MUMBAI: IITs and NITs will go ahead with the joint seat allocation process for admissions this year. Around 80 IITs, NITs, IIITs and other centrally funded technical institutions, with over 32,000 seats countrywide, will be available on one menu for students to choose from. The ministry of human resources & development recently set up a joint seat allocation authority to regulate the common process. It will meet this weekend to finalize details of the process before releasing an official notification.Unlike individual processes followed by both sets of institutions for many years, all courses offered by these institutions will be available on the same online platform from this year. This is the second major move implemented by the ministry to bring together tech institutions in the country.Earlier, the Centre had worked towards holding a common entrance test for engineering institutions across the country, JEE (Main). It was later decided to have a two-level screening test for IITs.“A joint seat allocation process will save time for students and will ensure there are not many vacancies in premier institutions. Since the process does not allow any student to take more than one seat, there is no fear of students blocking seats,” said an IIT professor. IITs plan to stick to the earlier schedule they announced. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) will host the site for the online joint seat allocation process.The process this year will take into consideration multiple rank lists and it will be based on merit and choices filled by students. A student can choose as many options as possible from all 81 institutes. The process will be transparent. For example, the students can choose computer engineering at IIT-Bombay as the first choice, the second could be the same course at NIT-Surathkal, and the third could be electrical engineering at IIT-Delhi.The authority will comprise officials from IITs and NITs. A senior official from IIT-Bombay confirmed that the process will be implemented this year. “The notification will be out once details are discussed this weekend. Students will be notified on time. We want students to have a smooth experience,” the official said.But an IIT professor said the only drawback was the fact that CBSE takes into consideration class XII scores while preparing the rank list. “All boards will have to announce results on time. Problems may arise if students go in for revaluation and score revision. This process takes time and JEE (Main) ranks will increase or decrease on the basis of this. As we are taking into account multiple rank systems, it may have an impact on the process,” said the professor.IITs were initially apprehensive about the process from the coming academic year and had submitted their apprehensions to the Delhi high court, during the hearing of a PIL filed by an IIT-Kharagpur professor, seeking a common admission process for tech institutes.