At the beginning of the twentieth century, in 1902, important engineering…

Concept: For a historical cutoff-year question, compare the founding or institutional dates of every named college with the stated year. A place belongs in the set only if its engineering institution already existed by that cutoff.

The comparison must use the historical institution at each place, not a later institution that happens to use the same city name.

Application:

1. Roorkee College was established in 1847, so an engineering college existed at Roorkee by 1902.

2. The Madras institution developed into the College of Engineering, Guindy; it was a college by the nineteenth century, so Madras belongs to the 1902 set.

3. The Calcutta Civil Engineering College began in 1856 and moved to its present campus at Sibpur, Howrah, in 1880; therefore an engineering college was at Sibpur by 1902.

4. The engineering institution at Poona was established in 1854, so Poona also belongs to the 1902 set.

5. The Government Research Institute at Cawnpore, the predecessor of HBTU/HBTI, was established in 1920 and became the Government Technological Institute in 1921; therefore the relevant Kanpur institution did not exist in 1902.

Cross-check and contrast:

• Roorkee, Madras, Sibpur and Poona all have nineteenth-century institutional origins.

• Kanpur is the near-miss because its relevant technical institution began in 1920, after the 1902 cutoff.

Result: The matching combination is A, B, D and E only.