Record 14 Lakh candidates to take for JEE 2013

The Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE) - main, formerly known as the All India Engineering Entrance Examination, had registered a record 14 lakh candidates for the 2013 exams up by an unprecedented 2.8 lakh.

JEE (main) is conducted for candidates aspiring for admissions to B.E, B.Tech and architecture courses at National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), Delhi Technological University, and other centrally funded technical institutes (CFTIs).

While AIEEE and IIT-JEE were separate exams till 2012, based on direction from the ministry of human resource development and following consultation it was decided that from now on admissions to engineering and architecture courses will be based on JEE (main) and (advanced). JEE (advanced) will replace IIT-JEE and will be conducted by the IITs and only the top 1.5 candidates of JEE (main) merit list will be eligible to sit for the JEE (advanced).

According to CBSE officials, one of the reasons for the significant increase in the number of candidates could be the new scheme of things. According to the JEE Apex Board decision the merit list for admission to NITs, IIITs, DTU, Delhi and other CFTIs will be prepared by giving 40% weightage (suitably normalised) to class XII (or equivalent examination) or other qualifying examination marks and 60% to the performance in JEE (main) examination.