NEW DELHI: The Indian Institutes of Technology have been the pride of the nation. The IITs proved to the world the capability of India in the domains of education and technology. In more than one way, the story of the IITs is the story of Independent India. The IITs have contributed immensely to India’s improved standing on the global stage today. Faculty and alumni of IITs have shown the world our brainpower. The impact of IITs has gone beyond science and technology. IITians are leaders in every walk of life – in education, industry, entrepreneurship, civil society, activism, journalism, literature and politics.
The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu noted that as one of the original IITs, IIT Delhi is a mentor to some of the recent members of the club – IIT Ropar and IIT Jammu. Thus, the IIT Delhi has contributed significantly in building up of the image of the IITs as centres of excellence across the world. The IIT Delhi has always seen itself as part of the larger community and it has been extra sensitive to its responsibility towards society.
The President said that by 2047, when we will celebrate the centenary of Independence, the world around us will have changed drastically, thanks to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Just as we were in no position 25 years ago to imagine the contemporary world, we cannot visualise today how Artificial Intelligence and automation are going to transform life. With our high population numbers, we need to have a foresight and strategies in place to deal with the forces of the future where disruptions will be a new normal. The nature of employment will get completely changed.
Meanwhile, Educational Institutions hold prime importance in building a secure future for the nation and of the world by serving as the gateway of hopes, opportunities and experiences. It is important that the prime years of youth, spent here, must nurture the curiosity of young minds. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been playing a prominent role in this arena; from generating new knowledge by engaging in cutting-edge research, promoting academic growth and developing human potential to its fullest extent so that intellectually capable and imaginatively gifted leaders can emerge in a range of domains and professions.
There are 23 IITs spread across India, providing access to quality higher education to students from every corner of the nation. These institutions have achieved major milestones in ensuring academic integrity & accountability, expanding the breadth of understanding and instilling the unfettered spirit of exploration, rationality and enterprise in the youth. IITs have not only changed the lives of many individuals and families but have also contributed on a broader horizon to the growth of the nation at a global level.
Strong research and analytical approach to problems open doors to new areas of thought, learning and knowledge. Fostering such an attitude among the citizens will make the nation produce immense in-house innovative solutions. Outcomes of such projects contribute to providing a wide range of offerings, from security, technical & medical solutions to enhanced ease of living.
One of the recent examples of IIT contributing to the nation by its contribution seen during the initial phase of the pandemic. Rising to the challenge of containing the virus, IIT Delhi initiated important research and development projects. It designed and developed rapid antigen test kits, PPEs, antimicrobial fabrics, high efficiency face masks and low-cost ventilators, among other things. IIT Delhi’s contribution in India’s fight against the Coronavirus has been a model of how engineering and technology institutions too can play a role in a public health crisis.
Passionate students and active alumni of IITs are setting forth exceptional benefaction for the nation. The concept of ‘Avishkar Hyperloop’ is a testimony to it. A passionate student, leading a team at IIT, committed to changing the future of mobility in India developed scalable Hyperloop technologies. Hyperloop is a new innovative transportation solution for a sustainable, fast and connected future with a minimal carbon footprint. Indian Railways joined hands with IIT Madras to indigenously develop Hyperloop technology-based transportation system which runs faster than bullet trains and has considerably low operating costs. To provide financial support, Indian Railways will extend Rs. 8.34 crores to IIT Madras for this project.
Another example may be quoted of a joint team of scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, who for the first time in the country, successfully demonstrated Quantum Key Distribution link between Prayagraj and Vindhyachal (more than 100 kilometres distance) in Uttar Pradesh. This technological breakthrough enables security agencies to plan a suitable quantum communication network with indigenous technology backbone, leading to secure key transfer for bootstrapping military-grade communication security key hierarchy.
Software solutions developed by IIT Kharagpur have proved invaluable in the fight against Covid-19. During the pandemic, IIT Kharagpur invented COVIRAP and telemedicine applications which brought hope to the people of the country. Research scholars from IIT Kharagpur and other IITs have also won laurels for their research at prominent international conferences. IIT Indore has been successful in securing 82 externally sponsored research projects worth over Rs. 22.00 crores.
Projects like these, among numerous others, are helping India set benchmarks across the world, assuring the consistent provision of innovative ways to serve mankind.
Meeting the market needs in a country as diverse and populous as India widens the scope for those seeking great opportunities. An individual, group or organization wanting to contribute to the nation needs support and guidance in order to unleash their entrepreneurial dreams. IITs offer an ideal setup for such persons to seize opportunities and translate their visions into reality. They have been a symbol of self-reliance & self-confidence and flag-bearers of ‘Startup India’. For example, to foster a Startup ecosystem, IIT Alumni Council signed an MoU in December 2021 with DRDO India towards mentoring of Startups and MSMEs for marketing and access to non-defence customers to improve their outreach.
There is an endless list of Startups founded by alumni of IITs, a few among them being Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart), Abhay Singhal (InMobi), Ankit Bhati and Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola), Deepinder Goyal (Zomato), Jyoti Bansal (AppDynamics), K.V. Rao (Zuora), Pankaj Chaddah (Zomato), Rohit Bansal (Snapdeal) and Sanjay Sethi (ShopClues.com).
The statistics released by various IITs depict a successful journey of promoting startups in India. With IIT Bombay accounting for more than 200 Startups, over 800 entrepreneurs & employment opportunities exceeding 5000, IIT Madras releasing a list of 200 deep technology Startups, IIT Delhi acknowledging the entrepreneurs and their ventures in a booklet, these Institutes are not just supporting self-reliant youth and boosting ‘Make In India’ but are also magnifying employment opportunities in India to maximise its demographic dividend.
A patent is an exclusive right granted to an inventor, allowing the inventor to exclude others from making, using or selling his or her invention in that country during the life of the patent. India’s mighty strides in the field of innovation and in creating new knowledge is reflected in the number of patents researchers filed in one year. According to Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the Indian Institute of Technology is the top applicant, with the highest number of patent applications. The following table shows the total number of patents granted in respective academic years by IITs:
The IITs have also proved their consistency in delivering quality education, visible from their standing in noteworthy ranking systems. IITs have been featured consistently among the top-ranking educational institutions in the country and abroad. IIT Indore (2021-22) has been ranked third in India by Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking. IIT Ropar has been ranked number one in the world in research citations. In the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), IIT Ropar stood 25th in all India Engineering Institutional Ranking 2019-20. In QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) India Rankings 2020, with an overall rank of 25th in India, IIT Ropar is ahead of all IITs in research quality, scoring highest in citations per paper. Apart from these, the Post Graduate Diploma course in Business Analytics in IIT Kharagpur (2021-22) is ranked 38th worldwide and 3rd in Asia by QS World University Rankings in the business analytics category.
Moreover, as per India Rankings 2022 of Higher Educational Institutions, released by the Ministry of Education, IIT Madras retained the top position in Overall Category for the fourth consecutive year and in Engineering for the seventh consecutive year. IIT Roorkee stood at the first position in the subject of Architecture for the second consecutive year.
