NEW DELHI: In order to address the decline of women candidates at the premier engineering institutions of the country, the Indian Institutes of Technology have decided to admit more women from the 2018 academic session. The decision was taken at the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs on Saturday. "The supernumerary quota has been created to combat gender imbalance. The IIMs too witnessed a three-year low of gender diversity in 2016 despite ongoing efforts.The supernumerary quota will start at 14% from 2018. There has been a two percentage point dip in the number of girls who cleared JEE (Advanced) in 2016 as compared to 2015.

Source: Times of India April 15, 2017 21:07 UTC