New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee and the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) Bangalore, successfully conducted online Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2010 for two out of twenty-one papers for the first time yesterday.

Examinations in two subjects, namely Textile Engineering and Fiber Science (TF), and Mining Engineering (MN) were conducted using computers by these institutes.

About 1700 candidates were registered for these examinations, which were conducted simultaneously in eight cities over two shifts.

"This experiment was conducted in GATE 2010 this year for the first time and depending upon the experience, online examination might be repeated on a larger scale in subsequent years," said an official from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

The offline version of the exam in other 19 papers shall be conducted all over the country on February 14, 2010.

GATE is an all India examination administered and conducted jointly by IIS and seven IITs on behalf of the National Coordination Board - GATE, Department of Higher Education, MHRD.

Admission to postgraduate programmes with MHRD and some other government scholarship/ assistant ship in engineering colleges/ institutes is open to those who qualify through GATE.

GATE qualified candidates with Bachelor's degree in Engineering/ Technology/ Architecture or master's degree in any branch of Science/ Mathematics/ Statistics/ Computer Applications are eligible for admission to master's/ doctoral program in Engineering/ Technology/ Architecture as well as for doctoral programs in relevant branches of science with MHRD or other government scholarship.