2.5 lakh students appear in CAT 2008

NEW DELHI: Over 2.5 lakh students, including 50,000 from Delhi region, on Sunday appeared in the Common Admission Test (CAT), vying for around 1800 seats in the elite Indian Institutes of Management this year.

The test is being held in 230 centres in 23 cities across the country, including 60 in the National Capital Region.
"A total of 2.5 lakh forms have been shortlisted for CAT 2008. Last year, about 2.12 lakh candidates had appeared in the test," IIM-Ahmedabad spokesperson Ishita Solanki said.

Students qualifying the test will be eligible for admission into IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong. Besides, six new IIMs are expected to start functioning next year.

Apart from IIMs, several other premier business schools take students from the pool of successful candidates qualifying CAT.

This time around 40 colleges have decided to join the list of institutions taking students from CAT pool.

The IIMs have implemented OBC quota from this year and have increased their seats.