The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (abbreviated as IITB or IIT Bombay) is a public technical and research university located in Powai, Mumbai, India.
IIT Bombay was founded in 1958. In 1961, the Parliament decreed IITs as Institutes of National Importance.
A committee formed by the Government of India recommended the establishment of four higher institutes of technology to set the direction for the development of technical education in the country in 1946.
Planning began in 1957 and the first batch of 100 students was admitted in 1958. Since its establishment in Powai, the institute has physically expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined area of more than 2.2 square kilometres.
IIT Bombay is known for its 4 Year, 5 Year & 2 Year programmes for which the entry is through the Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering.
It offers degrees such as: Bachelor of Technology, Four Year Bachelor of Science, Five Year Master of Science, 2 or 3 Year Master of Technology, and a few others. It also has a comprehensive graduate program offering doctoral degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
It currently has a total of 15 academic departments, 20 centers, a school of excellence and four interdisciplinary programs.
Key Description:
Motto: ज्ञानम् परमम् ध्येयम् (Sanskrit)
Motto in English: Knowledge is the Supreme Goal.
Type: Public Technical university
Established: 1958; 62 years ago
Chairman: Dilip Shanghvi
Director: Subhasis Chaudhuri
Academic Staff: 603
Students: 10,079
Undergraduates: 4,137
Postgraduates: 2,859
Doctoral Students: 3,083
Address: Adi Shankaracharya Marg, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Campus: Urban 550 acres (2.2 km2)
Nickname IITians, Mumbai-IITians
Website www.iitb.ac.in
Social Network: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
History of IIT Bombay
IIT Bombay was the second Indian Institutes of Technology to be established in 1958 with assistance from UNESCO and with funds contributed by the Soviet Union.
UNESCO agreed to provide equipment and technical experts mainly from the Soviet Union, while the Government of India accepted the responsibility for all other expenses including the cost of the building project and recurring expenses.
The site chosen for the institute was Powai with an area of 550 acres (2.2 km2) which was given by the then Bombay State Government. While construction was being completed, the first academic session of the Institute opened on 25 July 1958, in its temporary home at the Synthetic and Art Silk Mills Research Association (SASMIRA) building in Worli with 100 students.
These students were selected from over 3,400 applicants for admission to the first year undergraduate engineering programmes of Aerospace, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Engineering Physics, Energy, Mechanical, Metallurgical Engineering, and MSc Chemistry.
One of the main objectives of establishing the Institute was to develop facilities for studies in a variety of specialized engineering and technological sciences.
The need for establishing adequate facilities for postgraduate studies and research was kept uppermost in mind in the founding years. While the Institute was functioning provisionally at Worli, an effort was made to expedite the progress of the building project at its permanent location and Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the Institute at Powai on 10 March.
In 2018, IIT Bombay was one of the first six institutes to be awarded the Institute of Eminence status.
Campus of IIT Bombay
The IIT Bombay campus, having an area of about 550 acres, is located at Powai, in East Mumbai, between the Vihar and Powai lakes. The campus is divided into clusters of buildings. The academic area chiefly comprises the main building, various departmental annexes and auditoria.
All department annexes are connected by a corridor named Infinite Corridor. Beyond the Convocation Hall lie most of the hostels. There are a total of 18 hostels, of which two hostels (Hostels 10 and 11) and a wing of the newly constructed hostel (Hostel 15) are for female students.
Due to its proximity to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the campus has significant green cover and is mostly untouched by the pollution of the rest of the city. The proximity of the campus to the national park has also led to occasional sightings of panthers, leopards and Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) crocodiles along the banks of the Powai lake. Sometimes they stray into the campus in chase of hunt.
The institute has two swimming pools; football, hockey and cricket grounds; and tennis, basketball, squash and volleyball courts. It also has a Students' Activity Center (SAC) for various cultural and other extracurricular activities.
In addition to these facilities, the campus also houses two high schools, one of which is a Kendriya Vidyalaya and the other is called IIT Campus School.
Educational programmes include physical sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences such as Economics, English, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology and into management studies.
Over the years, the institute has also created a niche for its innovative short-term courses through continuing education and distance education programmes.
On July 9, 2018, IIT Bombay was conferred the status of Institute of Eminence by the Ministry of Human Resources & Development, along with 5 other institutes in India which would provide it additional autonomy and government funds.
Cultural and non-academic Activities
The annual Science & Technology festival of IIT Bombay, Techfest, which was started in 1998, is held in the month of December every year and is Asia's largest science and tech festival.
