GETTING INTO an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will be more difficult this year than it was in 2008, even though two new ones will come up by July This yeal: 49 students will com- pete for one seat, up from the 44 that did so last year Last year, 3.11 lakh stu- dents took IIT's joint en- trance exam for one of 6,992 seats, while this year more than 3.9 lakh (a rise of 25 per cent) will vie for approxi- mately 7,900 seats (a rise of 13 per cent). The exam will be held on April l2. "Many more students in the Other Backward Class category may be taking the test this year because the seats reserved for them will increase," said Gautam Barua, IIT-Guwahati direc- tor, who provided the data. All IITs must eventually reserve 27 per cent of their seats for this group. The six new IITs that began last year implemented the quo- ta all at once. Two more new IITs coming up in Indore and Himachal Pradesh this year will also do so. The seven older IITs, which are implementing the quota over three years, will increase the quota for this group to 18 per cent this year from 9 per cent last year So overall, the number of seats available for this group will increase. "A large number of students want quality edu- cation," said Surendra Prasad, director of IIT-Del- hi, explaining the rush. "Perhaps they perceive that quality education is available in the IITs." snehal.rebello@hindustantimes.com