The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are a group of autonomous public technical and research universities located across India. They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, which has declared them as Institutions of National Importance and laid down their powers, duties and framework for governance. The IITs are administered centrally by the IIT Council, which oversees their administration.
| Type | Group of autonomous public engineering and technology institutes |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Governing legislation | Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 |
| Status | Institutions of National Importance |
| Apex body | IIT Council |
| Ex officio Chairperson of Council | Union Minister of Education |
| First IIT | IIT Kharagpur (1951) |
| Common admission test (UG) | Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Advanced) |
| Common admission test (PG) | Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) |
The idea of establishing higher technical institutions in India to support post-independence industrial development was discussed by a committee chaired by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar in the mid-1940s. The committee recommended the setting up of higher technical institutions in different regions of the country, modelled in part on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first such institute was established at Kharagpur in 1951, on the site of the former Hijli Detention Camp in West Bengal. In 1956, Parliament passed the Institutes of Technology Act, declaring IIT Kharagpur an Institution of National Importance; the Act was subsequently amended to bring later IITs within its scope.
Each IIT is autonomous and is headed by a Director, with a Board of Governors as its principal executive body. A Senate, comprising faculty members, is responsible for academic policy. The President of India is the Visitor of every IIT. The IIT Council, chaired by the Union Minister of Education, coordinates policies common to the institutes, including admissions, examinations and the duration of degree programmes.
The IIT system expanded in several phases. The first generation of institutes was set up between the 1950s and the 1960s, often with the technical assistance of foreign partners.
A further wave of IITs was established in the late 2000s and 2010s following amendments to the Institutes of Technology Act. These include institutes at Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Patna, Ropar, Varanasi (BHU), Palakkad, Tirupati, Bhilai, Goa, Jammu and Dharwad, expanding the system to more than twenty IITs across India. IIT (BHU) Varanasi was created by converting the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, into an IIT.
The IITs offer undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in engineering, sciences, design, management, humanities and social sciences. Admission to undergraduate programmes is primarily through the Joint Entrance Examination, with candidates qualifying through JEE Main and then sitting JEE Advanced, which is conducted by one of the IITs on a rotational basis. Admission to most postgraduate engineering programmes is through GATE. Common counselling for IITs is conducted by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA).
The flagship undergraduate degree is the four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), with several IITs also offering integrated five-year dual-degree and Master's programmes. The institutes additionally award M.Tech., M.Sc., MBA, M.Des. and Ph.D. degrees.
The IITs are among the most selective institutions in India and are widely regarded as the leading centres of technical education and engineering research in the country. They consistently feature at the top of Indian university rankings such as the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and are represented in major international rankings. The institutes operate research parks, technology business incubators and centres of excellence in areas including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, energy, materials, biotechnology and aerospace, and have produced a large alumni network active in academia, industry, public service and entrepreneurship in India and abroad.
Several IITs were established in cooperation with foreign governments, and the system continues to maintain academic and research partnerships with universities and agencies worldwide. The Government of India has also approved the setting up of IIT campuses outside India, with the first overseas campus established in Zanzibar (Tanzania) in collaboration with IIT Madras, followed by an IIT Delhi campus in Abu Dhabi.