KOLKATA: The IITs’ attempt to don a more global look has not taken off the way the country’s premier technology institutes would have liked it to.In a first, the IIT-JEE (Advanced) is being conducted in five international centres apart from Dubai, which was the only off-shore venue till last year. Even though 1,100 seats have been earmarked for overseas candidates, just 222 from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Ethiopia and Dubai will take the entrance exam on Sunday.The move follows a decision to reserve 10% supernumerary seats for foreign students . At present, the 23 IITs, including ISM-Dhanbad, have around 11,000 seats. The foreign candidates are not required to appear in JEE (Main), the qualifying test for candidates from the country. The cut-off marks to bag a seat in the IITs though will be the same for both categories.According to IIT-Bombay director Devang Khakhar, the institutes need to penetrate better among schools abroad to draw more candidates. “We haven’t done enough publicity and students also need to get better prepared to appear in the IIT-JEE (Advanced). This was our first attempt to reach out to the foreign shores. That we have been able to garner attention and hold the exam is an achievement in itself. This is just the beginning,” Khakhar said .According to sources, only one team from the IITs had visited all the six countries in an attempt to attract candidates. It was done just a few months ago, barely allowing enough time for candidates to decide on taking the exam.“More attention needs to be devoted to organizing the exam overseas. Since these candidates are not required to appear in JEE (Main), the registration process could have started earlier. Even a year-round registration system can be put in place,” said an IIT official. The official argued that the system of each IIT taking turns to conduct the exam in one of the foreign locations every year may not be a good option. “Each IIT should be responsible for conducting the exam in one particular off-shore centre every year. This will it to formulate policies to increase the number of takers,” he said.In the first ever exam to be held at the six foreign locales, 153 candidates have registered from Dubai followed by 33 students from Kathmandu, 13 students from Dhaka, 12 candidates from Singapore, 9 students from Colombo and only 2 candidates from Addis Ababa.A senior IIT official, however, applauded the attempt to hold the exam overseas. “Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is taken by senior students holding a graduation degree or some with work experience. Much like the IIT –JEE (advanced) exam, GATE, too was held in the six countries for the first time. Yet, there were not too many takers for the exam. Only 254 applicants had registered out of which 220 took the test. Our exam has got 222 registered candidates. With fresh students appearing in the IIT-JEE (Advanced) we have not fared too badly,” he said. "There was clear instruction from the HRD ministry that even if there was one candidate from any country we would have to hold the test there,” he added.This year, 20,000 more candidates have been eligible to write the exam after clearing JEE (Main), thus taking the total number to 2,20,000 in IIT-JEE (Advanced).