How Many IITs Are There in India? — Complete List 2024

IIT stands for Indian Institute of Technology. These are autonomous public technical universities established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. IITs offer undergraduate (B.Tech), postgraduate (M.Tech, M.Sc, MBA), and doctoral (PhD) programmes in engineering, science, technology, design, and management. Each IIT has the authority to grant its own degrees and set its own curriculum. IITs are governed by a Board of Governors and are funded by the Central Government. They are consistently ranked among the top engineering institutions globally.

IIT Kharagpur was established on 18 August 1951 in Kharagpur, West Bengal, making it the oldest IIT in India. It was set up at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp, where British authorities had imprisoned Indian freedom fighters. The institute was formally inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, and was modelled after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. IIT Kharagpur has the largest campus of all IITs (2,100 acres) and is home to more than 20 academic departments. The institute inspired the creation of the entire IIT system in India.

The 23 IITs in India are: 1. IIT Kharagpur (West Bengal) — 1951; 2. IIT Bombay (Maharashtra) — 1958; 3. IIT Madras (Tamil Nadu) — 1959; 4. IIT Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) — 1959; 5. IIT Delhi (Delhi) — 1961; 6. IIT Guwahati (Assam) — 1994; 7. IIT Roorkee (Uttarakhand) — 2001 (formerly University of Roorkee, est. 1847); 8. IIT Hyderabad (Telangana) — 2008; 9. IIT Gandhinagar (Gujarat) — 2008; 10. IIT Jodhpur (Rajasthan) — 2008; 11. IIT Patna (Bihar) — 2008; 12. IIT Indore (Madhya Pradesh) — 2009; 13. IIT Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) — 2009; 14. IIT Varanasi / IIT-BHU (Uttar Pradesh) — 2012 (formerly IT-BHU); 15. IIT Palakkad (Kerala) — 2015; 16. IIT Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) — 2015; 17. IIT (ISM) Dhanbad (Jharkhand) — 2016; 18. IIT Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) — 2016; 19. IIT Goa — 2016; 20. IIT Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir) — 2016; 21. IIT Dharwad (Karnataka) — 2016; 22. IIT Ropar (Punjab) — 2008; 23. IIT Bhubaneswar (Odisha) — 2008.

Admission to the undergraduate B.Tech programme at IITs is through a two-stage process: JEE Main (Joint Entrance Examination Main) followed by JEE Advanced. JEE Main is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and serves as the qualifying exam for JEE Advanced. JEE Advanced is conducted by one of the IITs on a rotational basis and is one of the most difficult engineering entrance exams in the world. Only the top ~2.5 lakh students from JEE Main are eligible to appear for JEE Advanced, out of which approximately 16,000–17,000 students are admitted to IITs. IITs also admit students through GATE (for M.Tech) and CAT (for MBA) programmes.

IITs are considered among the finest engineering institutions in the world. In the QS World University Rankings 2024, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IIT Madras consistently rank in the top 200–300 globally in engineering. IIT Bombay is ranked #1 in India for engineering. IITs have produced some of India's most successful scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and global corporate leaders — including the CEOs of Google (Sundar Pichai, IIT Kharagpur) and Microsoft (Satya Nadella, IIT Manipal). IITs receive significant funding for research and have produced numerous patents, startups, and Nobel laureates.