Indian Institutes of Technology

Location of IITs

The Indian Institutes of Technology (Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान) or IITs are a group of seven autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education established by the Government of India. They have been declared Institutes of National Importance and are renowned throughout the world for their degree programs. These institutes were created to train scientists and engineers to develop a national skilled work-force with the aim of bolstering economic and social development of India after it attained independence from British rule in 1947. The students and alumni of IITs are referred to as IITians.

The IITs were established over a period of time starting with the founding of IIT Kharagpur in 1951. The individual IITs are autonomous universities and are linked in the top of their organisational structure, having a common IIT Council to oversee their administration. They also have a common admissions process, using the Joint Entrance Examination (popularly known as IIT-JEE) to gauge student abilities. About 15,500 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students study in the seven IITs in addition to research scholars. Many IITians have achieved success in a variety of professions, resulting in the establishment of the IIT Brand, considered to be a benchmark of academic excellence in India and recognised all over the world. The autonomy of IITs have helped them to create specialised degrees in technology at undergraduate level, and consequently award the Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) degree as opposed to the Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree awarded in most other universities in India. The success of the IITs has led to the creation of similar institutes in different fields of learning in India like the National Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institute of Information Technology.

The IIT family

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Main Building of IIT Kharagpur

The IIT family consists of seven institutes across India—IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Roorkee. Their locations have been deliberately selected to be scattered throughout the country in order to prevent regional imbalance.Template:Inote All the IITs are autonomous universities and hence draft their own curriculum. All the IITs (with the exception of IIT Kanpur) are members of LAOTSE, an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia, allowing them to exchange students and senior scholars.

IIT Kharagpur, located in Kharagpur (near Kolkata in the state of West Bengal), established in 1951, was the first of the IITs. It has a total of 29 academic departments, centres and schools, spread over a 8.5 km² (2,100 acre) campus that exists as a self-contained township of over 15,000 inhabitants. It has about 450 faculty, 2,200 employees, and 3,000 undergraduate and 2,500 postgraduate students on the campus. The students live in seventeen hostels (called Halls of Residence). IIT Kharagpur also has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management) and a law school (Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law) within its premises. Its central library has been called the largest technical library in Asia.

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Main Building of IIT Bombay

The next IIT to be established, IIT Bombay, was founded in 1958 in Powai, Mumbai (Bombay). It was set up with assistance from UNESCO and the erstwhile Soviet Union, which provided technical expertise. The Indian government underwrote all other expenses including the construction costs and other recurring expenses. With an area of 2.23 km² (550 acres) and a total of 24 departments, centres and schools, it is the largest university in the state. In addition, IIT Bombay has 13 student hostels and approximately 2,200 undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate students. Besides the engineering education departments, IIT Bombay also has a management school (Shailesh J Mehta School of Management) on its premises. Despite the name of the city having changed, the IIT retains its old name.

IIT Madras, located in the city of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, was established in 1959 with technical assistance from the Government of West Germany and has nearly 360 faculty and approximately 2,500 undergraduate and 2000 postgraduate students. The campus, located in a wooded area of about 2.5 km² (620 acres), has 15 academic departments, nearly 100 laboratories, and 13 hostels.

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Biosciences and Bioengineering Department of IIT Kanpur

IIT Kanpur was established in 1959 in the city of Kanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. During the first ten years of its existence, IIT Kanpur benefited from the Kanpur—Indo-American Programme, where a consortium of 9 US universities helped set up the research laboratories and academic programmes. It covers an area of 4.85 km² (1,200 acres). It has approximately 500 faculty members, and about 2,000 undergraduate and an equal number of postgraduate students live in 10 hostels.

Established as College of Engineering in 1961, IIT Delhi was given the current name and declared an Institution of National Importance under the "Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 1963". It is located in Hauz Khas region of New Delhi and has an area of 1.3 km² (320 acres). With 26 departments, centres and schools and 11 hostels, it hosts 426 faculty and approximately 2,200 undergraduate and 1,600 postgraduate students.

