Centralised Allotment Process (CAPNIC), a software developed by NIC Kerala State Unit helps in conducting counselling for the allotment of seats for the professional courses in the state. The web-enabled software is aimed at conducting counselling from multiple locations so that the candidates need not travel all the way to Thiruvananthapuram for this purpose. The system is in open source LAMP model that makes it a cost effective and robust one. The software has been developed by taking care of all the existing rules of reservations and floating seat concept. ž| Scope of CAPNIC The system is being used for allotment of seats for Medical, Engineering, B.Pharm, and Architecture courses. This year about 3200 seats in medical stream, 13000 seats in engineering stream, 60 seats in architecture and 1100 seats in B.Pharm were alloted using CAPNIC. The System takes care of the following activities: • Registration of Candidates for Counselling • Vacancy list Generation • Seat Allotment • Higher Option List Generation • Fee Collection • Memo printing • On-line display – Vacancy/Allotment status. • Re-allotment of seat based on the higher options received from the candidates and availability of seats ž| Central Allotment Process The allotment process is carried out from three Counselling centres located at Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode. The candidates are called in the order of their ranks. The system provides a maximum of 20 options to the candidates for selectng an institute of his/her choice. If the candidate could earmark his/her choice out of the preferences, he/she will be allotted the seat asked or else he/she may withdraw from the counselling. Alternatively, a candidate can also give higher options in case he would like to go for better options. After the seat is allotted, an allotment slip is generated, indicating the fee required to be paid by the candidate as per the institution or as per the category of the candidate. ž| Infrastructure for the System For implementing the CAPNIC system, the Main Server and the Backup Server is placed in office of the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations (CEE). Second Backup Server is placed in the NIC office. Data from the main server is replicated to the backup servers. A 2 Mbps leased line connects all counselling centres and the NIC centre to the CEE office.