The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) (Hindi: राष्ट्रीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान), are a group of premier public engineering institutes of India. On their inception decades ago, all NITs were referred as Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) and were governed by their respective state governments. NITs were founded to promote regional diversity and multi-cultural understanding in India. Comprising thirty autonomous institutes, they are located in one each major state/territory of India. In 2007,the Indian government declared these schools as Institute of National Importance.
NITs offer degree courses at bachelors, masters, and doctorate levels in various branches of engineering and technology. All NITs are autonomous which enables them to set up their own curriculum.
Admission to NITs was done by the erstwhile All India Engineering Entrance Examination, now replaced by Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main) conducted across India.
History
Jawaharlal Nehru sought to develop India as a leader in science and technology. The Government started fourteen RECs between 1959 and 1965, at Bhopal, Allahabad, Kozhikode, Durgapur, Kurukshetra, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Nagpur, Rourkela, Srinagar, Surathkal, Surat, Tiruchirappalli, and Warangal. It established one in Silchar in 1967 and added two others located at Hamirpur in 1986, and Jalandhar in 1987.
The RECs were jointly operated by the central government and the concerned state government. Non-recurring expenditures and expenditures for post-graduate courses during the REC period were borne by the central government, while recurring expenditure on undergraduate courses was shared equally by central and state governments.
The success of technology-based industry led to high demand for technical and scientific education. Due to the enormous costs and infrastructure involved in creating globally respected Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), in 2002 MHRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi decided to upgrade RECs to "National Institutes of Technology" (NITs) instead of creating IITs. The central government controls NITs and provides all funding. In 2003, all RECs became NITs.
The upgrade was designed along the lines of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) after it was concluded that RECs had potential as proven by the success of their alumni and their contributions in the field of technical education. Subsequently, funding and autonomy for NITs increased, and they award degrees which have raised their graduates' perceived value. These changes implemented recommendations of the "High Powered Review Committee" (HPRC).[1] The HPRC, chaired by Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, submitted its report entitled "Strategic Road Map for Academic Excellence of Future RECs" in 1998.
In 2006, MHRD issued NIT status to three more colleges, located at Patna (Bihar Engineering College - a 110 year old college), Raipur (Government Engineering College),[2] and Agartala (Tripura Engineering College).[2] Based on the request of state governments and feasibility, future NITs are either converted from existing institutes or can be freshly created. The 21st (and the first brand-new) NIT is planned for Imphal in the north-eastern state of Manipur at an initial cost of Rs. 500 crores. In 2010, the government announced setting up ten new NITs[3] in the remaining states/territories. This would lead to every state in India having its own NIT.
With the technology based industry's continuing growth, the government decided to upgrade twenty National Institutes of Technology to full-fledged technical universities. Parliament passed enabling legislation, the National Institutes of Technology Act in 2007 and took effect on 15 August of that year. The target is to fulfill the need for quality manpower in the field of engineering, science, and technology and to provide consistent governance, fee structure, and rules across the NITs.[4][5][6] The law designates each NIT an Institute of National Importance (INI).
Financing
Average NIT funding increased to Rs. 100 crores by year 2011. On average, each NIT also receives Rs. 20-25 crores under World Bank funded Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP).[7]
List of NITs
Governance
The President of India is the ex officio visitor of all the NITs. The NIT Council works directly under him and includes the minister-in-charge of technical education in Central Government, the Chairmen and the Directors of all the NITs, the Chairman of University Grants Commission (India), the Director General of CSIR, the Directors of other selected central institutions of repute, members of Parliament, Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, nominees of the Central Government, AICTE, and the Visitor.
Below the NIT Council is each NITs Board of Governors.
The Board of Governors of every individual NIT consists of the following members:
- Chairman -An Eminent Technologist / Engineer / Educationist to be nominated by the Govt. of India.
- Member Secretary- Director of the NIT.
- Nominee of the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India.
- Nominee of the Department of the Higher / Technical Education of the respective state government.
- Head of another Technical Institution in the region or an eminent Technologist to be nominated by Central Govt.
- Director, IIT (in the region) or his nominee.
- Nominee of the UGC not below the rank of a Dy Secretary.
- Nominee of the AICTE not below the rank of an Advisor.
- An Alumnus of the Institute from amongst alumni in Education / Industry to be nominated by Board of Governors.
- Two representatives representing large, medium and small scale Industries to be nominated by Central Government.
- One Professor and one Assistant Professor of the Institute by rotation.