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Main Building of IIT Roorkee

IIT Roorkee, originally known as University of Roorkee, was established in 1847 as the first engineering college in the British Empire. Located in Uttaranchal (previously a part of Uttar Pradesh), the college was renamed The Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854, and granted IIT status in 2001. The institute offers Bachelor's degree courses in 10 disciplines of Engineering and Architecture and Postgraduate degrees in 55 disciplines. It has a total of 375 faculty members. The campus is about 1.45 km² (360 acres) in size and has 8 hostels.

IIT Guwahati was established in 1994 near the city of Guwahati (in the state of Assam) on the northern banks of River Brahmaputra. The sprawling 2.85 km² (705 acres) campus also attracts many visitors because of its scenic beauty. There are approximately 1,300 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate students in 18 departments, which have a total of 152 faculty members.Template:Inote

Establishment and development

Main article: History of Indian Institutes of Technology

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Jawaharlal Nehru laying foundation stone of IIT Kharagpur

The history of the IIT system dates to 1946 when Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy's Executive Council set up a committee whose task was to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for post-war industrial development in India. The 22 member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar recommended the establishment of Higher Technical Institutions in various parts of the country, possibly along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), with a number of affiliated secondary institutions. The committee also felt that such institutes should not only produce undergraduates, but also researchers and academicians. The standard of the graduate education was recommended to be at par with those from elite technical institutions all over the world.

With these recommendations in view, the first Indian Institute of Technology was founded in May, 1950 at the site of Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed an act known as the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, 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.

On the recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, four campuses were subsequently founded at Mumbai (1958), Chennai (1959), Kanpur (1959), and New Delhi (1961). The Indian Institutes of Technology Act was suitably amended to reflect the addition of new IITs. Widespread student agitations in Assam state made Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi promise another IIT in Assam. Accordingly in 1994, a sixth campus at Guwahati was established. The University of Roorkee (India's oldest engineering college) was conferred IIT status in 2001, as it had established itself as an excellent academic institution.

Over the past few years, there have been a number of developments toward establishing new IITs. On 1 October 2003, the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced plans to create more IITs "by upgrading existing academic institutions that have the necessary promise and potential". Subsequent developments led to the formation of S K Joshi Committee in November 2003 to guide the selection of the five institutions to be the five new IITs.

Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) is a candidate to become an IIT.

As per the initial recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, it was decided that any more IITs created should be spread throughout the country. When the government expressed its willingness to correct this regional imbalance, sixteen states demanded IITs. However, the S K Joshi Committee laid strict guidelines for institutions aspiring to be IITs and consequently, the the following seven colleges were selected for final consideration:

• Aligarh Muslim University's Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
• Andhra University's College of Engineering, Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
• Banaras Hindu University's Institute of Technology (IT-BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
• Bengal Engineering College, Howrah, West Bengal.
• Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi, Kerala.
• Jadavpur University's Engineering and Technology Departments, Calcutta, West Bengal.
• Osmania University's College of Engineering and College of Technology, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Organisational structure

Organisational Structure of IITs

The President of India is the ex officio Visitor of all IITs.Template:Inote The Visitor is the most powerful person in the organisational structure of IITs and has discretionary residual powers. Directly under the Visitor is the IIT Council. It comprises of the minister-in-charge of technical education in Central Government, the Chairmen of all IITs, the Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of UGC, the Director General of CSIR, the Chairman of IISc, the Director of IISc, 3 members of Parliament, Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, nominees of the Central Government (three), AICTE, and the Visitor.Template:Inote

Following the IIT Council is the Board of Governors of individual IITs. Under the Board of Governors is the Director, the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT.Template:Inote The academic policies of individual IITs are decided by the Senate. It comprises all professors of the IIT concerned and a few more representatives. Unlike many American universities which have an elected senate, the IITs have an academic senate. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results. It also appoints committees to look into specific academic matters that arise. The teaching, training and research activities of various departments of the Institute are periodically reviewed to improve facilities and maintain standards. The Director of the Institute is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate. Under the Director in the organisational structure is the Deputy Director. The Director and the Deputy Director together manage the Deans, Heads of Departments, Registrar, President of the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. Deans and Heads of Departments in IITs are administrative postings and not career paths. Faculty members are posted as Deans and Heads of Departments for a limited period (typically 2-3 years) before returning to regular faculty academic duties. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer of the IIT and overviews the day-to-day operations.Template:Inote Below the Head of Department (HOD) are the various faculty members (Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors). The Wardens come under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.

