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Indian Institutes of Technology

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Education

   Location of IITs
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   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 and
   declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Government of
   India. The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with
   the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and
   social development of India after independence in 1947. The students
   and alumni of IITs are colloquially referred to as IITians.

   In order of establishment, the seven IITs are located at Kharagpur,
   Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and
   Roorkee. Some IITs were established with financial assistance and
   technical expertise from UNESCO, Germany, the United States, and the
   Soviet Union. Each IIT is an autonomous university, linked to the
   others through a common IIT Council, which oversees their
   administration. They have a common admission process for undergraduate
   admissions, using the Joint Entrance Examination (popularly known as
   IIT-JEE) to select around 4,000 undergraduate candidates a year.
   Graduate Admissions are done on the basis of the GATE. About 15,500
   undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students study in the seven IITs, in
   addition to research scholars.

   IITians have achieved success in a variety of professions, resulting in
   the establishment of the widely recognised Brand IIT. The autonomy of
   the IITs has helped them to create specialised degrees in technology at
   the undergraduate level, and consequently to award the Bachelor of
   Technology (B.Tech.) degree, as opposed to the Bachelor of Engineering
   (BE) degree awarded by most other Indian universities. The success of
   the IITs has led to the creation of similar institutes in other fields,
   such as the National Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of
   Management and the Institutes of Information Technology and Management
   ( IIIT).

The Institutes

   Quotes about Indian Institute of Technology
   Main Building of IIT Kharagpur
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   Main Building of IIT Kharagpur

   The seven IITs are located in Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi,
   Guwahati, and Roorkee. All IITs are autonomous universities that draft
   their own curricula, and they are, with the exception of IIT Kanpur,
   members of LAOTSE, an international network of universities in Europe
   and Asia. LAOTSE membership allows the IITs to exchange students and
   senior scholars with universities in other countries.

   IIT Kharagpur was the first of the IITs. Established in 1951, it is in
   Kharagpur (near Kolkata) in the state of West Bengal. It has 29
   academic departments, centres and schools, spread over a 8.5  km²
   (2,100  acre) campus that is a self-contained township of over 15,000
   inhabitants. It has about 450 faculty, 2,200 employees, 3,000
   undergraduates and 2,500 postgraduates. The students live in 17 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 is the largest technical library in Asia.
   Main Building of IIT Bombay
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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 Soviet Union, which provided technical expertise. The Indian
   government underwrote all other expenses, including the construction
   costs. 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 of Maharashtra. In addition, IIT Bombay has 13 student hostels
   with about 2,200 undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate students. IIT
   Bombay also has schools in management ( Shailesh J. Mehta School of
   Management) and information technology ( Kanwal Rekhi School of
   Information Technology) on its premises. Despite a change in the name
   of the city, the IIT retains the original name.

   IIT Madras is located in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. It was
   established in 1959 with technical assistance from the Government of
   West Germany and has nearly 360 faculty and approximately 2,500
   undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate students. The campus is spread
   over an area of about 2.5 km² (620 acres), and has 15 academic
   departments, nearly 100 laboratories, and 14 hostels. As with IIT
   Bombay, it retains its original name despite a change in the name of
   its city.
   Mathematics department in IIT Delhi
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   Mathematics department in IIT Delhi

   IIT Kanpur was established in 1959 in the city of Kanpur, Uttar
   Pradesh. During its first 10 years, IIT Kanpur benefited from the
   Kanpur–Indo-American Programme, where a consortium of nine US
   universities helped to 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 the 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 (New Delhi) and has an area of 1.3 km²
   (320 acres). It has 11 hostels and 26 departments, centres and schools.
   It has 426 faculty members and approximately 2,200 undergraduate and
   1,600 postgraduate students.
   Panoramic view of IIT Guwahati
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   Panoramic view of IIT Guwahati

   IIT Guwahati was established in 1994 near the city of Guwahati ( Assam)
   on the northern banks of the Brahmaputra River. The sprawling 2.85 km²
   (705 acres) campus 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.

