In an effort to improve the gender ratio in its B.Tech programme, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will add 779 more seats in the new academic session for women applicants. These seats will be in addition to the normal intake of candidates otherwise.

A decision in this regard was taken last year by the IIT Council but a final number of "supernumerary seats" have been announced now. The number of seats is likely to vary each year.

The quota will be increased every academic year from this year till the number of female students touches 20%.

Women make less than 10% of the student strength in the IITs at the moment.

According to the Indian Express report, out of the 779 seats, the largest chunk of 113 seats will go to IIT Kharagpur, followed by IIT-Dhanbad (95 seats), IIT-Kanpur (79), IIT-BHU (76), IIT-Roorkee (68), IIT-Delhi (59), IIT-Bombay (58) and IIT Guwahati (57).