No single exam for AICTE

The committee submitted its report in August 2015 recommending a single entrance exam across the country so that students do not have to take multiple exams besides incurring heavy expenditure on coaching. After sitting for four months on the report, the Union human resource development ministry has decided not to go for a single entrance exam in the near future.

The previous UPA government had proposed a single entrance exam for engineering and medical admissions across the country when Mr Kapil Sibal was holding the HRD portfolio in 2009. However, it failed to take off as there was no political consensus among the different state governments.

TRS MP B. Vinod Kumar raised a question in Lok Sabha seeking clarification from the HRD as to whether the government had taken any steps to ensure transparency in all respects in conducting the proposed single engineering exam all over the country .

To this, HRD minister Smriti Irani gave a written reply on December 14 stating: "There is no proposal to have a single engineering exam all over the country."

However, she informed that the concept of "one exam-one rank-one counselling" for admissions into IITs, NITs, IIITs, IISERs, had been proposed by the committee, which was currently being considered by stakeholders. The minister said that the Council of IITs had constituted a committee of eminent persons to review the current JEE system for admission in IITs, which has inter alia made recommendations to reduce dependence on coaching institutions for writing entrance examinations.