   IIT Roorkee, originally known as the University of Roorkee, was
   established in 1847 as the first engineering college of the British
   Empire. Located in Uttaranchal, the college was renamed The Thomason
   College of Civil Engineering in 1854 and was granted IIT status in
   2001. The institute offers undergraduate degree courses in 10
   disciplines of engineering and architecture, and postgraduate degrees
   in 55 disciplines. It has 375 faculty members. The campus is about
   1.45 km² (360 acres) in size and has eight hostels.

Establishment and development

   The history of the IIT system dates back 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 these
   institutions in various parts of India, with affiliated secondary
   institutions. The committee felt that such institutes should not only
   produce undergraduates, but researchers and academics. The institutes
   were expected to maintain high educational standards.
   The office of the Hijli Detention Camp (photographed September 1951)
   served as the first academic building of IIT Kharagpur
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   The office of the Hijli Detention Camp (photographed September 1951)
   served as the first academic building of IIT Kharagpur

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


   Indian Institutes of Technology

   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.


   Indian Institutes of Technology

   On the recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, four campuses were
   established at Mumbai (1958), Chennai (1959), Kanpur (1959), and Delhi
   (1961). The location of these campuses was chosen to be scattered
   throughout India to prevent regional imbalance. The Indian Institutes
   of Technology Act was amended to reflect the addition of new IITs.
   Student agitations in the state of Assam made Prime Minister Rajiv
   Gandhi promise the creation of a new IIT in Assam. This led to a sixth
   campus at Guwahati under the Assam Accord in 1994. The University of
   Roorkee, India's oldest engineering college, was conferred IIT status
   in 2001.
   Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) is a candidate to
   become an IIT.
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   Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) is a candidate to
   become an IIT.

   Over the past few years, there have been a number of developments
   toward establishing new IITs. On October 1, 2003, Prime Minister 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 the S K
   Joshi Committee in November 2003 to guide the selection of the five
   institutions which would become the five new IITs.

   Based on the initial recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, it was
   decided that further IITs should be spread throughout the country. When
   the government expressed its willingness to correct this regional
   imbalance, 16 states demanded IITs. Since the S K Joshi Committee
   prescribed strict guidelines for institutions aspiring to be IITs, only
   seven colleges were selected for final consideration. Plans are also
   reported to open IITs outside India, though not enough progress has
   been made in this regard.

Organisational structure

   Organisational Structure of IITs
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   Organisational Structure of IITs

   The President of India is the most powerful person in the
   organisational structure of IITs, being the ex officio Visitor, and
   having residual powers. Directly under the President is the IIT
   Council, which comprises of the minister-in-charge of technical
   education in the Union Government, the Chairmen of all IITs, the
   Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of the University Grants
   Commission, the Director General of CSIR, the Chairman of IISc, the
   Director of IISc, three members of Parliament, the Joint Council
   Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, and three
   appointees each of the Union Government, AICTE, and the Visitor.

   Under the IIT Council is the Board of Governors of each IIT. Under the
   Board of Governors is the Director, who is the chief academic and
   executive officer of the IIT. Under the Director, in the organisational
   structure, comes the Deputy Director. Under the Director and the Deputy
   Director, come the Deans, Heads of Departments, Registrar, President of
   the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.
   The Registrar is the chief administrative officer of the IIT and
   overviews the day-to-day operations. Below the Heads of Department
   (HOD) are the 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 through various written entrance examinations. Admission to
   M.S. and Ph.D. programs is based primarily on a personal interview,
   though candidates may also have to appear for 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

