Without any second thoughts, CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory (Pune) has to be one of the best PS stations for Chemical (A1) and Chemistry (B2) people. The place gives you the perfect opportunity to research on something very new along with other PhD scholars working under your mentor scientist. I can assure you, you can't ask for a better PS station as compared to NCL in terms of learning opportunity and exposure to the world of research.

This time the cutoff CGPA was around 6.8 but I'm quite sure it will be quite high in the coming years. The reason for such a low cutoff was firstly, it was first time introduced as PS-1 station, so people weren't really aware about it. Secondly and more importantly, NCL was added to the list of PS-1 stations very late. By then, everyone had already made their final list and no one was really willing to change the entire list of 314 stations just because of one station. So in short, they took li8 and missed an opportunity to work at NCL. Now reasons why it would definitely rise:

1. It's a CSIR Lab. The tag is sufficient enough to give your CV a massive boost.
2. Pune. Do I need to say more?
3. Awesome research facilities. Google it, if you don't believe me!
4. Mind-blowing reviews from seniors. There were 10 of us and I'm more than sure, none of them is going to give you a negative or even a mediocre feedback.

Don't worry about accommodation and all. Those things are very trivial and you'll be able to manage them very easily.

All the best!

DISCLAIMER: I haven't done my PS1 yet! So take my suggestions with a pinch of salt.

1) Do a great project
Yes, according to many, the opportunity to do a meaningful project is absent in many of the PS1 stations. Still, worth a shot, I think. Talk to people, maybe some will be helpful? ALWAYS prefer research institutes over other stations.
As someone who hasn't done my PS1 yet, I can't say much.
I have heard of people applying for Research Internships at good institutes in the city they have been allotted. Eg. IIT Madras.
If your PS1 station can't offer much, try your chance elsewhere! Start sending emails well in advance though.

2) Learn something new.
Wherever your interests lie, go ahead and learn useful skills that you may be able to apply in your field later. Eg. CATIA or ANSYS for Mech students.
There are tons of online courses from sites like Coursera, Udacity, EdX, etc. Download loads from DC before you leave!

3) Network
You get to meet loads of people from Goa and Pilani for the first time! Network, make new like-minded friends. Maybe they can help teach you something new or guide you? At least you can share all those campus stories and get to know them better. The first steps towards building a professional network for your career.

4) Have fun
Two months living in the "real world" in a new city with new like-minded friends! Could it get better? Explore the city, do things you've never done before, explore new cuisines, and what not!

In reality, PS-1 doesn't really matter. Firstly because it is only done for a period of two months which is hardly anything and secondly you will have done your second year and so you won't be of much help to the firms. So the experience you gain is not so much as compared to when you do it in your later years.

I had done my PS-1 at Toybank Mumbai. I chose this over other chemical firms because I thought I could give my 100% in working in an NGO rather than working somewhere I have no clue about my work. This I got from my other friends who got their PS-1 in companies like NCL, Forbes Marshall, BPCL, etc. where most of them had small projects and they did not have work. All they did was watch TV shows and chill with friends.

What I suggest is not to worry too much about the experience you gain because trust me,it will be almost the same for everyone. And PS-2 is what matters. PS-1 is just for you to expose to the industry and see how it works and not actually work.

You will get to see the various chemical companies in the preference list that you fill before PS-1.

Congratulations for having a clear career objective so early in your academic career! (I am in my third year and I still do not know my career goals)

You have not mentioned your discipline/major at BITS Pilani. I am going to make a wild guess it is one of Computer Science or EEE.

Let me break down my answer into four parts:
1.The Assumption: You know quite a lot of technologies by the end of three semesters in Pilani. You have mentioned : Front End, Django, Android, Data Science/Machine Learning.

This means either of the two:
a) You are an extremely fast learner, e.g. someone with a 120+ IQ. You should drop out from college ASAP. BITS Pilani isn't meant for prodigies.
b) You are overestimating your knowledge.
Since, it is not possible to learn (in 18 months) all of the above topics, I will continue my answer under the assumption that (b) is true
FYI, Data Science and ML are not the same topics/fields.

2. Ways to join a startup:
a) You can join one of the startups in the PS-1 list. There are many which close at a less than 7 GPA. The quality of the work is questionable sometimes, but you will understand that most startups are like that.
b) You can open a new practice school station. Find a startup/company which is willing to take more than 5 interns. You can connect them with the Practice School Division. PSD usually ensures that the person opening the station gets that.
c) Do a magic trick. There are two parts of the trick:
First, you take a PS-1 station where you do not have to go ever. Maybe once or twice in the entire duration.
Second, you find an internship from your own skills in the same geographic location.
You can have two internship under your belt and mention the one where you learned more in your resume.

