Coimbatore : Common Entrance Test (CET), 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 specific question whether NEET (National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test) will happen for engineering courses, Sahashrabudhe told reporters here that AICTE had thought of having a CET two years ago.

However, the states had different syllabus and many did not have a common curriculum, the efforts were put on the backburner, he said.

Once all the states adopt a common curriculum, CET could be considered for engineering courses also, he said.

On the general perception that engineering courses are losing sheen and becoming less lucrative, he said it was a wrong perception.

In fact engineering courses are becoming very versatile and sought after as many IAS officers have engineering background, he said.

To a question on reduction in engineering seats, Sahasrabudhe said that this was due to closure of nearly 90 colleges, where there was no admission of students for 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, here to attend the grand finale of Smart India Hackathon -Hardware edition, hosted by FORGE, a Start-up, said that hackathon is the largest open innovation program in the world aimed at ushering in a pan India movement to foster a culture of innovation and to empower students.

India which was at 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 the year 2017, with the participation of around 50,000 students and in 2018 we had a participation of around one lakh. This year, the magnitude has grown bigger with a participation of 2 lakh,” Sahasarabudhe said. .

Forge CEO & Co-founder, Vish Sahasranamam said that hackathon presented an opportunity to scale up 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 startup economy in India, Vish said.