Admission

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in IITs is granted via various written entrance examinations. However, admission to M.S. and Ph.D. programs is based primarily on a personal interview, though candidates must also appear for a few written tests. The IITs are also well known for their special reservation policy, which stands out in contrast with the rest of India.

Entrance examinations

Main article: IIT-JEE

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Entrance of IIT Madras

Admission to undergraduate programs in all IITs is tied to the Joint Entrance Examination, popularly known as IIT-JEE. Candidates who clear IIT-JEE can apply for admission in B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology), Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology and Masters of Technology) and Integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences) courses in IITs. It is a science-oriented entrance exam, testing the applicant's knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry. It is conducted by an IIT chosen by a policy of rotation. Since its inception, the IIT-JEE has had a highly competitive pattern of questioning. The undergraduate acceptance rate at IITs through JEE is around 1 in 75, with about 300,000 annual test takers for fewer than 3900 seats. Only students who have completed (or will complete at the end of the current academic session) their higher secondary studies from a recognised educational board are allowed to appear for IIT-JEE. The IIT-JEE is well known for frequently changing the types of questions asked in order to discourage study by rote. Recently, the format of the IIT-JEE was changed to be a single objective test-based paper, replacing the earlier system that employed two tests. The candidates belonging to the general category must secure a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate in the qualifying examination of the XII^th standard organised by various educational boards of India. Candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories must secure a minimum of 55% in aggregate in the Qualifying Examination. The upper age limit for appearing for the IIT-JEE is 25 years. For candidates belonging to SC, ST and PD categories, the age limit is relaxed to 30 years. Starting in 2007, a candidate can take IIT-JEE at most twice, and students who are selected for an IIT cannot attempt the examination again.

The admissions into the postgraduate programmes are made through various other exams, primarily the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). Other prominent entrance exams include JAM (Joint Admission to M.Sc.) for M.Sc., and JMET (Joint Management Entrance Test) for Management Studies.

Reservation policy

Main article: Reservation policy in IITs

India is one of the countries that practices affirmative action. As per the provisions in the Indian constitution, the IITs have been offering reservation for Backward Classes of society since 1973. However, while a policy of quota system exists throughout the country for reservation of Backward Classes, a different scheme exists in IITs as they are Institutes of National Importance.

Difference between theoretical and actual reservation in IITs

Currently, as per the rules of admission to IITs, there exists a reservation of 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes. No separate reservation exists for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). However, the IITs are not bound to fill these seats, and many of them remain unfilled owing to the nature of selection process. As per the rules, all the Backward Class candidates must take the IIT-JEE with the rest of the students. Based on the results of IIT-JEE, those Backward Class candidates that qualify by a relaxed selection criteria of scoring more than two-third of the marks scored by the last General Category student are admitted directly to IITs. Another group of candidates who do not meet this relaxed admission criteria are offered a Preparatory Course comprising of physics, chemistry and mathematics at the IIT concerned. After one year of study, only those candidates who are able to clear a cut-off in the End Semester Exams are allowed into regular studies at the IITs.

In 1989, Prime Minister V. P. Singh accepted and implemented the proposals of Mandal Commission that recommended provisions for reservations in private unaided institutions as well as high-end government jobs for minority communities. However, no changes took place in the IITs because of the legislation. But in the year 2005, based on the recommendations of an independent panel, the UPA government at the centre proposed to implement quota system for Scheduled caste, Schedule tribe, Other Backward Classes and minority communities in IITs and IIMs (for both students and faculty). It was strongly opposed by the opposition led by BJP as "dangerous and divisive". When the government made its plan clear to implement the quota system, widespead protests were organised throughout India against the move.

