Patna: Suryakant Das from Khurda in Odisha was crestfallen last year when he failed to clear the Joint Entrance Exam. His father, a low-level employee in a private college, did not have the money to enrol him with private coaching classes for the IIT exams. Then Suryakant got to know about mathematician Anand Kumar's Super 30 initiative that trains under-privileged students to crack the IIT exams. And on Sunday, when the JEE Advanced results were decaled, Suryakant was beaming.

He had cleared the exam and secured 5682 rank - all thanks to Anand's initiative that not only provides free coaching, but also free food and lodging at his house at Mithapur in Patna.

"In April last year, I appeared for Anand Kumar Super 30 coaching entrance test at Bhubaneswar. I cleared it, and from there my life changed," said Suryakant, who scored 85.5 per cent in his Class XII board exam from Adyant Plus Two Science College in Khurda last year.

Suryakant is among the 26 students of Anand's Super 30 who cleared the JEE Advanced this year.

Suraj Kumar, son of a marginal farmer from Giridih in Jharkhand, is also among this year's "super 26". Suraj has secured rank 10200, while his category (OBC) rank is 1900.

"Whatever I have achieved is because of Anand Sir. Super 30 is just like a family as all the students studying here come from the same kind of economic background," said Suraj, who cleared his Class XII from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Giridih with 88.4 per cent.

Suraj added: "When I told my father this morning that I had qualified for IIT, he kept saying ITI. He did not even know what I was preparing for!"

Anand said he was happy with his students' performance.

"From next year I have decided to expand Super 30, and 90 students will be taught," he added.

A total of 422 students out of 480 from Super 30 have qualified in the IIT-JEE since the inception of the coaching class in 2002.