It comprises various events like competitions, exhibits and talks from guest speakers from around the world. Techfest 2009 was also the first event of its kind in India to conduct its events in other countries.
The annual cultural festival Mood Indigo, usually held in the month of December is an event hosted by the student body and is the Asia's largest college cultural festival.
The most attractive feature of this 4-day event are the influential personalities who have graced the festival like R D Burman, Aamir Khan, Sir Mark Tully, Sachin Tendulkar, Porcupine Tree, Simple Plan, Mike Portnoy and many more.
Cultural activities like dramatics, Speaking, Literary Arts, Music, and Fine Arts also mark an important feature in the life of a student of IIT Bombay. Speaking and Literary Arts have always been very popular in the student community with students actively participating in quizzing, writing, and debating activities. IIT Bombay has won the prestigious National Law School Parliamentary Debating Tournament.
Apart from cultural and technological activities, the campus is also involved in business activities with bodies like The Entrepreneurship Cell, which support the growth of startups across the globe.
These college festivals are organised, financially managed and conducted entirely by the students of this institute. All these festivals and organisations are sponsored by private enterprise.
Apart from these festivals, various other engineering streams based festivals are also being organised to motivate students towards Science and Technology. These include Radiance (Mechanical Engineering), Zephyr (Aerospace Engineering), AZeotropy (Chemical Engineering), Padarth(Metallurgy and Material Science Engineering), Aavriti (Electrical Engineering) and recently, Aakaar (Civil Engineering).
The institute has music clubs "Symphony" and "Roots" which pertain to western and Indian music respectively. It also has an LGBT alliance club called "Saathi".
The institute has an active NCC unit, the 2 Maharashtra Engineer Regiment which is an attachment of the Bombay Sappers.
IIT Bombay's Diamond Jubilee was held in 2018, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending as the chief guest of the convocation function.
Organization of IIT Bombay
At the institutional level, IIT Bombay is governed by a Board of Governors with a chairman nominated by the Visitor, the Director as a member and the Registrar as secretary. Besides this, there are four persons having specialized knowledge or practical experience in respect of education, engineering or science nominated by the Council.
Two professors are nominated by the Senate. Additionally, one technologist or industrialist of repute is nominated by the Government of each of the States of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
For all academic matters, the Senate is the authority having control and responsibility for the maintenance of standards of instruction, education and examinations and all other allied academic matters. The Senate is mainly constituted of all the professors of the Institute and the Director is the chairman.
The key people in the execution of the Institute's activities are the Director and Deputy Director who are assisted by Dean (Research and Development), Dean (Planning), Dean (Students Affairs), Dean (Academic Programmes) and Dean (Resources Development), and the Heads of the Departments, Centres and Schools.
The Administration is managed by the Registrar, with senior administrative officers being assigned for specific areas such as Estate Management, Materials Management, Personnel Management, Finance and Accounts, and Academic Affairs.
Academic Office
The Academic Office of the Institute exists to facilitate, initiate and co-ordinate the academic work of the Institute, particularly the teaching and assessment of students. It acts as the repository of grades and academic records of all students, both past and present. It provides administrative support to the Senate, which is the highest academic body of the Institute.
The Head of the Academic Office is the Dean of Academic Programmes, who is a senior professor of the Institute. The Dean is helped by a permanent administrative set-up headed by a Deputy Registrar (education).
Academic Office closely interacts with the Dean of Student Affairs (DoSA), who looks after all non-academic problems of students. The DoSA, as the ex-officio President of the Student Gymkhana, coordinates various co-curricular activities of students.
Departments, Centres, And Schools
IIT Bombay has 15 departments, 20 multi-disciplinary centres, 1 school of excellence and 4 interdisciplinary programs. The academic departments in IIT Bombay include the following:
- Aerospace Engineering
- Biosciences and Bioengineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science & Engineering
- Earth Sciences
- Electrical Engineering
- Energy Science and Engineering
- Humanities & Social Science
- Mathematics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science
- Physics
- Industrial Design Centre
The following multi-disciplinary centers are located in IIT Bombay:
- Application Software Centre (ASC)
- Centre for Research in Nanotechnology and Science (CRNTS)
- Centre for Aerospace Systems Design and Engineering (CASDE)
- Computer Centre (CC)
- Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme (CDEEP)
- Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering (CESE)
- Centre for Policy Studies (CPS)
- Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering (CSRE)
- Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA)
- Centre for Formal Design and Verification of Software (CFDVS)
- Centre for Urban Science and Engineering (C-USE)
- Desai Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship (DSCE)
- IITB-WashU Aerosol and Air Quality Research Center
- IITB-Monash Research Academy
- National Centre for Aerospace Innovation and Research (NCAIR)
- National Center of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security (NCETIS)
- National Centre for Mathematics (NCM)
- Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari Center for Learning and Teaching (PPCCLT)
- Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF)
- Tata Center for Technology and Design (TCTD)
- Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering (WRCB)
One school of excellence in IIT Bombay are:
- Shailesh J Mehta School of Management
In addition to the above, IIT Bombay also offers four inter-disciplinary programs:
- Climate Studies
- Educational Technology
- Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR)
- Systems and Control Engineering
Academics of IIT Bombay
IIT Bombay offers a wide range of courses of study in engineering, pure sciences, design, management and humanities with a primary focus on engineering. The university is a member of "Links to Asia by Organizing Traineeship and Student Exchange" (LAOTSE), an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.
