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The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher education, located in India. They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as institutions of national importance. Below are some interesting facts about them.

• IITs were set up on the basis of an interim report. The Sarkar committee, headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, never submitted a final report. The AICTE decided to accept the interim report and operate on its basis.The IIT Act was passed by Parliament only in 1961. By that time, five IITs had been set up and were fully functional.


• The ?first IITian? was J. K. Chandra. At the first convocation of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, Civil Engineering students were called up before any other department to receive their degrees. Chandra had topped Civil Engineering so he received his degree before anyone else.The number printed in his degree certificate is 1.


• IITs did not have an entrance exam in the beginning. Students were admitted on the basis of their academic records and interview. The first batch of IIT students consisted entirely of boys who held the top 10 ranks in their universities.


• IIT Kanpur was set up under the Kanpur Indo-American Programme, which was a consortium of nine American univesities, including MIT, Cornell, Columbia, CalTech and Case Western.


• IIT Kanpur also has its own airstrip for Aeronautical Engineering students.


• The 1975 batch of IIT Bombay started ?Mood Indigo? in the year 1971, which is supposed to be Asia?s largest cultural festival. The very first fest took place in 1973. In 1981, the popular duo of R. D. Burman and Asha Bhosle performed at Mood Indigo.


• The 1991 the fest was supposed to happen in December but was postponed to January due to the Ayodhya incident. In January, the Bombay riots took place. Finally, it happened in March just one week after the Bombay blasts. Also CloseUp and Colgate were the main sponsors. ?It was like Coke and Pepsi sponsoring an event together?.


• Mood Indigo?s budget in 1997 was 24 Lakhs which was a huge amount for the time.


• In 1991,Vinod Gupta became the first IITian to donate money to his alma mater. He set up a $2 Million trust to create the Vinod Gupta School of Management on the Kharagpur campus.


• In 1981 the very first woman metallurgist in Indian history graduated from IIT. The same year, IIT Bombay admitted a girl for the first time in Mechanical Engineering.

Hope these facts interest and motivate you to work towards achieving your goal of studying in one of the most premier and difficult to get into institutes in the world.