Saturday, May 31, 2008

Bihar students make it to IITs with help from maths wizard

PATNA: Famous as maths wizard Anand Kumar who once sold 'papad' on the streets to eke out a living is a happy man today with all the 30 aspirants of IIT-JEE from his coaching institute, Super 30, making it to premier IITs.

Kumar, who runs the coaching institute with Additional Director General of Police Abhayanand, set it up in 2003 for providing free coaching and boarding to students from economically weak backgrounds.

The number of students from the institute who made it to the IIT rose from 18 in 2003 to 22 in 2004, 26 in 2005, 28 each in 2006 and 2007 to 30 aspirants this year.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the students of Super 30 and also Sithikant, a student of St Michael's High School in Patna, who topped the All India Merit List for IIT-JEE this year.

"Bihar is rising and the renaissance has begun. Sithikant and students of Super 30, will inspire future aspirants," Kumar said in his message.

Anand's house at Kathpulwa on the outskirts of the state capital wore a festive look with parents of children who cracked the IIT JEE distributed sweets to everyone in the area.

ADGP Abhayanand who teaches physics at the institute told PTI, "We shortlisted some 30 students and coached them for the All India Engineer Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and all of them made to the IIT list. We will increase the number of AIEEE students from the next batch".

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