Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

About Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur or IITK) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.

The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur or IITK) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), it was declared an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act. As of January 2025, at least 18 Padma Shri, 4 Padma Bhushan, 1 Padma Vibhushan, and 33 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize recipients have been affiliated with IIT Kanpur as alumni or faculty members. IIT Kanpur was established by an Act of Parliament in 1960 by the Government of India. The institute was started in December 1959, initially in the campus of Harcourt Butler Technological Institute at Agricultural Gardens in Kanpur. In 1963, the institute moved to its present location, on the Grand Trunk Road near Kalyanpur locality in Kanpur district. The campus, which is planned and landscaped with the goal of environmental freedom, ease of movement and communication, was designed by Achyut Kanvinde. During the first ten years of its existence, a consortium of nine US universities (namely MIT, University of California at Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University and Purdue University) helped set up IIT Kanpur's research laboratories and academic programmes under the Kanpur Indo-American Programme (KIAP). The first director of the institute was P. K. Kelkar (after whom the Central Library was renamed in 2002).