   Entrance of IIT Madras
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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
   qualify admission via IIT-JEE can apply for admission in B.Tech.
   (Bachelor of Technology), Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of
   Technology and Master of Technology) and Integrated M.Sc. (Master of
   Sciences) courses in IITs. IIT-JEE is a science-oriented entrance exam,
   testing candidate's knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry. It
   is conducted by an IIT chosen by a policy of rotation. Admission is
   very competitive, given the huge population of India, the undergraduate
   acceptance rate through JEE has a low ratio, around 1 in 55, with about
   300,000 annual test takers for about 5,500 seats. Only about 4,000 of
   these seats are offered by IITs, the rest belonging to other institutes
   that use IIT-JEE. 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. Since IIT-JEE
   2006, the format of the question paper was changed to 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 aggregate of 60% marks 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 aggregate of
   55% in the qualifying examination. The upper age limit for appearing
   for the IIT-JEE is 25 years. The age limit is relaxed to 30 years for
   candidates classified in the SC, ST and PD categories. Starting with
   IIT-JEE 2007, a candidate can take IIT-JEE a maximum of two times, and
   students who are selected for an IIT cannot attempt the examination
   again.

   The admissions into the postgraduate programmes are made through
   various exams, primarily the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
   (GATE) for M.Tech. and some MS courses. 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

   India is one of the countries that practices a form of affirmative
   action (known by critics as reverse discrimination) on caste-based
   reserved quotas. As per the provisions in the Indian constitution, the
   IITs have been reserving seats for Scheduled Castes of society since
   1973. The IITs follow a reservation policy that is notably different
   from the quota policy elsewhere in India.

   As per the rules of admission to IITs, 15% of the admitted students
   must be of the Scheduled Castes, and 7.5% of seats are reserved for
   Scheduled Tribes. As of 2006, no separate reservation exists for the
   Other Backward Classes (OBCs, a group of castes which, though not
   untouchable, are socially and economically disadvantaged) in spite of
   the Mandal commission recommendations. The IITs are not bound to fill
   these quotas of seats, and many of them remain vacant owing to the
   nature of selection process. In 2004, 112 out of 279 seats reserved for
   ST candidates, and 11 out of 556 seats reserved for SC candidates, were
   left vacant.

   As per the rules, all the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST)
   candidates must take the IIT-JEE with the rest of the students. Based
   on the results of IIT-JEE, those SC/ST candidates who score more than
   two-third of the marks scored by the General Category student admitted
   with the lowest score are admitted directly to IITs. Another group of
   candidates who do not meet this relaxed admission criteria are offered
   a "Preparatory Course" comprising of English, Physics, Chemistry and
   Mathematics at the IIT concerned. After one year of study, those
   candidates who are able to secure a grade higher than the prescribed
   cut-off mark during end-of-semester exams are allowed to continue
   regular studies. There is no relaxation on the criteria for passing the
   exams or graduating a course. The candidates admitted through the
   reservation policy are also subjected to the same criteria as the
   general candiates for graduation.

   In 1989, Prime Minister V. P. Singh accepted and implemented the
   proposals of the Mandal Commission that recommended provisions of
   reservations for OBCs in private unaided institutions as well as
   high-end government jobs for minority communities. No changes took
   place in the IITs because of the legislation, but in 2005, based on the
   recommendations of a political panel, the UPA government proposed to
   implement the reserved-quota system for the OBCs in IITs and IIMs. It
   received critical objections by BJP and other opposing parties, who
   described the proposal as "dangerous and divisive". When the government
   planned to implement the quota system, anti-reservation protests were
   organised throughout India against the proposal. Student agitations
   also took place in the IITs and many students who opposed caste-based
   reservations resorted to hunger strikes. They labelled the quota system
   as a government tactic to earn cheap votes, and that the system would
   lead to increased casteism and a severe compromise on merit and talent.

   The additional procedures for admission into the IITs (the preparatory
   course and the qualifying end-of-semester exams that follow) have also
   been criticised as unnecessary and counter-productive. One of the
   arguments opposing the modified policy of reservation and favouring
   direct admission is that a large number of seats remain vacant under
   the present scheme.

