Hello student,

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will offer about 500 seats to candidates from economically weaker sections this year, IIT officials familiar with the matter said.

In January, the Centre had announced 10% reservations in jobs and educational institutions to economically weaker sections (EWS) from the general category in a move that, it said, was done to provide social equality. The EWS quotas were done without disturbing the existing quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, it clarified.

In case of admission to central institutions, the 10% reservation for EWS entails an overall increase of around 25% seats to ensure the number of general category seats remains unchanged. Implementing the EWS quota can be staggered over two years.

According to the tech school officials, most of the 23 IITs will, on average, implement around 4% EWS quota this year.

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