gate 2021 has two new entrants starting from this year with environmental science and engineering and humanities and social sciences entering the fray the scope for students in these two fields has widened in a postcovid world where issues of sustainability and environment have become all the more important there is an urgent need for environmental engineers and scientists to collaborate the upcoming gate 2021 may help students take a step in that direction as they aspire to a career in research at the masters and phd levelsagrees deepankar choudhury gate 2021 organising chairman and institute chair professor iitbombay environment is one of the major areas where researchers are in highdemand both in india and globally the recent inclusion of environmental science and engineering will enhance the career prospects of those students who are specialising in the subject in their btech programmes earlier such students were forced to appear for civil engineeringchemical engineeringchemistrybiosciences paper that clearly put them at a disadvantage it would also widen their scope in the psus where specialists and researchers for such areas were handpicked from the civilchemical engineering streamssuparna mukherji head of environmental science and engineering department iit bombay echoes a similar view earlier the bebtech environmental engineering students and msc environmental science students had to do a lot of additional learning on subjects that were alien to them many did not qualify gate nor were their scores competitive it also reduced their chances of securing a place in mtech and phd programmes in the iits and iisc that come with teaching assistantships but now their chances are likely to improvethe decision to include the paper was not an overnight process though with the supreme court mandating that at least one course in environmental sciences be taught across institutions iit students at both the btech and mtech levels have to compulsorily take one course in environmental studies this precipitated the need to include the subject as a separate paper in gate 2021 a signature campaign by a large group of btech students pursuing environmental science and engineering from across the country further brought matters to ahead choudhury says questions for the exam he informs will be drawn from the entire spectrum of the btech curriculum in the field and will be uploaded by midaugust on the gate official website while third year btechbsc students can take the exam for trials sake their score will be valid for three years should they want to use it for future prospects unlike jee mainneet gate exams have no age limit and can be taken as many times as students deem fit currently there are over 150 seats available for mtech programmes in the field across institutes including the iits the recent move will help students make a more focussed attempt at gaining admission to these programmes once they qualify choudhury concludes