The Director serves under the Board of Governors, and is the school's chief academic and executive officer. Academic policies are decided by its Senate, which is composed of all professors and other representatives. The Senate controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations, and results. Senate committees examine specific academic matters. The teaching, training, and research activities of various departments of the institute are periodically reviewed to maintain educational standards. The Director is the ex officio Chairman of the Senate. The Deputy Director is subordinate to the Director. Together they 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 NITs are administrative postings rather than career paths. Faculty members serve as Deans and Heads of Departments for limited periods, typically 2–3 years, then returning to regular faculty duties. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer and overviews day-to-day operations. Below the Head of Department (HOD), are the various faculty members (professors, assistant professors, and lecturers). The Warden serves under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.
Education
Courses are divided into semesters with evaluation on the basis of credits, which allows for proportional weighting based on the course's importance. For each semester, grades range from 0 to 10. Semester evaluations are independently. The weighted average of the semesters is used to compute the cumulative grade point average (CGPA).
NITs are implementing dual degree programs, integrated postgraduate studies that complete in 5 years rather than the 6 year conventional track of a Bachelor's followed by a Master's degree. These programs encourage academic research, and began with mathematics and computing.
Stringent faculty recruitment and industry collaboration also contribute to NIT success. Faculty other than lecturers must have a Ph.D. and relevant teaching and industry experience. Existing faculty who do not meet these criteria enroll under a Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) at IITs and IISc.
Student life
NITs provide on-campus housing to students, research scholars, and faculty members.[8] Students live in hostels, also known as halls, throughout their college life. Most have single accommodation but many live in double or triple rooms during their initial years. Every hostel has a recreation room equipped with cable television, magazines, newspapers, and indoor games and in-room Internet connectivity. Every hall has its own cafeteria managed by the college or by a local private organization.[9] NITs also have a common cafeteria for students and a separate cafeteria for professors. During vacations, hostel dining is generally closed and the common cafeterias serve students who stay on campus.
All the NITs have an athletic ground and facilities for field, indoor and aquatic events.[10]
NIT campuses across India arrange official welcome parties and interaction sessions to acquaint newcomers with senior students and professors. Faculties and researchers from IITs and IISc organize occasional technical seminars and research labs.
Libraries
NITs have a Central Library equipped with technical books, literature, fiction, scientific journals, and other electronic material. Most have digitized their libraries. Some provide an intranet library facility. Every departmental library has high-speed connectivity. Electronic libraries allow students access to online journals and other periodicals through the AICTE-INDEST consortium, an initiative by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Students also have access to IEEE documents and journals.[11][12] While some have video conferencing facilities, others are upgrading under the World Bank funded TEQIP scheme.
Student Government
Some NITs individually conduct elections to elect student body a General Secretary and Vice President. These representatives are generally responsible for communicating with the college management and media, organising festivals, and also for various development programmes in their college. Some NITs (such as SVNIT, Surat and VNIT, Nagpur) have recently adopted online voting process. The committee which monitors the flow of funds has a student body representative. This committee also includes the Chairman of Board, an MHRD Representative, and NIT professors. But due to some disturbance in voting process, there have been no elections since 2008 in SVNIT, Surat.[13]
Disciplinary Committee
The Disciplinary Committee (DISCO) consists of the Director, the student affairs officer, and professors. and reports to MHRD. DISCO regulates student activities and combats student harassment and illegitimate student politics. After a series of harassment incidents, all NITs took strict measures especially to protect first year students.[14]
Extra-curricular activities
Popular extra curricular activities include National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS), Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), and annual college festivities.[15][16]
Students at NITs run hobby clubs such as Linux User Groups (LUGs), music clubs, debate clubs, literary clubs, and web design teams. Students also publish campus magazines which showcase student creativity and journalism. Students conduct regular quizzes and cultural programs. They also present research papers and participate in national level technical festivals at NITs, IITs, and IISc. Most NITs promote entrepreneurship by creating on-campus incubation centers under the STEP program.[17][18][19]
O-INSA
Organization for Inter-NIT Student Activities (O-INSA) coordinates cultural, technical, sports and other groups.[20]
Inter-NIT Sports
NITs compete annually in an Inter-NIT sports meeting, which rotates among schools.[20][21] Winners get cash prizes and trophies. Boys and girls compete separately. During February and March, NITs conduct annual sports contests in their respective locations. However, since 2007-2008, Inter NIT meetings have not been held during the academic calendar, to facilitate participation of more NITs and to avoid students missing class. In recent years, National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur has been the most successful.
Festivals
NITs conduct technical and cultural festivals to showcase student talents.[22] Technical festivals include research paper presentations, business quizzes and robotics competitions. Some NITs conduct online coding contests, attracting participants from multinational corporations and international universities. NITs also conduct cultural festivals with celebrity and student participants, including those from other schools. Festivals last 3 to 4 days and are usually held in the spring. Corporations and college management help fund these events.
