23 students of GAIL Utkarsh programme make it to the IITs

Posted on June 24, 2013 by sagarmedia

Kanpur, 23 June, 2013: Under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of GAIL (India) Limited, 23 students of the GAIL Utkarsh-flagship programme at Kanpur have made it to various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Under this programme, 100 students belonging to the economically backward strata of the society were provided with a free residential coaching programme for the AIEEE/JEE entrance exams. The training and expert coaching was provided under the mentorship of Shri Abhyanand for 11 months. In the new pattern started by JEE Test, 81 students cleared the main exam of IIT JEE.
Earlier in the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) exam, 94 students from GAIL Utkarsh 100 had qualified in which 28 students had ranked in top 1000 merit list including 8th rank scored by Shakti Singh under this programme.
Most of the remaining students are expected to find a place in other competitive engineering examinations like NITs/ISAT/BITs, which are yet to be announced.
Most of these successful candidates hail from remote villages and small towns of Uttar Pradesh, some often from large family units, and at times even struggle to make ends meet. The parents / guardians of these students are employed mostly in the unorganised sectors and earn their livelihood from small and marginal agriculture, factory workers and petty business operators (small grocery shop owners). Six of these students have been placed among the top 1000 rank out of which 5 are amongst the first 600. This year, 17 students, who have cleared IIT/JEE advanced exam are from the socially backward communities.
GAIL Utkarsh Super 100 programme is a unique effort in many ways. It is conducted under the mentorship of Shri Abhyanand, and only students belonging to families with an annual income of less than Rs.1.25 lakh are eligible for a place in the programme through a written entrance test. Apart from this, it is possibly the only programme which has allocated 50 per cent of the available seats under its programme for SC/ST/OBC and physically handicapped students.
Under this flagship programme, GAIL, in association with Centre for Social Responsibility and Leadership (CSRL), pioneered the initiative of sponsoring under privileged students for IITs/ Engineering Entrance of National and State level institutions. Students were selected through written examinations conducted at Kanpur, Lucknow, Etawah, Allahabad, Agra and Gwalior Centres. More than 2500 students appeared at different centres last year in the examination for selection of this coveted GAIL Utkarsh 100.
GAIL had started this programme as part of its educational programme under the CSR umbrella in the year 2009-10. Last year 36 students were selected in JEE/IIT and 4 qualified for ISRO, 25 qualified for AIEEE and 29 for UPTU from the batch of GAIL Utkarsh Super 100.
GAIL allocates 2 per cent of its previous year’s profit after tax (PAT) for implementing useful programmes for welfare of underprivileged, socially/ economically deprived segments of society within its specified seven thrust areas such as environment protection/ Horticulture, Health Care and Medical Community Development, Education and Literacy Enhancement, Infrastructure Development, Community Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation.