CET could be considered if all states get same syllabus: AICTE

Coimbatore, July 09: A common entrance test (CET) for admission in engineering courses like NEET in the medical field could be considered once there is a common curriculum in all the states, AICTE chairman Anil Sahashrabuddhe said Tuesday.

Replying to a question whether NEET (National Eligibity-cum Entrance Test) would apply for engineering courses, he told reporters here the AICTE had thought of having the CET two years ago.

But, the states had different syllabus and many did not have a common curriculum, so efforts were put on the back-burner, he said. When brought to his notice on the perception that engineering courses were losing sheen and becoming less lucrative, the official said it was a wrong perception and added that courses were not losing the sheen.

In fact, he said, engineering courses were becoming versatile and sought after as many IAS officers have a background in engineering, he said. To a question on the drop in seats for engineering, Sahasrabudhe said it was due to closure of nearly 90 colleges where there has been no admission of students in the last three years. This was more because of well-informed parents and guardians of the students than the intervention of AICTE, he noted. In 2015-16, there were 16.50 lakh seats which had come down to 14 lakh at present, he said.

Sahasrabudhe, who was here to attend the grand finale of Smart India Hackathon-Hardware edition hosted by FORGE, a start-up, said the hackathon is the largest open innovation programme in the world aimed at ushering in a pan-India movement to foster innovation and empower students. India which was at the 81st position in the innovation index has climbed up to the 57th position after the third consecutive year of Smart India Hackathon which is growing each year in terms of participation and solutions.

''We started in 2017, with the participation of around 50,000 students and we had a participation of around one lakh in the following year. This year, the magnitude has grown with a participation of two lakh,'' Sahasarabudhe said.

Forge CEO & co-founder Vish Sahasranamam said the hackathon presented an opportunity to scale up the much-needed hardware innovation efforts, exploiting the low-cost innovation capacity in higher technical education, whilst also achieving the goals of 'Skill India'. In serving as the open innovation platform, it connects budding young innovators directly with the industry, to catalyse industrial innovation, which is most essential to further boost the growth of the innovation and start-up economy in India, Vish said.