The Joint Admission Board (JAB) has issued a proposal to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for scraping the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains for foreign nationals who want to secure a seat at India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

A JAB official said, “Candidates who are not OCI or PIO (Overseas Citizenship of India Person of Indian Origin) will directly take JEE Advanced. Though the Ministry is yet to approve the proposal.”

JAB is concerned about the logistics that will be required to conduct JEE Mains abroad rather than the difference in syllabus or any other restrain for that matter. The official continued, “The syllabus is not a constraint; even for foreign nationals, it is class 12 syllabus which is at par with CBSE. But conducting Mains is not an easy process. We are doing several surveys to figure out the feasibility of conducting Mains abroad.”

Seats allotted to foreign candidates is Supernumerary, hence none of the Indian nationals will be affected with MHRD’s decision. But another issue that JAB will have to ponder about is how they will allocate seats to foreign nationals at the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other government funded institutions if they don’t take Mains.

“The IIT council Ministry has not taken any final call, but MHRD is considering the proposal and will probably come to a decision in the next meeting which is scheduled for September,” added the official.

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