International Institute of Information and Technology at Gota Patna in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, April 28: International Institute of Information and Technology, Bhubaneswar, which got the status of a unitary university this year, has announced to reserve 50 per cent seats for students from the state from this academic session.

This decision to limit the reservation for Odisha students to 50 per cent was communicated by IIIT director Gopal Krushna Patnaik in a letter to the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination board.

The institute was earlier affiliated to Biju Patnaik University of Technolgy and all its 240 seats in various streams were opened to the students from the state.

Now that the IIIT has got recognition as a university, the institute will select candidates through its own examination. But for this academic session, it will draw candidates from the JEE-Mains entrance.

The communication from the institute mentioned that the 50 per cent quota would be applicable to the BTech course for the 2014-15 academic session and be extended to only those who have appeared at the JEE-Mains entrance, said Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Secretary Priyabrat Sahu.

From 2015 academic session, it will have its own qualifying examination and will hold its own counselling. It has asked the authorities not to include the institute in the list of colleges of the JEE.

IIIT director Gopal Krushna Patnaik told The Telegraph: “Such a provision has been made following the IIIT Act. Also, this is important when it comes to a national institute. Similar is the model of admission in all the other state government-promoted IIITs in Bangalore, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Patnaik said the details about the process of admission would shortly be available on the institute website.

At present, the institute has 240 seats available for BTech courses in computer science and engineering (60 seats), information technology (60), electronics and telecommunication (60) and electrical and electronic engineering (60).

IIIT, Bhubaneswar, is fully owned by the state government and controlled by the state information technology department.

The state government provides funds for the creation of infrastructure and the institute generates its own revenue.

The management of the institute is in the hands of a governing body consisting of representatives from the state government, leaders from the information technology industry and eminent academics.

At present, the chairman of the institute is the chief secretary of the government of Odisha.