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur has many festivals with the major ones being
- AXIS, the annual technical festival generally held in September.
- Consortium, the international business festival held in January.
- Aarohi, the annual cultural festival held in February.
- Quizfest, the annual quiz competition held in February.
- All India Inter NIT meet, previously VNIT Sports Fest held in January.
All these festivals are recognized as the Central India's largest festivals.
Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology organizes Avishkar, the technical festival which runs for 3 days, Gnosiomania, the largest knowledge festival of India which runs for a week, Culrav, the cultural festival, and an inter-NIT-sports festival.
National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur conducts a National Level technical festival in March, and is called Ojass, immediately followed by Utkarsh, the cultural festival. Also, the Metallurgy and Materials Science department of the college holds its own festival Technica.
NIT Bhopal organizes a student technical-cultural week known as Techno MAFFICK every year in the month of march.But in 2012 it was cancelled by its new director Dr.Appu Kuttan K.K. as a part of disciplinary actions.
NIT Agartala conducts two fests, a techfest known as "Aayam"[23] and a cultural fest known as "Mokshaa".[23][citation needed]
National Institute of Technology, Warangal organises 2 major festivals in an academic year- Technozion(Technical) and Spring Spree(Cultural). Both festivals attract thousands of students from all across the country every year.
National Institute of Technology Calicut conducts two annual festivals, Tathva,[24] its Techno-management festival, and Ragam, its Cultural festival.[25]
NIT Durgapur organises ten festivals each year, the most among NITs. They include Ank, Cinefest, Verve, Robocity, Mukti, Motor Zundung , Recstacy, Conoscenza and Elixier.
NIT Hamirpur annually conducts a national level cultural festival called "Hill 'Ffair" in fall and an engineering festival called "Nimbus" in spring.
NIT Jalandhar annually conducts a national level cultural festival called "UTKANSH" and a technical fest called "TECHNITI".
NIT Patna's technical and cultural festivals are CORONA and Melange respectively.
NIT Rourkela organizes the largest techno-management festival in the state of Odisha,[citation needed] named "InnoVision" (formerly "Confluence") and also the spring festival, "Nitrutsav" annually in the month of November and March, respectively.[citation needed]
National Institute of Technology Srinagar celebrates its annual techno-management festival Techvaganza during April. It is an annual three day science and technology festival of the institute. There are exhibitions and a display of technology from all parts of India. The festival is organized, financially managed and conducted entirely by the students of the Institute, with sponsorships from reputed companies. It will be again held on 2013.
NITK Surathkal hosts the second biggest cultural extravaganza in South India[citation needed] called Incident and also organizes a technical fest, Engineer which claims a participation of around a hundred colleges[citation needed] and is acclaimed as South India's biggest Technical Fest after Shastra of IIT Madras.[citation needed]
NIT Trichy organizes a technical fest called "Pragyan" and one of the biggest cultural festivals in Tamil Nadu[citation needed] called "Festember".[26][27][28]
NIT Silchar organises Incandescence-The techno-cultural fest. Under its umbrella comes Sankriti the cultural fest and Technoesis the technical. NIT Silchar also organises Bizarcade the biz fest for the budding entrepreneurs of India and Thundermarch, the rock fest.
Alumni
This is a list of some of the notable alumni of the National Institutes of Technology in India.
Business/Industry
| Name | Alma mater | Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta | NIT Bhopal | Project Director, Agni 5, DRDO. |
| R.K. Wanchoo | NIT Srinagar | Executive Director, BHEL, Hyderabad |
| Umesh Kumar | NIT Srinagar | Vice President and MD, Bartec Middle East FZE, Dubai |
| Sunil Dutt Sharma | NIT Srinagar | General Manager, Flovel Energy Pvt LTD, Faridabad |
| N Chandrasekaran | NIT, Trichy | Chief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services |
| Mouli Raman | NIT, Allahabad | Chief Executive Officer/Founder, OnMobile |
| C. P. Gurnani | NIT, Rourkela | Chief Executive Officer, Mahindra Satyam |
| K. V. Kamath | NIT, Surathkal | CEO of ICICI Bank, Padma Bhushana Awardee |
| Nelabhotla Venkateswarlu | NIT, Allahabad | CEO, Emami Limited |
