DC Edit | Hail the IIT champs with greater respect

The entire nation would have erupted with joy if India had won the Asia Cup. India celebrates medals of sportspersons across disciplines from a victory in badminton to a medal in javelin throw with fervour across the country.

Their victory is our own, the win belongs to a nation of over a billion people — we hail them, own them, celebrate them and look forward to their greater, stronger, higher, faster achievements ahead.

But one of the toughest exams, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) (Advanced) is one of the most excruciating tests in science at the under-graduate entrance level.

These exams, held nation-wide last month, had a total of 1,55,538 candidates appearing in both papers, out of which 40,712 qualified for JEE (Advanced) 2022, out of which, 6,516 are female students.

R.K. Shishir (IIT Bombay zone) was the top ranker in the Common Rank List (CRL) in JEE, obtaining 314 marks out of 360 marks, split into two different sets of papers of 180 marks each. Ms Tanishka Kabra (IIT Delhi zone) is the top ranker in the female students’ category, who obtained 277 marks out of 360.

These marks they scored are no less than the statistics of batting of Virat Kohli or the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah that the nation and its sports lovers passionately store in their memory. Shishir and Tanishka are equally significant national heroes, and icons, and role models for the younger students across the country. These 40,712 students who try to grab the 16,232 seats spread across 23 IITs across India. They have a long journey ahead, with this high of success only a milestone, in a bright future ahead. Across India, poor and middle classes have a dream, wherein their next generation will achieve greater success than them, and reach greater heights. Parents of little to no means make huge sacrifices to educate their children and push them hard to achieve academic excellence.

Children, as soon as they become teenagers, go through an extraordinary routine of grind and effort to be even perceived as a serious potential contender to appear for the IITs entrance exam. Those who make it are the best of the best, not just in India, but increasingly recognised as amongst the best in the world.

These bright youngsters will be sought after, especially those from the top five IITs, by the best organisations in the world and they can write a ticket to any opportunity they aspire for or dream of. It is another issue that India may have produced them but won’t have opportunities they would consider worthwhile to choose to work or research in the country.

But it also leaves many, many others out. Those who won’t make it to the IITs, and would perhaps feel a scar, a burnout. Most would go on to achieve great success in engineering in other institutes, several in other walks of life. Few would take a longer while to recover the ordeal.

The celebrations for the success of these young champions should not be restricted to them, their parents and families, teachers and educational institutions, and friends. The whole of India must hail them; after all, they will change our world tomorrow.