While some people opposed any kind of reservation in the IITs as retrograde, others considered the additional procedures (the preparatory course and the qualifying end semester exams after that) for admission into the IITs as unnecessary and counter-productive. The opposition to the modified policy of reservation and favor of direct admission is based on the argument that a large number of seats remain vacant under the present scheme, and only about 10% of all seats actually go to the Backward Class candidates. Also, the Backward Class candidates in the preparatory course face the humiliation of studying separately and the possibility of a wasted year should they fail to qualify in the end semester exams.

Education

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Convocation ceremony at IIT Madras

The IITs receive disproportionately higher grants as compared to the other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to typical engineering colleges is around Rs. 100-200 million per year, for each IIT, it varies between Rs. 900-1,300 million per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding from industry. The IITs subsidise undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all Master of Technology students and Research Scholars in order to encourage them to go for higher studies. This has translated into superior infrastructure and better faculty in the IITs and consequently higher competition among students to gain admissions into the IITs. The cost borne by undergraduate students including boarding and mess expenses is around Rs. 50,000 per annum.

The various IITs function autonomously, and the special status as Institutes of National Importance facilitates the smooth running of IITs, virtually free from both regional as well student politics. The autonomy in education means that IITs can create their own curricula and adapt rapidly to the changes in educational requirements. The government has no direct control over internal policy decisions of IITs (like faculty recruitment and curricula) but has representation on the IIT Council. The medium of instruction in all IITs is English.Template:Inote The class hours vary in most IITs, but are usually held between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. All the IITs have public libraries for the use of their students. In addition to a collection of prescribed books, the libraries have sections for fiction and other literary genres. The electronic libraries allow student to access online journals and other periodicals.

All the IITs follow the credits system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of subjects based on their importance. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance. Each semester evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to calculate the cumulative grade point average (known as CGPA or CPA).

Undergraduate education

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A lecture class in IIT Bombay

Although IITs offer a range of degrees including Bachelor of Technology, Masters of Technology, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Science, the most widely sought degree of IITs has been the B.Tech. degree. It is based on a 4-year program with eight semesters.Template:Inote

In all the IITs, the first year of B.Tech. courses is marked by common course structure for all the students,Template:Inote though in some IITs, a single department introduction related course is also included.Template:Inote The common courses include the basics from most of the departments like electronics, mechanics, chemistry, and physics. At the end of first year, an option of department change is given to highly meritorious students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.Template:Inote However, only a few students switch departments, because most originally chose their course before joining the IIT, and because the criteria for change are usually strict,Template:Inote and allow only the exceptionally meritorious students.

From the second year onwards, the students proceed to study subjects exclusively from their respective departments.Template:Inote However, the students take compulsory advanced courses from other departments in order to broaden their education. Separate compulsory courses from humanities and social sciences department and sometimes from management courses are also enforced.Template:Inote At the end of third year, the undergraduate students have to undertake a summer project at an industry or reputed academic institute as part of the curriculum. In the last year of their studies, most of the students are placed into industries and organisations via the Placement Section of the respective IIT, while some opt out of this either when going for higher studies or when they get jobs by applying to the companies directly.

Postgraduate and doctoral education

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IIT Madras Library

The IITs offer a number of postgraduate programs including Master of Technology (M.Tech.), Master of Business Administration (MBA), and Master of Science (M.Sc.). Some IITs offer specialised graduate programmes like Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Masters in Medical Science and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law (PGDIPL), and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM).

