In a relief to the passed out class 12 students of the country this year, the admission criteria for Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs, have been relaxed, announced the Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'.

Taking to Twitter, the HRD minister said, that apart from qualifying the Joint Entrance Examination, or JEE, Advanced, students will no longer need to score a minimum of 75% in their school board exams to be eligible. "Students qualifying only the JEE Advanced, irrespective of the marks they have secured in Class 12 board exams, will be eligible for admission to IITs", said the union minister.

Earlier, students who scored a minimum 75 percent marks in the Class 12 board exams or ranked in the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations were eligible. The decision was taken due to the cancellation of several board papers in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and students securing lesser marks, the Joint Admission Board, or JAB, has relaxed this criterion of 75 percent marks.