MCQ Questions

Questions

Practice mode — a mixed feed of questions and articles for each subject. Prefer reading first? Browse the Articles index instead →

Articles

Study mode — the full article library for each subject, no practice questions mixed in. Want to practice instead? Browse Questions by subject →

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)

An international consortium led by MIT helped build India’s first IIT. Seventy years later, an IIT has opened its own campus abroad.

From One Campus to a Global Network

GK0081

1951

First IIT Founded

IIT Kharagpur inaugurated by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, with MIT-led international support

1961

IT Act Passed

The Institutes of Technology Act declares every IIT an Institute of National Importance

2004–2016

Rapid Expansion

16 of today’s 23 IITs are established in this window, more than doubling the network

2023

First Overseas Campus

IIT Madras opens a campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania, India’s first IIT abroad

One Act, many campuses: every IIT, old or new, draws its Institute of National Importance status from the same 1961 Act.

📑 Contents

1951: IIT Kharagpur, the first IIT, is inaugurated by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. An MIT-led consortium of 13 international universities, under UNESCO, helps set it up.
1961: The Institutes of Technology Act declares every IIT an Institute of National Importance.
2004–2016: 16 of today’s 23 IITs are established in this window, the network’s sharpest expansion.
2023: IIT Madras opens a campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania. It is the first IIT campus outside India.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are India’s premier engineering and technology institutes. There are 23 IITs today.
The first IIT, at Kharagpur, was founded in 1951, inaugurated by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
All IITs are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. Each is an Institute of National Importance.
Admission runs through JEE Advanced, open to students who first qualify JEE Main, followed by JoSAA counselling.
The seven “old IITs” are Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Roorkee, and Guwahati.

Each IIT has autonomy in admissions, curriculum, and faculty hiring. All are funded by the central government.
Across all 23 IITs, roughly 18,160 undergraduate seats are filled through JEE Advanced each year.
IIT Roorkee is India’s oldest engineering institution by founding date. It began in 1847, but only became an IIT in 2001, after functioning for over 150 years as the University of Roorkee.
IIT Madras opened India’s first IIT overseas campus, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in 2023. IIT Delhi has since set up a campus in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
By NIRF 2025 rankings, IIT Madras placed first among all IITs, followed by IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.

The “old IITs” versus post-2004 IITs distinction matters beyond trivia. Older institutes generally carry deeper infrastructure, alumni networks, and research output, which is part of why NIRF rankings still cluster the oldest campuses near the top.
A single 1961 Act, extended by later amendments, is what lets a brand-new IIT carry the exact same Institute of National Importance status as Kharagpur. The law standardises status; it doesn’t standardise institutional maturity.
IITs sit within India’s wider higher-education landscape alongside other central institutions. See GK0018 — Universities of India for that fuller landscape, and GK0080 — Education in India for how school policy, higher education, and AI education all connect.