The IITs also offer Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) as part of doctoral education programme. In it, the candidates are given a topic of academic interest by the professor or have to work on the consultancy projects given by the industries. The duration of the program is mostly unspecified and depends on the discipline. Ph.D. candidates have to submit a dissertation as well as provide oral defence for their thesis. Teaching Assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA) are also often provided. Some of the IITs also offer an M.S. (by research) program; the M.Tech. and M.S. are somewhat like the US universities' non-thesis (course based) and thesis (research based) masters' programs respectively.

The IITs also offer an unconventional B.Tech. and M.Tech. integrated educational program called "Dual Degree". It integrates undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected pairs of branch and specialization. It is completed in 5 yearsTemplate:Inote rather than 6 years as in conventional B.Tech. degree (4 years) followed by an M.Tech. (2 years). The reason for starting this program was to encourage IITians to complete postgraduate studies from IIT itself rather than going to other reputed institutes. The benefit of saving a year coupled with scholarships make this an attractive choice. Although most of the research work in IITs is done by doctoral students, the doctorate program of the IITs has only average research output, in terms of publications and patents. The IITs are also frequently employed by government organisation for geographical surveying because of the presence of experienced professors and required technology. These are usually carried out by the geology and geophysics department of the corresponding IIT. All IITs (except IIT Guwahati) have schools of management that offer degrees in management or business administration.

See also: Education in India and IIT Schools of Management

Culture and student life

Main article: Student life and culture in IITs

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Open air theatre in IIT Madras. It is used to host technical and cultural events.

All the IITs provide on-campus residential facilities to the students, research scholars and faculty. The students live in hostels (sometimes referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT. Students in all IITs must choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation (NSO) in their first years.Template:Inote The choice for later years varies from one IIT to the other. All the IITs have playgrounds of various sports including cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, athletics, and swimming pools for aquatic events. Usually the hostels also have their own sports grounds.

Technical and cultural festivals

All IITs organise annual technical festivals, which typically last 3 to 4 days. The various technical festivals are Shaastra (IIT Madras), Techkriti (IIT Kanpur), Kshitij (IIT Kharagpur), Cognizance (IIT Roorkee), Techfest (IIT Bombay), Tryst (IIT Delhi), and Techniche (IIT Guwahati). Most are organised in the months of February or March. Shaastra holds the distinction of being the first student managed event in the world to implement a formal Quality Management System, one that has earned it the ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Annual cultural festivals are also organised by the IITs. These include Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay) (also known as Mood-I), Spring Fest (IIT Kharagpur) (also known as SF), Saarang (IIT Madras) (previously Mardi Gras), Antaragni (IIT Kanpur), Alcheringa (IIT Guwahati), Rendezvous (IIT Delhi), and Thomso (IIT Roorkee). The cultural festivals too last 3 to 4 days.

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Illumination festival in IIT Kharagpur. The outlines are made by earthen lamps.

In addition to these cultural festivals, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay celebrate unique festivals. IIT Kharagpur celebrates the Illumination festival on the eve of Diwali. Large bamboo structures (called chatais)as high as 20 feet are made and earthen lamps (diyas) are placed on them to form outlines of people of showcasing a monument or an event. Held as a competition between the hostels, it also gets a lot of outside visitors. Care is taken to avoid fire hazards and the chatais are placed so as to minimize the effect of breeze. Coupled with the Illumination festival is the Rangoli festival. In this, large panels of an event or a concept are made on the ground by fine powder and sometimes even by crushed bangles.

A festival unique to IIT Bombay is the Performing Arts Festival (popularly known as PAF). Though technically a drama, each PAF is a combination of all cultural arts including dramatics, literature, music, fine arts, debating, and dance. All PAFs are held in the Open Air Theater (OAT) located within the main campus of IIT Bombay. Typically two or three hostels (out of 14) tie up by random draw for each PAF. All the dialogues are delivered as voice overs and not by the actors, mainly due to the structure and the huge size of the OAT.

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A volleyball event at Inter IIT Sports Meet-2004

Inter IIT Sports Meet

All the IITs compete in a variety of sports held under the purview of the Annual Inter IIT Sports Meet. The competition is organised every year in the month of December by an IIT chosen by a policy of rotation. The award consists of a running shield that is passed over to the winning IIT every year. The winner is decided based on the weighted average of the points of the events. Separate events for boys and girls are organised and points are tallied separately for determining the final winner.

