Abstract:
Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India, in the first convocation address of IIT
Kharagpur in 1956 said “Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine
monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture
seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.”
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher
education, located in India. They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act,
1961 which has declared them as institutions of national importance, and lays down
their powers, duties, and framework for governance etc.
For some inexplicable reason, Indians typically value engineering and medicine above
most other professions, that’s why care given to the IITs was not extended to liberal arts
and pure science colleges. IITs soon became the place to go to, to get a quality
undergraduate education and quickly became the mecca of education.
They have excellent residential facilities, recreational facilities and lab facilities. They
attract the best faculty, and develop good industry contacts which lead to some of the
best job opportunities. Worldwide, the only six institutes in India ranked in the top 300
of the QS World University Rankings of 2015 are IISc Bangalore and 5 IITs.
In 2014, six new IITs were announced by the government. In the Union budget
presented on 28 February 2015, one more IIT will be set up in Karnataka (at Dharwad);
while upgrading of Indian School of Mines (ISM) at Dhanbad, Jharkhand to an IIT was
also announced. IIT Tirupati and IIT Palakkad started functioning in June 2015. Other IITs
are expected to commence admissions in 2016.
