians give utmost importance to discipline and the way they played after loss of Warne in 2003 World Cup is enough proof to believe they will be a dangerous opposition to contend with.