The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are centrally funded technical institutes under the ownership of the Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are governed by the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education, and Research Act, 2007, which declared them institutions of national importance and laid down their powers, duties, and framework for governance. The act lists 32 NITs including IIESTS and 2 NIFTEMs. Each NIT is autonomous and linked to the others through a common council known as the Council of NITSER (NIT Council), which oversees their administration. All NITs are funded by the Government of India.

In 2020, National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked twenty four NITs in the top 200 in engineering category. The language of instruction is English at all these institutes. As of 2024, the total number of seats for undergraduate programmes is 24,229 and the total number of seats for postgraduate programmes is 11,428.

History

During the second five-year plan (1956–60) in India, a number of industrial projects were contemplated. The Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) were established by the central government to mimic the IITs at a regional level and act as benchmarks for the other colleges in that state. The admission used to be highly selective. Students topping the respective state's 12th board exam could be admitted at the REC of their state. Thus, 17 RECs were established from 1959 onwards in each of the major states. Each college was a joint and cooperative enterprise of the central government and the concerned state government. The government opened 9 RECs in 1960, 2 on average in each region, as follows: RegionRegional Engineering Colleges (REC)Eastern RegionDurgapur and JamshedpurWestern RegionNagpur, Surat, and BhopalSouthern RegionWarangal and SurathkalNorthern RegionSrinagar and Allahabad Later on, 6 more were added by 1967. The early 15 institutes were Srinagar, Warangal, Calicut, Durgapur, Kurukshetra, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Nagpur, Rourkela, Surathkal, Surat, Tiruchirappalli, Bhopal, and Allahabad. It established 2 more, one in Hamirpur in 1986, and another in Jalandhar in 1987.

These were large-sized institutions judged by the standards then prevailing in the country. The considerations that weighed in this decision were:

A large-sized college would be more efficient than the equivalent small colleges, the proposed colleges have to meet the additional requirements of the country as a whole and for that purpose should have to function on an all-India basis. Therefore, the smaller they are in number and the larger in size, the better, and for the same reason their location is important from an all-India point of view.

The RECs were jointly operated by the central government and the concerned state government. Non-recurring expenditures and expenditures for post-graduate courses during the REC period were borne by the central government while recurring expenditure on undergraduate courses was shared equally by central and state governments. They were considered to be the best government engineering colleges after the IITs in India even before their upgrade to National Institutes of Technology.

The success of the technology-based industry led to high demand for technical and scientific education. Due to the enormous costs and infrastructure involved in creating globally respected Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), in 2002 Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Minister Murli Manohar Joshi decided to upgrade RECs to "National Institutes of Technology" (NITs) instead of creating IITs. The central government controls NITs and provides all funding. In 2002, all RECs became NITs. The upgrade was designed along the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) after it was concluded that RECs had potential as proven by the success of their alumni and their contributions in the field of technical education and that they were on par with the IITs. Subsequently, funding and autonomy for NITs increased, and they award degrees that have raised their graduates' perceived value. These changes implemented recommendations of the "High Powered Review Committee" (HPRC). The HPRC, chaired by R. A. Mashelkar, submitted its report entitled "Strategic Road Map for Academic Excellence of Future RECs" in 1998.

By 2006, MHRD issued NIT status to 3 more colleges, located at Patna (Bihar Engineering College, a 110-year-old college), Raipur (Government Engineering College, Raipur), and Agartala (Tripura Engineering College). Based on the request of state governments and feasibility, future NITs are either converted from existing institutes or can be freshly created. In 2010, the government announced setting up ten more new NITs in the remaining states/territories, leading to a total of 30 NITs. This would lead to every state in India having its own NIT.

With the technology-based industry's continuing growth, the government decided to upgrade twenty National Institutes of Technology to full-fledged technical universities. Parliament passed enabling legislation, the National Institutes of Technology Act in 2007 and took effect on 15 August of that year. The target is to fulfill the need for quality manpower in the field of engineering, science, and technology and to provide consistent governance, fee structure, and rules across the NITs. The law designates each NIT an Institute of National Importance (INI).

The Parliament of India on 1 August 2016 passed a bill to establish the 31st as well as the newest NIT, NIT Andhra Pradesh, on a day members of parliament of the ruling Telugu Desam Party from the state staged a protest to demand special category status. The National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by Rajya Sabha by voice vote. The bill was passed in Lok Sabha on 21 July 2016.

IIEST Shibpur, originally established in 1856 as the Calcutta Civil Engineering College, is one of the oldest engineering institutions in India. Initially affiliated with the University of Calcutta and located in Kolkata, it moved to its current campus in Shibpur, Howrah, in 1880. Renamed as Bengal Engineering College in 1921, it grew into a premier institute offering various engineering disciplines. In 2004, it was upgraded to a university and became Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU). Finally, in 2014, it was declared an Institute of National Importance and transformed into the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (IIEST Shibpur) under the NIT Act. In 2019, it was included in the NIT Council leading to its unofficial designation as the “32nd NIT”.

