Hyderabad: Coming from an economically poor background, Lakumarapu Nikhil Kumar bagged the all India 14th rank in the IIT-JEE, Advanced, the results of which were released on Thursday.
Mr Kumar’s father, Lakumarapu Pandu, is a mechanic-cum-retailer in LB Nagar and hails from Madugula in Mahbubnagar district. Mr Kumar wants to join the computer science engineering stream in IIT Bombay and set up a tech firm in Telangana.
Mr Kumar’s teachers at the Narayana Sri Chaitanya IIT Academy said they had expected him to bag the first rank in the IIT-JEE Advanced, considering how bright he is. He scored 340 out of 360 in the exam.
Read: IIT–JEE results announced, Rajasthan's Chitraang Murdia topper
A. Krishna Kumar, director, Narayana Sri Chaitanya IIT Academy, said that they had genuinely believed he would bag the first rank. “He is real gem.
He comes from a poor background. We thought he would get the 1st rank, but in objective exams, how you perform on that day matters,” he said.
Mr Kumar had also bagged the 3rd rank in this year’s Eamcet and a silver medal in the International astronomy Olympiad in Iran.
Mr Pandu said his son’s goal was always the top rank and he never deviated from it. “He is a hardworking and disciplined child. I am happy with the result, but he is a little disappointed,” he said.
Until the Class VIII, Mr Kumar did not know about IITs. “We come from a small village in Mahbubnagar district. He was in Dilsukhnagar in Class VIII and then seeing his performance, they shifted him to Nallakunta and have been grooming him since,” his father said.
Read: Scaling new heights: Telugu students top JEE
Mr Kumar, meanwhile, said that he doesn’t know why he made some of the mistakes that he did in the objective type exam. “I made some mistakes which I wouldn’t normally have made. It just happened. Now, even if I ask God about it, I won’t get an answer,” he said.
Mr Kumar wants to set up a tech firm in Telangana to help his state prosper. “I want to take up computer science in IIT Bombay. I am sure I will get the seat I want. And then I want to set up a software technology firm in Telangana.”
Result Day
Out of 19,000 students who qualified across the country, 4,600 are Telugu students from both the states.
Hyderabad students bagged four of the top-10 ranks. Telugu students swept all the top ranks from 11 to 20, barring 13 and 19.
Read: Telugus sweep top ranks in IIT
Congrats to all those who successfully cleared IIT-JEE. My best wishes with the youngsters as they enter a new phase of their lives.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 19, 2014