3. Should I drop out of PS-1?
No. Do not drop out of the PS-1 program for the reason you have mentioned. PS-1 program is more than an internship, it is your golden opportunity to spend some time with your friends/family and relish the moments for the rest of your life.

More important reason is the fact that when you drop out of PS-1, you also drop out of the PS-2 program and you are restricted to doing Thesis in your final/psenti year. On campus thesis projects are mostly a disappointment.

There are some good PS-2 stations for 6 pointers too. Do not miss out on them.

4. Research Internships:
a) India : Highly linked to your GPA. You will have to apply individually to the professor from IITs/IISc/wherever you want to work. You may get sub-standard work owing to the quality of research as well as the fact that some professors do not trust students in India. It is a bit of gamble.
b) Abroad: Well established programs such as DAAD, MITACS and SURF etc. have a very high CGPA cutoff. The lowest cutoff is MITACS is at 8.0 CGPA.
The other alternative is to contact professor abroad based on your research interests.

Dare not SPAM professors (even if your IITian friends ask you to). I do not know who you are, but if I came to know any BITSian (specially a junior) spamming professors, you better be prepared for whatever consequences you may come across.

Hope this answers your queries.
Lastly, feel free to bug me in person (Gandhi-126) or via email. I am more than happy to help.

I was A2A this question.

A little honesty up front: My understanding of the PS-I scenario in BITS is outdated (practically out of touch with the system after June 2008). Also, I cannot answer specifically with regard to consulting/sales/marketing - although I would imagine that regardless of your station, if it caters to big spending clients, it would not be too difficult for your mentor to provide you with a relevant project. The trouble was companies almost always did not have the time for 2 month interns. Most students including me ended up either in exotic places (à la Goa) or their home city [I'd be surprised if this weren't the norm now] to blow off some steam from the ghotu Pilani life. But workwise, the folks that interned at BARC ended up doing decent projects, and so did a few folks at my station - D-Link India Ltd. Again, if you looked at the CGPA interval of folks that got into such stations (that actually had planned projects for BITS PS-I students), it would fall into the [8,10] range. This is just an observation - and may not hold true.

Also, if you're aware of a company that is not listed, but has potential projects for students, you can introduce it to the PSD - and as the introducer, you get first choice in that station by default. Not sure if this is still the norm.

You'll be allotted SAIL Bhilai under the most probable circumstances. However, if you get someone to sign up as a PS-1 station in your city, you will be allotted that station. Even if you don't have enough contacts to open up a PS-1 station and desperately need to be in your home town, you can go and talk to the PSD people before the allotment process begins and explain the situation to them. They will happily allot you a station of your choice only if you talk to them before the final allotments are out. Once the allotments are out and you approach them after that, there is a very low probability of your case being entertained.

Here are my tips-

- Pick a research lab of your interest if you're really serious about doing good work.
Mostly the work you find in stations is rubbish and you'll spend the majority of your time being pissed off about the evaluation components. If you get a lab- work your ass off and get a paper published- or the experience will be useless.

- Otherwise, take a station near home, chill out, teach yourself something useful- a new programming language or software, or work on a new hobby.

- Do NOT. I repeat DO NOT, care about stipend. You will never be paid enough to justify the colossal waste of time anyway.

- Maximize enjoyment: it's a new experience after all. Minimize frustration.

- Make an ambitious project if you can, even if you know your company won't give a damn, use it as practice for writing a real research paper, ignore the rest of the evaluation components.

- (Today's world): Do a MOOC or two from Coursera or Udacity, you have more than enough time for it. Pick some subject of your interest and just do a course. Check out Startup Engineering on Coursera, and the web development course on Udacity. If you're not into coding, you're free to try anything from Microeconomics for Managers to VLSI to Introduction to Guitar.

In my case, I interned part-time at another job, so I learnt a little extra. I wish these MOOCs were around back then, then those months wouldn't have been such a waste.

My greatest lesson from PS1 was to realize what I didn't want to do at all costs. This is important, some of my friends from IIT went and joined an industrial plant on graduation- but they had never interned in one. They didn't know how shitty life there really was and had to quit in 3 months. Honestly, I believe that PS1 should be after first year- unmask the ugly truth about crappy work environments as early as possible.