The idea of upgrading BESU to a national-level institute began gaining momentum in the early 2000s. The Prof. S.K. Joshi Committee formed by the Ministry of Education (then MHRD), recommended BESU’s elevation to an institute of national importance. During the conversion of IT-BHU to IIT (IIT BHU) in 2010, BESU was also shortlisted for a similar upgrade. While IIT status was debated, the final recommendation was to create a new category of elite institutions IIESTs and BESU was selected as the first to receive the IIEST tag. This led to its formal conversion into IIEST Shibpur in 2014 under the NIT Act, placing it under the governance of the Council of NITSER while retaining its distinct heritage and commitment to advanced education and research in engineering and science. However, plans to establish a separate category of IIEST institutes was eventually abandoned. IIEST Shibpur was subsequently integrated into the NIT Council in 2019.

Institutes + NITs and locations, sorted by date of establishment No. Name Abbreviation Founded Establishedas NIT City/Town State/UT NIRF Rank Website Engineering Overall1NIT KarnatakaNITK19602002SurathkalKarnataka17542NIT WarangalNITW19592002WarangalTelangana28633NIT BhopalMANIT19602002BhopalMadhya Pradesh81 -4IIEST ShibpurIIESTS18562014, 2019*ShibpurWest Bengal54 -5NIT NagpurVNIT19602002NagpurMaharashtra44866NIT DurgapurNITDGP19602002DurgapurWest Bengal49 -7NIT JamshedpurNITJSR19602002JamshedpurJharkhand82 -8NIT SrinagarNITSRI19602002SrinagarJammu and Kashmir73 -9NIT SilcharNITS19672002SilcharAssam509710NIT AllahabadMNNIT19612002PrayagrajUttar Pradesh62 -11NIT SuratSVNIT19612002SuratGujarat66 -12NIT CalicutNITC19612002KozhikodeKerala214513NIT RourkelaNITR19612002RourkelaOdisha133414NIT JaipurMNIT19632002JaipurRajasthan427715NIT KurukshetraNITKKR19632002KurukshetraHaryana85 -16NIT TiruchirappalliNITT19642002TiruchirappalliTamil Nadu93017NIT HamirpurNITH19862002HamirpurHimachal Pradesh97 -18NIT JalandharNITJ19872002JalandharPunjab55 -19NIT PatnaNITP18862006PatnaBihar53 -20NIT RaipurNITRR19562006RaipurChhattisgarh86 -21NIT AgartalaNITA19652006AgartalaTripura - -22NIT Arunachal PradeshNITAP20102010YupiaArunachal Pradesh - -23NIT DelhiNITD20102010New DelhiDelhi65 -24NIT GoaNITG20102010CuncolimGoa - -25NIT ManipurNITMN20102010ImphalManipur - -26NIT MeghalayaNITM20102010ShillongMeghalaya83 -27NIT MizoramNITMZ20102010AizawlMizoram - -28NIT NagalandNITN20102010ChümoukedimaNagaland - -29NIT PuducherryNITPY20102010KaraikalPuducherry99 -30NIT SikkimNITSKM20102010RavanglaSikkim - -31NIT UttarakhandNITUK20102010Srinagar, UttarakhandUttarakhand - -32NIT Andhra PradeshNITANP20152015TadepalligudemAndhra Pradesh - - *Although designated as an Institute of National Importance and placed under the governance of the NIT Council through the NITSER Act in 2014, IIEST Shibpur was formally integrated into the NIT Council in 2019.

Organisational structure

The President of India is the ex officio visitor of all the NITs. The NIT Council works directly under him/her and it includes the minister-in-charge of technical education in Central Government, the chairmen and the Directors of all the NITs, the Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC), the Director-General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Directors of other selected central institutions of repute, members of Parliament, Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), nominees of the Central Government, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the Visitor.

Below the NIT Council is each NIT's Board of Governors. The Board of Governors of each NIT consists of the following members:

Chairman - an eminent technologist / engineer / educationist to be nominated by the Government of India. Member Secretary - Director of the NIT. Nominee of the MHRD, Government of India. Nominee of the Department of the Higher / Technical Education of the respective state government. Head of another technical institution in the region or an eminent technologist to be nominated by Central Govt. Director, IIT (in the region) or his nominee. Nominee of the UGC not below the rank of a Deputy Secretary. Nominee of the AICTE not below the rank of an Advisor. An alumnus of the institute from amongst alumni in education/industry to be nominated by Board of Governors. Two representatives representing large, medium and small scale industries to be nominated by Central Government. One Professor and one assistant professor of the institute by rotation.