The process of admission to C-DAC's PG Diploma courses begins with online registration.  Candidates are advised to read the instructions carefully while filling the online registration and application forms. Upon registering, candidates will get their Form Number that can be used to log in, fill and complete the C-CAT application form.

Admissions to all Post Graduate Diploma courses of C-DAC are done through C-DAC's computerized Common Admission Test (C-CAT).

Every year, C-CAT is conducted in December / January (for February / March admissions) and June / July (for August / September admissions).

Candidates who qualify the upcoming C-CAT scheduled on July 30 / 31, 2022 will only be considered for admission to C-DAC’s Post Graduate Diploma courses of September 2022 batch on the basis of their C-CAT ranks and can further participate in counseling rounds.

C-DAC's Post Graduate Diploma courses are full-time courses of 900 hours (approx 26 weeks). The list of PG Diploma courses being offered in September 2022 along with their eligibility criteria and fees is given in Table 1.

Mode of Delivery of PG Diploma Courses in the September 2022 Batch

- PG-DAC, PG-DBDA and PG-DAI will be delivered in fully ONLINE OR fully PHYSICAL mode depending on the centre offering these courses.

- PG-DESD, PG-DITISS, PG-DMC, PG-DIoT, PG-DVLSI, PG-DASSD and PG-DHPCSA will be delivered in fully PHYSICAL mode at all the training centres offering these courses.

- PG-DRAT, PG-DGi, PG-DFBD and PG-DCSF will be delivered in fully ONLINE mode at all the training centres offering these courses.

For online courses, students are required to have laptops/PCs with high-speed uninterrupted internet connection, webcam and microphone to effectively participate in the course from their homes or personal places. It is not advisable to join the online classes from mobile phones.

Common Eligibility Criteria for all the PG Diploma Courses of C-DAC

- Graduate in Engineering (10+2+4 or 10+3+3 years) in IT / Computer Science / Electronics / Telecommunications / Electrical / Instrumentation.

OR

- MSc/MS (10+2+3+2 years) in Computer Science, IT, Electronics.

In addition to the common eligibility criteria given above, candidates with the course-specific qualifications mentioned in Table 1 are ALSO ELIGIBLE for the particular courses. Minimum percentage of marks required in the qualifying examination is also stated in Table 1. The minimum percentage of marks will be considered as per the norms of the university from where the candidate has graduated.

Table 1: C-DAC's PG Diploma courses and their eligibility criteria.

For online courses, laptop/PC configuration, and hardware, software and network specifications required for the online classes are given in Section 18 of this Admission Booklet.

There is no age restriction for admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses. Candidates who have appeared for the final examination of their qualifying degree in 2022 will also be considered for admission to the above courses. By qualifying in C-DAC's admission tests of July 2022, such university result-awaiting candidates can apply for provisional admission in September 2022 batch, subject to the condition that:

(a)        All parts of their qualifying degree examination shall be completed by the date of joining the course, and

(b)        Proof of having passed the qualifying degree with at least the required minimum marks shall be submitted at C-DAC by 31 December 2022.

Important Notes:

(i)         Candidates should ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria of the courses for which they     are applying. It shall be incumbent upon candidates to prove they meet the prescribed eligibility criteria at the time of taking admission at allocated centre. Issuance of Admit Card and/or C-CAT rank does not automatically entitle a candidate to admission. In case a candidate is found to be non-eligible during any stage of the admission process or course delivery, his/her admission will be cancelled with immediate effect.

C-CAT Test Papers

C-CAT has three sections (Section A, Section B, Section C) of one hour duration each. As shown in Table 5, depending on the category of courses selected by the candidate, he/she will have to either appear for just one test paper (Section A) or two test papers (Section A and Section B) or all the three test papers (Section A, Section B and Section C). The medium of C-CAT is English.

Table 5: Categories of PG Diploma courses and the corresponding test paper(s) in C-CAT.

C-CAT Syllabus

The C-CAT examination has three sections A, B & C and the C-CAT syllabus or topics and the duration of the each section is provided in table below:

Table : Indicative syllabus of the different sections of test papers in C-CAT.

Every section in C-CAT will have 50 objective-type questions. Each question will have four choices as possible answers of which only one will be correct. There will be +3 (plus three) marks for each correct answer, -1 (minus one) for each wrong answer, and 0 (zero) marks for each un-attempted question. The maximum mark a candidate can obtain in any one section of C-CAT is 150.

The list of reference books for the various topics of C-CAT is given in Table . Candidates are, however, advised to read more books than the ones specified in this table.

Table: Reference books for the various topics in C-CAT.

 C-CAT Fee

C-CAT fee structure is given in Table 9. Candidates may note that the C-CAT fee once paid is not refundable.

Table 9: Category-wise C-CAT fee (inclusive of GST).

After filling the online C-CAT application form, the examination fee must be paid online. It can be paid using credit/debit cards through the payment gateway that will be opened upon clicking the 'Online' option of the 'Make Payment' step on the main menu of the application. Candidates are advised to follow the instructions/steps given on the payment gateway, and also print/save the transaction details for their records.