Other than that, try to make new friends, find out a little about the other BITS campuses, and learn to tolerate the bullshit coming your way, make it a memorable experience.

Thanks for the A2A
I'll answer to your first point.
The best, failsafe hack is to open a PS station yourself. So, since you're interested in startups, try and get in touch with those companies. Use your resources like cousins, relatives, friends who are currently employed in one of these startups. Once that's done, enquire if the startup ppl are ready to take in 6-10 students for the term of your ps(2months). If that's a green signal, drop in a mail to your campus psd giving them all the details. Also, go to your psd and bug them about it! Sometimes they just tend to sit on it. There will be a few formalities to be carried out like an official approval from the startup. Once that's done, your ps station is added to the list. Then all you need to do is give it the first preference while filling in the priority list. PSD algorithm for allotment is more like a randomizer, so never rely on it. If,after all this you get screwed over and a random station is allotted, you can fill the grievance form claiming that you opened up a PS station and you'll be allotted the same immediately. IMHO, this is the best failsafe method.
Feel free to edit or suggest changes.

CEO fired you , that too in PS1 !! which company? and what nonsense did you do ? I'm sure its not incompetency , because PS1 stations donot expect much , infact almost nothing from the students since they donot get stipend. So I assume it is because of indiscipline, gross or otherwise. And the CEO would not have done something like this to a free intern without a very good reason and prior warning. Yes. it is very very difficult to get any grade other than A at PS1. But in case whatever you have written above is true, congratulations!! you've just done the impossible . Let alone an A, in all probability you'll have some good explaining to do to the PS coordinator before you even get allotted a grade. If you feel the CEO has been unfair to you , you can always explain to the coordinator about the situation immediately, but I really have strong doubts if that's the case, so good luck meeting the faculty.

Anything and everything.

1. Read: even if your PS office ends up calling you in everyday though you have no work at all ( that seldom happens though, some stations allow you to come only on specific days) you always end up with a lot of time. Spend that on reading anything and everything you like. Build up your knowledge on your favorite topics, read anything and everything you can find.

2. Build up your skill base.: join any class that interests you be it course related or otherwise. Its better to spend this time to build up your resume rather than waste it away.

3. Online courses: follow the courses on coursera, edX and audacity. Learn as much as you can.

4. Last and most important: have fun, visit places close to your station.

Though PS1's 2 months period is too short a time to learn or contribute anything useful, but IMHO, it gives a good exposure and idea about how industry and companies work in general.

I was a computer science student at BITS, but I chose CFCL (Chambal Fertilizers), Kota mostly because I had never seen a big plant (and partly because they provided free accommodation to all the interns) We were given a 15 days orientation, and in that period saw functioning of one department per day. This was a unique experience for all of us, and I remember seeing the plant from a different and new perspective every day. We saw same parts of systems from the eyes of mechanical, chemical and electrical engineers, and appreciated how each department was important in the process. This was also the time, I realized the importance of other supporting departments - finance, procurement and logistics.

I think, all you have to do is keep an open mind, and interact with people you meet. And in any case, stop worrying about wasting your time.

It depends on hlwhat you want to do.
If you wish to pursue MBA in future then must have atleast 7.5 to get in good private and new IIM's. You'll need 8 + if you aim for ABC.

If you are GATE aspirat then it doesn't matter much, but make sure you don't have backlogs at the time of interview. Here also 7+ is decent score.

If you're willing to appear for GRE then you must have above 7.5 or you'll have to compensate for your cgpa by GRE score.

Overall, anything above 7 is decent amd would be great if you complete all 8 semesters without a back.

And, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you must keep focusing on your skills rather than cgpa. There is a great scope in this world for people who are skillful rather than just muggers.

Work on you skills and it won't be a big deal to score cgpa.

P.S. : I have 6.5 at the end of 6 semesters.

See,first of all I would like to mention you that knowledge matters more than CGPA. If you just want to score a good CGPA you had just follow certain hacks like

Go through syllabus first>then previous years paper >write down imp topics from which questions are asked maximum >work on them.

In university like RGPV ques are of very repetitive nature ;so if u follow certain hacks u can really get a good CGPA.

But these things might land u in a world where you are just left with a good CGPA but literally speaking no knowledge.And when you are done with your Bachelor it would be difficult to get a job. So , I would suggest you that go slow but be consistent with your studies because there is no shortcut to success.( In case of me it was 8.3 CGPA but at last truly speaking after BE I had to study subjects again to get a job.)

I hope it would help you.