The twelve events in the Inter IIT Sports are athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, swimming, lawn and squash tennis, table tennis, volleyball, water polo and weightlifting. As swimming and water polo are played in water, which is usually cold by the month of December, the Inter IIT Sports Meet for them is usually held in the first week of October and is called Inter IIT Aquatics Meet.

Recognition

The degrees provided by IITs are recognised by the AICTE and hence recognised by all institutions in India. Even outside India, IIT degrees are respected, largely due to the prestige of the IITs as created by its alumni. One of the contributing factors behind the success of IITs is the special status of the IITs as Institutes of National Importance under the Indian Institute of Technology Act. The IIT Act ensures that the IITs get special privileges and lays the foundation for them to evolve as world-class institutes. The autonomy ensured by the Act means that the IITs are able to implement changes quickly in order to keep up with changing scenarios in both the educational world and society in general. Student politics in IITs is also kept under control with strict vigilance over the way student body elections are held. The IIT-JEE is another important factor behind the success of IITs, because it enables the IITs to accept only a select group of students. This combination of success factors has led to the concept of the IIT Brand. Other factors that have contributed to the success of IITs are the stringent faculty recruitment procedures and industry collaboration. The procedure for selection of faculty in IITs is more strict than other colleges offering similar degrees. The Ph.D. degree is required for all regular faculty appointments. In contrast, a typical college in India employs postgraduate students with or without experience as lecturers and professors. The IITs have better interaction with various industries as compared to most other Indian colleges. The IITs are also considered highly successful institutions compared to other engineering colleges in India according to a number of educational surveys.

International recognition

The view that IIT graduates are intelligent and hardworking people has been established by the success of IITians in various walks of life. Former IIT students get greater respect from their peers, academia and industry in general. The IIT brand was reaffirmed when the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Indian Americans and especially graduates of IIT for their contributions to the American society. Similarly, China also recognised the value of IITs and planned to copy the model there. However, this recognition can lead to people assuming that IIT graduates are intelligent and successful without any evaluation or testing, which is often criticised as a bias.

Educational rankings

Most of the IITs have been consistently ranked over other engineering colleges in India in engineering education surveys. However, in international surveys, the IITs fail to achieve top rankings. The Times Higher Education Supplement (2005) ranked the IITs the 50^th best overall universities in the world in their World University Rankings and gave IITs the 36^th position globally for science. The IITs were ranked 3^rd best worldwide for technology. Also, in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, only one IIT (IIT Kharagpur) was listed in the top 500 universities worldwide. This is because of the IITs fall short in many parameters that are considered for educational rankings. First, the criteria for ranking prominently includes research output. The IITs strong only in their undergraduate programs fail under this criterion. Second, since the IITs do not get international students and faculty because of paying in Indian Rupee which is heavily devalued against the U.S. Dollar, the rankings of IITs in almost all international surveys has suffered. Since the IITs have better scores under most educational ranking criteria than other Indian colleges and universities, the IITs continue to get top positions in nationwide surveys. However, because of concerns that surveys comparing IITs with each other promote unhealthy competition and are largely subjective, there has been a call to boycott them. The Indian Institutes of Management (a group of premier management schools in India) have already opted out of the surveys.

See also: College and university rankings and India Today's top 10 colleges of India

Criticism

The IITs have faced criticism from academia and the society in general. Major criticisms include allegations that they encourage brain drain and that they set dangerous precedents in the society because of an extremely tough entrance examination. Other notable arguments include claims of insufficient representation of women and backward sections of the society at the IITs.

