"It was a joint decision taken by the IIMs in view of the difficulty in handling the increasing number of applicants. We wanted to introduce the screening at the CAT level itself," IIM Bangalore director Prof G Prakash Apte told PTI.
This was done so that students getting less than 50 per cent in their Bachelor's exam do not take the CAT "ruling out their taking the IIM entrance exam," Apte said.
"We were finding it very difficult to handle increasing number of applicants for the IIM entrance so we arrived at a common consensus of fixing a minimum percentage for CAT," he said.
Last year, 1.6 lakh students took the CAT, he said. The decision to fix the minimum eligibility for CAT at 50 per cent was taken at a meeting of directors of all IIMs at Ahmedabad earlier this month, Apte added.