New IIMs to release shortlist for PI-WAT on January 26

The six newer Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are expected to release the shortlist of candidates for the Personal Interview (PI) and Written Ability Test (WAT) on Sunday, January 26, 2014, as per a notification from IIM Tiruchirappalli. The list, which was originally meant to be released on Wednesday, January 22, 2014, could have been delayed due to alleged discrepancies in the Results of the Common Admission Test 2013 (CAT 2013), as per sources.

As per the IIM Tiruchirappalli notification, individual IIMs need to draw a shortlist on the basis of their own shortlisting criteria. IIM Tiruchirappalli will combine these shortlists for further processing. The names of candidates being called for interviews by IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode will be segregated from the combined list, after which the remaining candidates will be invited for a common PI and WAT.

The six new IIMs have already released an updated list of percentile cutoffs to shortlist candidates for PI and WAT. The new IIMs are expected to invite applications from 10,000 candidates to take part in the combined PI and WAT process termed “Common Admission Process” (CAP), as per officials of IIM Tiruchirappalli. Altogether, there are 800 seats available in the new IIMs. IIM Tiruchirappalli is expected to conduct CAP 2014 for the six newer IIMs of Kashipur, Tiruchirappalli, Udaipur, Rohtak, Raipur and Ranchi.

The Results of CAT 2013, which is one of the most prestigious examinations in India for admission into the IIMs as well as other premier management institutes, were declared on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. CAT 2013 was conducted from Wednesday, October 16 to Monday, November 11, 2013.

Around 3,000 test takers have submitted written complaints to the IIMs stating that there are discrepancies in the CAT 2013 Results. Re-evaluation of CAT examinations/results is not permitted. However, in the face of the multitude of complaints, which threaten to disrupt the admission process of management institutes that accept candidates based on their CAT scores, the IIMs are working with their test administration partner Prometric to address student grievances. This year, the IIMs had appointed the services of the government run agency - National Informatics Center (NIC) to ensure fairness in CAT Results. It is to be noted that last year the scores of 80 candidates of CAT 2012 were found to be tampered with, leading to score-inflation, as per a probe.