IIT Madras hands over admission cards to students enrolled under ‘Anaivarukkum IITM’ programme – The Hindu

A total of 87 students from more than 20 districts in Tamil Nadu have received admissions for the BS Degree in Data Science and Applications, a four-year course that was first introduced by IIT Madras in 2021 with the aim of making the Institute’s quality education accessible to all. This is being done under an initiative called ‘Anaivarukkum IITM’ (IIT Madras for everyone).

Around forty-five of these students from government and corporation schools received their admission letters from Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on November 5, 2022, at an event that was held at the IIT Madras campus.

After handing over the admission letters, the Minister said, “This aligns with the State government’s initiative to make education in premier institutions accessible to government school students and I appreciate IIT Madras BS Degree Program’s collaboration in making this effort possible. We look forward to taking this to its next level as you introduce new programs,” he said.

“The ‘Anaivarukkum IITM’ initiative aims to increase the number of government school students who are enrolled in our BS program. We aim to grow this further and make quality education accessible to all, regardless of their socio-economic status.” said Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras.

IIT Madras provides income-based scholarships of up to 75% for students pursuing the BS Degree. In addition, students who qualified through a collaborative effort with Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing Development Corporation (TAHDCO) will receive full financial support from the Government of Tamil Nadu.

M.Manikandan from Tiruvannamalai who is currently pursuing Manufacturing Engineering at Anna University, said, “I’m a model school student and I took up this course because it would help me with my placements when I’m finishing college. This is an online course and the videos are pre-recorded and we can study during our free time,” he said.

IIT Madras, in a statement, mentioned that Data Science enables students to manage data, visualize patterns to gain managerial insights, model uncertainties, and build models that assist in producing forecasts to make effective business decisions. Through extensive hands-on training and experiential learning, the students are also well-trained to meet industry standards.

The course is a platform to create skilled and employable professionals in a data-driven world. “The IIT Madras team is confident that this inclusive and affordable education model will extend IITs’ reach by orders of magnitude and address the pressing need of the learners to get access to high-quality education,” said Vignesh Muthuvijayan, faculty-in-charge, BS Program at IIT Madras.

So far, more than 15,000 students are enrolled in the program, with the maximum number of students from Tamil Nadu, followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.