2 AP boys among top 10 IIT rankers

Hyderabad, May 26: Students from the State put up a spectacular show in the Indian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) for which results were declared on Monday. The State bagged two of the top 10 all India ranks, with Gopi Shivkanth and M Pranay Kumar securing third and eighth ranks respectively.

Incidentally, Gopi Shivkanth from Visakhapatnam topped the IIT-Madras (South Zone) from which 6,42,426 appeared for the exam. Pranay Kumar, based in Hyderabad, was not available as he is busy taking part in the ongoing Chemistry Olympiad at Mumbai. This year too, corporate colleges reaffirmed their prime position in the field. Going by their claims, of the total 2,426 students, who qualified from the South Zone, around 1,850 are from the State.

Announcing the details of their students’ performance, Chairman, Narayana Group of Educational Institutions, P Narayana said: ‘‘We not only bagged two all India ranks in the top 10… more significantly, 70 per cent of the qualified candidates from the South Zone are from our institute.’’ He also said that in the OBC category, 12 out of the top 17 ranks were secured by the Narayana group. Sri Chaitanya Group secured around 36 ranks in all categories in the top 100.

Surprisingly, this year, students of the prestigious Chukka Ramaiah IIT coaching centre did not figure in the top 10. ‘‘Around 135 candidates out of the yearly intake of 150 qualified for the exam.

The top ranker from the institute is Pavan Bharadwaj who secured 72nd rank,’’ Ramaiah said. Even though marks were not announced along with the ranks, IIT-Madras officials revealed that the total marks secured by the top three rankers were the same but not identical. ‘‘We have given the ranking based on their performance in Mathematics, Physics and age factor,’’ an IIT-Madras official said.

Nitin Jain of IIT-Delhi zone bagged the top rank, while Shubaham Tulsiani of IIT-Bombay zone secured the second rank followed by Gopi Shivkanth. Gopi has also got Singapore Government’s A-Star scholarship to pursue his undergraduate studies in Singapore.

-Agencies