HYDERABAD: GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)-2017 for admission to M.Tech seats in IITs, NITs and other engineering colleges across the country as well as for getting jobs in PSUs, is set to be held on February 4 and 5 followed by February 11 and 12. Nearly 8.5 lakh aspirants will be writing the test across the nation. Of them, nearly 80,000 are from the two Telugu speaking states.

The exam will be held in 195 cities and towns across India. From Telugu states the centres are in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam and Nalgonda. In AP, the centres are at Anantapur, Kurnool, Bhimavaram, Eluru, Kakinada, (Surampalem), Raj-ahmundry, Tadepalligu-dem, Vijayawada, Visakha-patnam, Vizianagaram, Bapatla, Chittoor, Gudur, Guntur, Kadapa, Nellore, Ongole and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh).

For the first time, the entrance test is being held abroad to give a chance to children of NRI families as well as foreigners to pursue M. Tech study in prestigious tech. institutions in India. The centres identified are Abu Dhabi/Dubai (UAE), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangla-desh), Kathmandu (Nepal) and Singapore. PSUs like ONGC, BHEL, HPCL, IOCL,  NTPC, GAIL, HAL, DRDO, Oil India and PowerGrid have announced their recruitment based on GATE-2017 scores, according to expert M.V. Reddy. Not only after higher studies, candidates have brighter jobs prospects this year, he said.

Meanwhile, Prof G.V.K. Reddy, HoD (Civil Engineering) in a city college, said that external factors like slump in IT recruitments and uncertain situation on higher study abroad had resulted in students to give more focus to GATE exam this year.  “Almost all final year students will be writing the exam this year. Even if Plan-A (abroad study) does not work out, they will be having a Plan-B in the form of GATE score (to study M. Tech or try for job in PSUs),” he said.