On receiving the examination fee at C-DAC, the ‘Make Payment’ step on the main menu of the online application will be tick-marked, and the status of payment will be updated on the ‘Status Check’ menu. The pdf application form obtained by clicking the ‘View/Print Application Form’ on the main menu will now have the transaction details of the payment made. Candidates facing any issues during online payment may contact C-DAC ACTS Pune through phone (020-25503143) or email (actssupport@cdac.in).

C-CAT Admit Cards

Candidates can download their admit cards from C-DAC’s website during the dates mentioned under Important Dates. The venue, date and time of C-CAT will be communicated to the candidates on the admit cards. Instructions for appearing C-CAT will also be given on the admit card. Candidates must appear for C-CAT on the date and time at the venue specified on the admit card. The examination fee will not be refunded to candidates who are absent or coming late for C-CAT.

No candidate will be permitted to appear for C-CAT without a valid admit card. The admit card along with a photo identity proof must be presented to the C-CAT officials/invigilators for verification at the time of the test.

C-CAT Ranking

Candidates will be provided ranks based on their performances in Section A, Sections A+B, Sections A+B+C of C-CAT. If a candidate appears for multiple sections and qualifies in them, he/she will be provided multiple ranks. For example, if a candidate appears for Sections A and B by choosing Category II in the application form, he/she will be provided two ranks: (i) based on the performance in Section A, and (ii) based on the performance in Sections A+B.

Candidates with the lowest 10% performances in any of the sections (A or B or C) of C-CAT will not be qualified for ranking in that particular section and its higher sections. Even after the removal of the lowest 10% performers as stated above, if there exist candidates in any section with zero or less than zero marks, then these candidates will also not be qualified for ranking.

All qualified candidates will be awarded Category I ranks based on their performance in Section A. Qualified candidates who have selected Category II in the C-CAT application form will be awarded Category I and II ranks based on their performances in Sections A and A+B. Qualified candidates who have selected Category III will obtain Category I, II and III ranks based on their performances in Sections A, A+B and A+B+C.

Tie-Breaker Rule: If two or more candidates have acquired the same marks in Section A or Sections A+B or Sections A+B+C, then the candidate having more marks in Section A will be given the higher rank. If these candidates have the same marks in Section A also, then the candidate having higher value in the ratio of ‘number of correct answers / number of attempted questions’ in the specific section required only for that category of courses will be given the higher rank. Candidates who have the same value of this ratio, and having the same total as well as Section-A marks will be given the same C-CAT rank.

Admissions to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses at various training centres will be offered in the order of ranks obtained in C-CAT and based on the preferences of courses and centres given by the candidates during online counselling. Only those candidates who are in the C-CAT rank-list will be considered for admissions to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses.

C-DAC’s PG Diploma admission process has two counselling sessions and three rounds of seat allocations. Counselling means online filling of preferences of courses and training centres by the candidates.

There are two rounds of seat allocations based on the first counselling. This means that using the course-centre preferences given by the candidates during the first choice filling, two rounds of seat allocations (Round 1 and Round 2) will be done. Further details of the first counselling and first/second rounds of seat allocations are given in Sections 16(f-j) of this Admission Booklet.

Depending on their C-CAT ranks, candidates will be allocated seats strictly based on the order of preferences of courses and centres given by them during the counselling. If some candidates' ranks are not good enough to get them their top preferences in the first round of seat allocations, they may be offered their lower preferred courses/centres depending on their ranks. Such candidates may be allocated their higher-preferred course/centre in the second round of seat allocation, depending on their ranks. However, if candidates get their first preference in the first round of seat allocation itself, then that will be their final allocated seat and there will be no change for them in the second round of seat allocations. The seats allocated in the second round are final and there will be no further change in them.

Through the second counseling, candidates who have not got/confirmed admission are given one last chance to online fill their preferences of courses and training centres for the vacant seats that arise after the second round of admissions. The second counselling is scheduled after the payment of the first installment fee of the second round of seat allocation. The third round of seat allocation is based on the second counseling. The categories of candidates who are eligible to take part in the second counselling, and more details of the second counselling and third round of seat allocation, are given in Sections 16(k-l) of this Admission Booklet.

During both the counselling sessions, candidates will be permitted to give preferences for only those courses belonging to the category they had selected in the C-CAT application form. However, a candidate can give as many preferences of training centres and courses belonging to the applied C-CAT category.

Based on the C-CAT ranks, admissions to various courses at different training centres are offered in the order of preferences of courses and centres given by the candidate and the number of seats available for the courses at the particular centres. Therefore candidates must take utmost care while filling the order of preference of the courses and centres. Under any circumstance, a candidate will not be allocated another course/centre which was not given as a preference during the counselling stage.

Important Note: A candidate cannot join a lower preferred choice if he/she is allocated a higher preference in any round of seat allocation.

PG Diploma seat capacity at C-DAC’s training centres – ONLINE COURSES.

PG Diploma seat capacity at C-DAC’s training centres – PHYSICAL COURSES.

Schedule for September 2022

Table: Important dates related to admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses of September 2022 batch through the C-CAT of July 2022.