Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public technical and research university established by the government of India in 1951. It is the first of the IITs to be established and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance. In 2019 it was awarded the status of Institute of Eminence by the government of India.

The institute was initially established to train scientists and engineers after India attained independence in 1947. However, over the years, the institute's academic capabilities diversified with offerings in management, law, architecture, humanities, etc. IIT Kharagpur has an 8.7-square-kilometre (2,100-acre) campus and has about 22,000 residents.

In 1946, a committee by Sir Jogendra Singh, Member of Viceroy's executive council, to consider the creation of higher technical institutions "for post-World War II industrial development of India". This was followed by the creation of a 22-member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar. In its interim report, the Sarkar Committee recommended the establishment of higher technical institutions in India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and consulting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign along with affiliated secondary institutions. The report urged that work should start with the speedy establishment of major institutions in the four-quarters of the country with the ones in the east and the west to be set up immediately