Chennai, Jan 20 (Reporter) The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-Madras) has admitted five athletes with National accomplishments under its ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA) category for the academic year 2024-2025. This initiative is offered through two supernumerary seats in each of its undergraduate programs for Indian Nationals, of which one will be exclusively for female students. IIT-Madras is the first IIT in the country to introduce admissions for sportspersons in its UG programmes. This initiative is to recognize and reward talented students who have excelled in sports. This program encourages deserving students to pursue higher education while continuing to excel in their sports, a release from IIT-Madras said on Monday. Welcoming the five athletes to the Institute, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “The sports excellence admission is an initiative of IIT Madras primarily to send the important message that young children must be encouraged to play during their childhood. I sincerely hope this reaches to all concerned.” The five athletes are Arohi Bhave, (Volleyball Player) from Maharashtra-Admitted into BS (Medical Sciences and Engineering); Aryaman Mandal (Water Polo and Swimming) from West Bengal-Admitted into B. Tech (Computer Science and Engineering); Nandini Jain (Squash Player) from Delhi-Admitted into B. Tech (Computer Science and Engineering); Prabhav Gupta, (Table Tennis Player) from Delhi-Admitted into B. Tech (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science) and Vangala Vedavachan Reddy (Lawn Tennis Player) from Andhra Pradesh - Admitted into B. Tech (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science)...////...