Brain drain

Among the criticisms of the IIT system by the media, academia and the people in general, the most prominent is that it encourages brain drain. Many IIT graduates go abroad for better job opportunities, despite the country having spent large amounts of money on the students’ education. The critics argue that putting money into IITs is useless as eventually it benefits other nations. Others support the emigration of graduates, arguing that the capital sent home by the IITians has been a major source of the expansion of Forex reserves for India, which until the 1990s was a net importer of foreign exchange.

However, the extent of brain drain has dropped substantially in the past few decades, with the percentage of students going abroad dropping from as high as 70% to around 30% today. This is largely attributed to liberalisation of Indian economy and opening of previously closed markets. Government initiatives are training IIT students in entrepreneurship programs and increasing foreign investment. Additionally, rising scientific and manufacturing industries and outsourcing of technical jobs from the nations of North America and Western Europe have created opportunities for aspiring graduates in India.

Entrance competition

The importance of selecting only the candidates with the best examination scores is usually given as the reason that IITs prefer to keep the level of the IIT-JEE higher than normal standards. This has led to establishment of a large number of coaching institutes throughout the country giving the IIT-JEE specific education and practice tests, for fees that are viewed as quite high. It is argued that this has created a situation that is favoring students from richer backgrounds over students from low-income families. Some coaching institutes have claimed that they have individually coached nearly 800 of all successful candidates year after year. According to some estimates, nearly 95% of all students who clear the IIT-JEE have joined coaching classes. The psychological stress and emotional trauma faced by candidates not able to pass the examination and their families is also considered a serious problem. This has led to widespread criticism of the way the examinations are conducted. The IIT-JEE format was restructured in 2006 following these complaints. While the restructuring was meant to reduce the dependence of students on coaching classes, it has led to an overall increase in students registering for coaching classes. This is because of the change to objective pattern of questioning, causing even the students who initially considered themselves not fit for IITs to take the IIT-JEE in 2006.

Alumni

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Vinod Gupta School of Management in IIT Kharagpur

Many IIT Alumni Associations are active in India and abroad. The IITians are known for their loyalty to their alma mater and have contributed primarily in the form of donations to their institute. The Vinod Gupta School of Management at IIT Kharagpur and Shailesh J Mehta School of Management at IIT Bombay are management schools inside IITs set up largely by alumni donations, and have been named after the donors.

The IIT alumni have succeeded in a variety of fields. Many have become entrepreneurs, including N.R. Narayana Murthy (Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys), Vinod Khosla (Co-founder, Sun Microsystems), and Dr. Suhas S. Patil (founder and Chairman Emeritus Cirrus Logic Inc). Others went on to achieve top posts in organisations like Rajat Gupta (Managing Director, McKinsey), Arun Sarin (CEO, Vodafone), Victor Menezes (Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup), and Kanwal Rekhi (CTO, Novell). IIT alumni have also advanced in politics, with Manohar Parrikar going on to become the Chief Minister of Goa. Many IIT alumni have gained national and international recognition with Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya getting CBE, knighthood, and Padma Bhushan and V. C. Kulandaiswamy getting Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. Narendra Karmarkar is also world-renowned for his work in applied mathematics.

See also: List of notable IIT alumni

Further reading

• Rajguru, Suvarna (2003). IIT India's Intellectual Treasures. India: Indus Media. ISBN 0974739308. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• INDIA'S WHIZ KIDS — Inside the Indian Institutes of Technology's star factory. Asian Edition: BusinessWeek. 1998. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Kirpal, Viney (1999). Equality Through Reservations. India: Vedams. ISBN 8170335269. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Deb, Sandipan (2004). The IITians. India: Penguin Books. ISBN 0670049867.
• Murali, Kanta (2003-02-01). "The IIT Story: Issues and Concerns". Frontline Magazine – Volume 20 - Issue 03. Frontline. Retrieved 2006-05-14.
• {{cite AV media}}: Empty citation (help) On Google Video (92MB).

External links

• IIT Bombay
• IIT Delhi
• IIT Guwahati
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Kharagpur
• IIT Madras
• IIT Roorkee
• PanIIT Alumni Organization
• Exams4India on IIT JEE 2006