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| Anand Kumar |
Ranchi, June 3: Mathematician Anand Kumar and IPS officer Abhayanand of the Super-30 may have parted ways, but Pranav, Anand’s younger brother, wishes to bring a bit of the legacy to Jharkhand.
For the uninitiated, the Super-30 is an education and training programme for students who have the merit but not the money to get into the IITs. The programme began in the Ramanujan School of Mathematics, set up by the two — Anand, a mathematician who failed to pursue higher studies in the US due to financial constraints, and former Patna director-general of police and physicist Abhyanand —in 2003 at Patna.
The Jharkhand branch of the Super-30 will hold screening tests in the first week of July to select 30 eligible candidates who would be taken to Patna. Apart from the free classes, those who qualify will be given free lodging and food.
“From this year, we will have two more Super-30 batches — from Jharkhand and UP. They will receive the same attention as Bihar Super-30,” said Pranav, who looks after the managerial aspect of the programme.
The application forms will be available at United Bank of India (UBI) branches in Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Giridih and Ranchi. UBI will be selling the forms at a price of Rs 60 from June 4 for a week and the screening tests will be held at Ranchi and Dhanbad in the first week of July.
Classes for the Jharkhand Super-30 would start by the last week of July. Candidates will have to attend a nine-month course to crack IIT-2010. Though the test will be free for all, only meritorious students who come from economically weak backgrounds will be eligible for the course.
In 2003 when it all began, 18 of the first batch cracked the IIT. From then onwards, numbers grew. In 2004, 22 students were selected, in 2005 the number grew to 26, in 2006 and 2007, 28 students made it, but in 2008 the school scored a perfect 10 with all its 30 students getting through the IIT.
Explaining how the project is run, Pranav said that the money earned through coaching classes held at Ramanujan School of Mathematics is used to support the Super-30 students.