Education

   PK Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur
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   PK Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur

   The IITs receive disproportionately high grants compared to other
   engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to
   most other engineering colleges is around Rs. 100–200 million per year,
   the amount varies between Rs. 900–1,300 million per year for each IIT.
   Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding from
   industry. 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 faculty-to-student ratio in the
   IITs is between 1:6 and 1:8. The Standing Committee of IIT Council
   (SCIC) prescribes the lower limit for faculty-to-student ratio as 1:9,
   applied department wise. 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
   students for higher studies, per the recommendations of the Thacker
   Committee (1959–1961). The cost borne by undergraduate students
   including boarding and mess expenses is around Rs. 50,000 per annum.

   The various IITs function autonomously, and their special status as
   Institutes of National Importance facilitates the smooth running of
   IITs, virtually free from both regional as well as student politics.
   Such autonomy means that IITs can create their own curricula and adapt
   rapidly to the changes in educational requirements, free from
   bureaucratic hurdles. 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. The classes are usually held
   between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., though there are some variations
   within each IIT. 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 students to access on-line journals and
   periodicals.

   The academic policies of each IIT are decided by its Senate. This
   comprises all professors of the IIT and student representatives. Unlike
   many western universities that have an elected senate, the IITs have an
   academic senate. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses,
   examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific
   academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the
   institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain
   educational standards. The Director of an IIT is the ex-officio
   Chairman of the Senate.

   All the IITs follow the credits system of performance evaluation, with
   proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total
   marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, with a grade value
   (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. Sometimes, relative grading
   is done considering the overall performance of the whole class. For
   each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on
   their performance, by taking a weighted average of the grade points
   from all the courses, with their respective credit points. 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 CPI—Cumulative Performance Index).

Undergraduate education

   The B.Tech. degree is the most common undergraduate degree in the IITs
   in terms of student enrolment, although Dual Degrees and Integrated
   (five-year) Master of Science degrees are also offered. The B.Tech
   course is based on a 4-year program with eight semesters, while the
   Dual Degree course is a 5-year program with ten semesters. In all IITs,
   the first year of B.Tech. and Dual Degree courses are marked by a
   common course structure for all the students, though in some IITs, a
   single department introduction related course is also included. The
   common courses include the basics from most of the departments like
   Electronics, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Physics. At the end of first
   year (the end of first semester at IIT Madras), an option to change
   departments is given to meritorious students on the basis of their
   performance in the first two semesters. Only few such changes
   eventually take place as the criteria for it is usually strict,
   allowing only the exceptionally meritorious students.

   From the second year onwards, the students study subjects exclusively
   from their respective departments. In addition to these, the students
   have to take compulsory advanced courses from other departments in
   order to broaden their education. Separate compulsory courses from
   humanities and social sciences department, and sometimes management
   courses are also enforced. 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 process of the respective IIT, though
   some students opt out of this either when going for higher studies or
   when they take up jobs by applying to the companies directly.

Postgraduate and doctoral education

   IIT Madras Library
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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),only for
   engineers and post graduates in science, and Master of Science (M.Sc.).
   Some IITs offer specialised graduate programmes such as Post Graduate
   Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Master in Medical Science
   and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), Postgraduate
   Diploma in Intellectual Property Law (PGDIPL), Master in Design (MDes),
   and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM).
   The IITs also offer Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) as part of
   their 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 usually unspecified and depends on the specific 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 often provided. Some of the IITs offer an M.S.
   (by research) program; the M.Tech. and M.S. are similar to the US
   universities' non-thesis (course based) and thesis (research based)
   master programs respectively. The IITs, along with NITs and IISc,
   account for nearly 80% of all PhDs in engineering.

   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
   specialisation. It is completed in five years as against six years in
   conventional B.Tech. (four years) followed by an M.Tech. (two years).
   The reason for starting this program was to encourage IITians to
   complete postgraduate studies from IIT rather than going to other
   reputed institutes. All IITs (except IIT Guwahati) have schools of
   management offering degrees in management or business administration.

