New Delhi:

The presence of IIT Madras director on the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) governing body as an ex-officio member does not amount to conflict of interest, the exam body has told the Supreme Court. This comes against the backdrop of the Centre citing a report by IIT Madras director, Professor V Kamakoti, to stress that there was no malpractice in the conduct of the all-India exam for admission to MBBS courses.

Narendra Hooda, the counsel for the petitioner in the NEET UG case, had said the data analytics report was not reliable and alleged a conflict of interest because the IIT Madras director was a member of the NTA governing body.

Refuting this, NTA has said in a supplementary chargesheet that the director of an IIT that conducts the JEE (Advanced) exam for engineering aspirants is an ex-officio member of the NTA governing body and this year, IIT Madras conducted the exam. However, the core work of NTA is handled by its managing committee. The governing body, it said, only looks at policy matters.

The IIT Madras director, the NTA said, had nominated another professor to attend the governing body’s meetings. And this professor, too, had not attended any meeting since December last year. The IIT Madras director, it said, had not attended any meeting of NTA governing body since December 2022.

During a hearing into the case of alleged irregularities in NEET, which has sparked nationwide protests, the Centre told the Supreme Court that data analytics of results shows that the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination and there is no indication of an abnormality.

The Centre then said that according to the findings in the IIT Madras report, there is an overall increase in the marks students have got.

“This increase is seen across the cities and centres. This is attributed to 25 per cent reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice,” it said.

New Delhi:

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has praised the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras startup that is developing an electric flying taxi, saying that the institution has become one of the world’s most “exciting and active incubators”.

“A company is being incubated at IIT Madras to build a flying electric taxi by sometime next year,” Mahindra posted on X.

Thanking the institution, he further said that with the rapidly growing number of ambitious incubators throughout India, “we’re no longer seen as a country that lacks genuine innovators”.

“Audacious aspirations matter. Accept no limits,” Mr Mahindra wrote.

The eplane company.

A company being incubated at IIT Madras to build a flying electric taxi by sometime next year…

IIT Madras has become one of the WORLD’s most exciting and active incubators.

Thanks to them and the rapidly growing number of ambitious incubators throughout… pic.twitter.com/Ijb9Rd2MAH

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 10, 2024

Since being shared, his post has been viewed by more than 190K times. Several users also shared their thoughts in the comments.

“Exciting times, this is audacious thinking taking root. With our immense talent pool and a supportive environment, Indian innovators are truly taking flight,” a user wrote.

“India’s incubators are hatching the future, and IIT Madras is leading the charge with their electric flying taxi project. This is the kind of innovation that puts a country on the map and inspires the next generation of dreamers and doers,” another user said.

Earlier this week, IIT Madras said that it raised an all-time high amount of Rs 513 crore in funding from its alumni, industry and individual donors during the financial year 2023-24.

The institute also attracted total new pledges of Rs 717 crore from alumni and corporate partners during FY24.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)