| Srini Raju | NIT, Kurukshetra | Chairman, Peepul Capital, iLabs VCF, Former CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions & Satyam Enterprise Solutions |
| Dinesh Keskar | NIT, Nagpur | Senior VP, Boeing Aircraft Trading and Head Boeing India. |
| Pradeep Kar | NIT, Nagpur | Founder of Microland Technologies,and also the founder of the portal Indya.com |
| Manoj Varghese | NIT, Calicut | Director, Facebook India. |
| Sudhir Vasudeva | NIT, Raipur | Chief Managing Director, iocl |
Public service
| Name | Alma Mater | Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Prafulla Kumar Das | NIT, Rourkela (REC) | Engineer-in-Chief, Odisha (Retd.). |
| Deep Joshi | NIT, Allahabad | Recipient of Magsaysay award & Padma Shri, Social Activist, Founder of PRADAN(NGO) |
| Nitish Kumar | NIT, Patna | Chief Minister of Bihar |
| Suresh Pachouri | NIT, Bhopal | Member of Parliament |
| CAPT(Incharge) Dalbir Singh Sodhi | NIT Srinagar | HQ IDS Indian Navy, New Delhi |
| Dawood Danesh Jafari | NIT, Srinagar | Minister of Finance & Economic Affairs, Iran |
| Sharad Adhikary | NIT Srinagar | Ministry of Labor & Employment, Deptt. of Labor, Kathmandu, Govt. of Nepal |
| Prabhakaran Paleri | NIT, Calicut | Former Director General, Indian Coast Guard |
| Dr.Thomas Abraham | NIT, Jaipur | Chairman of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, coined the term PIO |
| Ajit Jogi | NIT, Bhopal | First Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh |
| Ram Vinay Shahi | NIT, Jamshedpur | Longest serving Power Secretary of India |
| Hemant Karkare | NIT, Nagpur | Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief, killed during the November 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks. |
Academia/Technology and Research
| Name | Alma Mater | Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Rajesh Adhikari | NIT Srinagar | Senior Research Analyst, Noise and Vibration, Ford Motor Coy, Dearbon, Michigan, USA |
| Samir Barua | NIT, Nagpur | Director, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad |
| A.K. Lahiri | NIT, Jamshedpur | Head, metallurgical Engineering Indian Institute of Science Bangalore |
| Chitranjan Sahay | NIT, Jamshedpur | Chairman,Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hartford |
| Siva S. Banda | NIT, Warangal | Director of the Control Science Center of Excellence and Senior Scientist in Control Theory for the Air Vehicles |
| Srinidhi Varadarajan | NIT, Warangal | Creator of SystemX and currently working at Virginia Tech. |
| K. R. Sridhar | NIT, Trichy | Former advisor to NASA on Mars missions and nanotechnology. |
| Baldev Raj | NIT, Raipur | Indian scientist and Former director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam, India. |
| Sudhir Vasudeva | NIT, Raipur | Gold Medalist in Chemical Engg. and CMD of the ONGC - Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, India. |
See also
References
- ^ Department-related Parliamentary standing committee on human resource development 178th report on The National Institutes of Technology Bill, 2006". Accessed July 6, 2007.
- ^ a b "Major decisions: cabinet". Archive. Press Information Bureau, Governmenmt of India. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
- ^ Central Counselling Board
- ^ The text of the NIT Act 2007 National Institute of Technology Act 2006
- ^ National Institute Of Technology Bill
- ^ "Three Bills passed in 15 minutes", "The Hindu", May 15, 2007. Accessed July 6, 2007.
- ^ News & Broadcast - World Bank Provides US$1.05 billion to Improve Education in India
- ^ http://www.nitc.ac.in/nitc/NIT_HOSTEL/index.htm [dead link]
- ^ NIT, Trichy
- ^ www.nitrkl.ac.in
- ^ NIT, Trichy
- ^ http://www.mnnit.ac.in/facilities/library.htm [dead link]
- ^ http://www.nitc.ac.in/nitc/SAC.pdf [dead link]
- ^ Tribune News Service. "Bail pleas of NIT ragging accused rejected", "The Tribune", Chandigarh, India, October 18, 2005. Accessed July 6, 2007.
- ^ NIT, Trichy
- ^ NIT, Trichy
- ^ ECELL | E-Cell , NIT Trichy
- ^ E-cell VNIT
- ^ "NIT-T to host TEDx on Sunday". The Hindu. Chennai, India. September 18, 2010.
- ^ a b Malaviya National Institute of Technology
- ^ "Inter-NIT sports and games meet begins". The Hindu. Chennai, India. December 16, 2008.
- ^ Pragyan
- ^ a b NIT Agartala > Current Students
- ^ "NIT-C's science fair for children". The Hindu. Chennai, India. September 25, 2011.
- ^ "Cultural fete at NIT-C from Wednesday". The Hindu. Chennai, India. March 12, 2007.
- ^ "NIT-T students eager to set a Guinness Record at Pragyan 2011". The Hindu. Chennai, India. February 18, 2011.
- ^ Pragyan 2011
- ^ "Festember back with a bang". The Hindu. Chennai, India. September 24, 2010.