Culture and student life

   Open-air theatre in IIT Madras. It is used to host technical and
   cultural events.
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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. All the IITs have sports grounds for cricket, football(soccer),
   hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, and 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, typically lasting three
   or four days. The 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 of them 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, earning the ISO 9001:2000 certification.

   Annual cultural festivals are also organised by the IITs and last three
   to four days. 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).
   Illumination festival in IIT Kharagpur. The outlines are made by
   earthen lamps.
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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 6 metres (20 feet) are made and earthen lamps ( diyas) are
   placed on them to form outlines of people, monuments, or an event. Held
   as a competition between the hostels, it also receives by outside
   visitors. Coupled with the Illumination festival is the Rangoli
   festival. In Rangoli, large panels showing an event or a concept, are
   made on the ground by fine powder, and sometimes even by crushed
   bangles.

   Unique to IIT Bombay is the Performing Arts Festival (popularly known
   as PAF). Technically a drama, each PAF includes drama, literature,
   music, fine arts, debating, and dance. All PAFs are held in the Open
   Air Theatre (OAT), on the main campus of IIT Bombay. Typically two or
   three hostels (of 14) group together by random draw for each PAF. All
   of the dialogues are delivered as voice overs and not by the actors,
   mainly due to the structure and the huge size of the OAT.
   A volleyball event at Inter IIT Sports Meet-2004
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   A volleyball event at Inter IIT Sports Meet-2004

Inter-IIT sports meet

   The IITs compete among themselves in a number of sports events held
   under the aegis of the Annual Inter-IIT Sports Meet. Started in 1961,
   the competition is held every December at an IIT chosen by rotation.
   The award consists of a running shield that is passed over to the
   winning IIT. The winner is decided based on the weighted sum of the
   points earned in various events held over a period of five days.
   Separate events for men and women are held and points are tallied
   separately for determining the final winner of the General
   Championship.

   The 12 events included 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
   in the month of December, the Inter-IIT Sports Meet for them is 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 their 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 have special privileges and lays the
   foundation for them to evolve as world-class institutes. The autonomy
   ensured by the Act enables the IITs to implement changes quickly, to
   keep up with changing scenarios in both the educational world, and
   society in general. Student politics in IITs is 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, as it
   enables the IITs to accept only a select group of meritorious 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
   stringent faculty recruitment procedures and industry collaboration.
   The procedure for selection of faculty in IITs is stricter as compared
   to other colleges offering similar degrees. The Ph.D. degree is a
   pre-requisite for all regular faculty appointments. 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.

   The view that IIT graduates are intelligent and hardworking people has
   been established by the success of IITians. 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 replicate the model.

Educational rankings

   Most IITs are consistently ranked above other engineering colleges in
   India in engineering education surveys, with regard to quality of
   faculty, teaching standards, research facilities and campus placements.
   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 their World University Rankings and gave IITs
   the 36^th position globally for science. The IITs were ranked
   third-best worldwide for technology, after MIT and Caltech. In the
   Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities,
   only one IIT (IIT Kharagpur) was listed among the top 500 universities
   worldwide. The IITs fall short in many parameters that are considered
   for educational rankings. The criteria for ranking prominently includes
   internationally recognised research output, in which the IITs do not
   achieve notable success. Another criteria being the Social Science
   Citation Index, the rank of IITs suffers as they do not have large
   departments of liberal arts and social sciences. Since the IITs have
   only a few international faculty and students (except those by exchange
   programs), the rankings of IITs in many international surveys have
   suffered. Since the IITs have scored better under most educational
   ranking criteria than other Indian colleges and universities, they
   continue to achieve top positions in nationwide surveys.

Criticism

   The IITs have faced criticism from within and outside academia. Major
   concerns include allegations that they encourage a brain drain and that
   their stringent entrance examinations encourage coaching colleges and
   skew the socio-economic profile of the student body. Other critics are
   concerned at the insufficient representation of women and the
   disadvantaged.

