Jaya Gupta, a final-year student of BTech in metallurgical engineering at National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology (NIFFT), Ranchi, has become the national topper in metallurgy in the prestigious Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2020.

Three of her friends at NIFFT, all girls, also cleared GATE with creditable all-India ranks. Sakshi Rimmi secured all-India rank 95, Kashish Sharma and Shivani Mavlankar 143 and 185, respectively, in metallurgy.

Clearing GATE is a mandatory requirement for seeking admission in and/or financial assistance for master's or direct doctoral programmes in engineering or technology.

IIT-Delhi was the organising institute on behalf of the national coordination committee-GATE and conducted the test for 25 papers early in February.

As many as 6,85,088 examinees appeared for GATE 2020, of which 18.8 per cent qualified.

Jaya got 83 out of 100 marks in metallurgy. The qualifying marks for the paper was 49.2.

The marks will be valid for three years.

Asked about her future plans, Jaya she would like to continue with her master’s programme at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

“But in the immediate future, I would prefer to do a good job for about two years before joining the master’s programme. I have already bagged a job through campus recruitment but may also consider joining another if I get anything better,” she said.

A native of Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Jaya did her schooling at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya there before joining the NIFFT in Ranchi. “I’ve had a great time here and the rank is the icing on the cake,” she smiled.