Another feather in Indian cap "Bihar's Super 30 in Time Magazine best list"

 Bihar's free coaching centre popularly known as Super 30, which helps economically backward students crack the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), has been selected by The Time Magazine in the list of The Best of Asia 2010.

Last year, 30 of 5,000 students who grabed IITs seat came from one coaching centre in Patna, a pass rate of 100 percent for the institute run by a dedicated director Anand Kumar. What makes that feat even more remarkable is that these students are the poorest of the poor, who would otherwise never be able to afford full-time coaching.

Kumar, who himself missed a chance to study at Cambridge because he didn't have enough money, gives full scholarships, including room and travel, to every batch of 30 students. They pass a competitive test to get into Super 30, and then commit themselves to a year of 16-hour study each day. Since 2003, 182 of a total 210 students have made it to one of the IITs.

"The project has even won the notice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who met Kumar in February to hear his plan to launch a national programme for talented rural children. In a country that has struggled to offer those students even basic education, Super 30 is an example of what's possible when human potential is tapped," the magazine sourse added.

The institute was started by Kumar along with Bihar's Additional Director-General of Police Abhayanand in 2002 in Patna. But two years ago, Abhayanand dissociated himself from the institute.