Abstract:

In the last five decades there has been tremendous increase in the number of technical institutions in India more so due to the growth of infrastructure. There was also huge demand for software engineers towards the end of last century. Post independence the government setup five institutes (Indian Institute of Technology) in collaboration with universities from US, UK, Germany and Russia. These institutions were to train highly skilled engineers for the growth of India. As of now there are twenty three institute across India. Other than these there are 2500 plus engineering institutes funded by government and private institutions. These institutes graduate more than 1.6 million students. The biggest challenge has been the quality of faculty. The availability of faculty did not match the growth of institutions. This led to low quality of education and large number of graduates were unfit for employment. To meet this challenge the government of India started an initiative called National Programme forTechnology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). This is a joint effort of Ministry of Education and IITs and IISc. Under this programme the faculty prepared videos of course material which is freely available to students. As of now there are 3000 plus courses available on online on YouTube with 1.6 plus billion views and more than 4.5 million subscribers. There are also certification programmes available.

The IITs are not only known for producing high quality engineers but also for research and entrepreneurs. In last two decades the ranking of these institutes has been consistently going up. IITs are known for producing unicorns in Silicon Valley.

The IITs are now becoming global with campus in Tanzania and Abu Dhabi. There are large number of international collaborative research programmes happening through faculty and student exchange. There is huge need and potential for such collaborations which can be explored at ICERI Conference.

Keywords:

Technology, education, engineering, challenges.