The Institute conducts educational programmes leading to the degree of Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech.), Dual Degree (B.Tech. and M.Tech. in 5 years), Master of Science (MSc.), Master of Technology (MTech.), Bachelor of Design (B.Des), Master of Design (MDes.), Master of Management (MMgmt.), Master of Philosophy (MPhil.) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) in various areas.
Every year, IIT Bombay awards degrees, BTech, MTech, Dual Degree (BTech and MTech), M.Mgmt, MSc and Ph.D. to more than 1,000 students.
The undergraduate students at IIT Bombay are selected through the Joint Entrance Examination of the IITs. The graduate students are selected through GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) conducted by IIT's and IISc on behalf of MHRD [Ministry of Human Resource Development]. At a given time, the campus is home to more than 6,000 people: students, professors, and non-academic staff.
In 2015 the National Virtual Academy for Indian Agriculture launched a free online agriculture course in collaboration with ICRISAT Hyderabad and IIT Bombay. From July 2016, IIT Bombay is planning to offer a four-year undergraduate programme in economics.
In April 2015, IIT Bombay launched the first U.S.-India joint EMBA program alongside Washington University in St. Louis
Ranking of IIT Bombay
IIT Bombay has ranked on 34th position among the top 200 Universities in Asia category by the QS Asia Ranking 2020, ranked 8th among the universities in BRICS countries by the QS BRICS Ranking 2019 and ranked on 152nd position in QS World University Rankings in 2020.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it 401-500 globally in the 2020 ranking 54 in Asia in 2019 and 34 among Emerging Economies University Rankings 2019.
In India, IIT Bombay was ranked third among engineering colleges in 2019 by Outlook India and second among engineering colleges in 2019 by The Week.
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked it third among engineering colleges in 2020 and fourth overall. NIRF also ranked it 11th in India in the management ranking.
Notable Alumni: Business
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Anil Kumar | Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, later convicted of insider trading | ||
| Ashish Chauhan | 1989 | B.Tech. (Mechanical Engineering) | Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bombay Stock Exchange |
| Bhavish Aggarwal | 2008 | B.Tech. (Computer Science and Engineering) | Co-founder of Ola Cabs |
| Bharat Desai | 1975 | B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) | Founder of Syntel |
| Kanwal Rekhi | 1967 | B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) | Venture capitalist; Co-founder of Excelan |
| Nandan Nilekani | 1978 | B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) | Co-founder of Infosys |
| Parag Saxena | 1977 | B.Tech. (Chemical Engineering) | Co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of New Silk Route |
| Rahul Yadav | Co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Housing.com | ||
| Rajiv L. Gupta | 1967 | Chairman of Aptiv | |
| Ramani Ayer | 1969 | B.Tech. (Chemical Engineering) | Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Hartford |
| Romesh Wadhwani | 1969 | B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) | Founder of Symphony Technology Group |
| Subrah Iyar | 1981 | Co-founder of WebEx | |
| Victor Menezes | Corporate Banker; Senior Vice Chairman of Citigroup |
Notable Alumni: Arts
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Jag Mundhra | 1968 | B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) | Film director |
| Mansoor Khan | Film director | ||
| Nitesh Tiwari | 1996 | B.Tech. (Metallurgical Engineering) | Film director and screenwriter |
| Rajnesh Domalpalli | 1984 | B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) | Film director |
| Satyendra Pakhale | 1991 | M.Des. | Industrial Designer |
| Udaya Kumar | 2003; 2010 | M.Des.; Ph.D. | Head of the Department of Design, IIT Guwahati |
| Vipul Goyal | Stand-up comedian |