Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

About Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP) is a public institute of technology, research university, and autonomous institute established by the Government of India in ...

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP) is a public institute of technology, research university, and autonomous institute established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal. Founded in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established and is recognized as an Institute of National Importance. The institution was designated an Institute of Eminence by the Government of India in 2019. The institute was initially established to train engineers after India attained independence in 1947. However, over the years, the institute's academic capabilities diversified with offerings in Science, management, law, Agriculture, architecture, humanities, medicine, etc. The institute has an 8.7-square-kilometre (2,100-acre) campus and has about 22,000 residents. In 1946, a committee was set up by Sir Jogendra Singh, Member of the Viceroy's executive council, to consider the creation of higher technical institutions for the industrial development of India post World War II. 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.