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. Until the process of liberalisation started in early 1990s,
   India was unable to provide good job opportunities to the graduates of
   IITs. This resulted in large scale emigration of IITians to western
   countries, especially to the United States. Since 1953, nearly
   twenty-five thousand IITians have settled in the USA. Since the USA
   benefited from subsidised education in IITs at the cost of Indian
   taxpayers' money, critics say that subsidising education in IITs is
   useless. Others support the emigration of graduates, arguing that the
   capital sent home by the IITians has been a major source of the
   expansion of foreign exchange reserves for India, which, until the
   1990s, had a substantial trade deficit.

   The extent of the brain drain has receded substantially over the past
   decade, with the percentage of students going abroad dropping from as
   high as 70% to around 30% today. This is largely attributed to the
   liberalisation of the Indian economy and the opening of previously
   closed markets. Government initiatives are encouraging IIT students
   into entrepreneurship programs and are increasing foreign investment.
   Emerging scientific and manufacturing industries, and outsourcing of
   technical jobs from North America and Western Europe have created
   opportunities for aspiring graduates in India. Many undergraduates go
   abroad to pursue further studies, such as MS and PhD.

Entrance competition

   The highly competitive examination in the form of IIT-JEE has led to
   establishment of a large number of coaching institutes throughout the
   country that provide intensive, and specific preparation for the
   IIT-JEE for substantial fees. It is argued that this favours students
   from specific regions and richer backgrounds. Some coaching institutes
   say that they have individually coached nearly 800 successful
   candidates year after year. According to some estimates, nearly 95% of
   all students who clear the IIT-JEE had joined coaching classes. The
   psychological stress and emotional trauma faced by candidates not able
   to pass the examination and their families is considered to be a
   serious problem. This has led to criticism of the way the examinations
   are conducted. The IIT-JEE format was restructured in 2006 following
   these complaints.

   After the change to the objective pattern of questioning, even the
   students who initially considered themselves not fit for subjective
   pattern of IIT-JEE decided to take the examination. Though the
   restructuring was meant to reduce the dependence of students on
   coaching classes, it led to an increase in students registering for
   coaching classes. Some people (mostly IITians) have criticised the
   changed pattern of the IIT-JEE. Their reasoning is that while IIT-JEE
   traditionally used to test students understanding of fundamentals and
   his ability to apply them to solve large unseen problems, the current
   pattern does not stress much on the application part.

Alumni

   Vinod Gupta School of Management in IIT Kharagpur
   Enlarge
   Vinod Gupta School of Management in IIT Kharagpur

   The IITians are known for their loyalty to their alma mater and many
   IIT Alumni Associations are active in India and abroad. The IIT alumni
   either help their alma mater in the form of donations, or by
   preferential job opportunities extended to students from the IITs. The
   Vinod Gupta School of Management at IIT Kharagpur and Shailesh J. Mehta
   School of Management at IIT Bombay are management schools within IITs
   that have been established largely by alumni donations; these schools
   were named after their benefactors.

   Many IIT alumni have become entrepreneurs, including N.R. Narayana
   Murthy (co-founder and chairman of Infosys), Vinod Khosla (co-founder,
   Sun Microsystems), and Suhas S. Patil (founder and Chairman Emeritus
   Cirrus Logic Inc.) Other alumni have achieved leading positions in
   corporations, such as Rajat Gupta (former Managing Director, McKinsey),
   Arun Sarin (CEO, Vodafone), Victor Menezes (Senior Vice Chairman,
   Citigroup), and Kanwal Rekhi (CTO, Novell). IIT alumni have also
   pursued careers in politics: for example, Manohar Parrikar became the
   Chief Minister of Goa. Many alumni have gained national and
   international recognition: Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya was awarded
   the CBE, a knighthood, and Padma Bhushan; and V. C. Kulandaiswamy was
   awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. Narendra Karmarkar is also
   world-renowned for his work in applied mathematics.

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