National Institutes of Technology (India)

National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are premier schools of engineering and technology education in India. They were originally called as Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs). In 2002, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, decided to upgrade, in phases, all 17 Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) as National Institutes of Technology (NITs), on the lines of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). These institutes are rated just next to the IITs in terms of student quality and placements.

There are currently 18 of them, the latest being NIT,Patna. Their list is as follows :

History

During the second five year plan (1956-61) in India, a number of industrial projects were contemplated. And, to ensure enough supply of trained personnel to meet the demand for these projects, it was determined to start Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), at the rate of one per each major state, which can churn out graduates with good engineering merit. Thus, seventeen RECs (some of them are called Regional Institutes of Technology) were established from 1959 onwards in each of the major states. Each college is a joint and cooperative enterprise of the central government and the concerned state government. While all the 17 colleges offer degree courses in various branches of engineering and technology, 14 have facilities for postgraduate and doctoral programs. The entire non-recurring expenditure and expenditure for post-graduate courses in the RECs are borne by the central government. As regards the recurring expenditure on undergraduate courses, the same is shared by the central government and the state government on 50:50 basis.

Recent Changes

Since 2002, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, has been upgrading, in phases, all 17 Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) as National Institutes of Technology (NITs), on the lines of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). This was the result of the recommendations of the High Power 1988 Mashelkar Review Committee.

Entrance Examination

The Entrance for undergraduate courses in these colleges is through an All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) that is conducted every year across the nation. 50% of the seats of undergraduate courses are allotted to candidates from the home state where the NIT is located based upon rank obtained in the AIEEE examination. The remaining 50% of the seats are allocated to all the states of India in proportion to their respective populations.

Notable Alumni

Name	Campus	Year	Achievement
Srinidhi Varadarajan	NIT, Warangal	1994	Creator of SystemX - the third fastest supercomputer in the world and quite possibly the cheapest price/performance of any supercomputer on the TOP500 list. Currently, he is the Director of Terascale Computing Facility and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Website
Guruswami Ravichandran	NIT, Trichy	1981	Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at the prestigious California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Sunil Kumar	NIT, Surathkal	1990	Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology at the prestigious Graduate Business School, Stanford University
Satya Prabhakar	NIT, Trichy	1985	Founder and CEO of Sulekha.com - the largest portal for Indian community
[http://www.synfora.com/about/management.html Vinod Kathail	NIT, Bhopal		He is the founder and CTO of [http://www.synfora.com/about/management.html Synfora, a hardware design company that has emerged out of HP Labs after a 10 year research. Earlier, he led the Trimaran effort at Hewlett Packard in the role of Chief Architect of Elcor compiler, which constitutes most of the machine-dependent part of the Trimaran research infra-structure.

Uniqueness

Currently, the student body in any NIT constitutes 50% from the home state and 50% from the rest of India. So, any NIT will have students coming from every nook and corner of the extremely diversified Indian nation with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, dress, language and food habits, making each one of them a Little India in true sense. This is probably the single most important feature of these schools, which helps to foster a sense of integrity and understanding.

External links