Just prior to independence in 1947, the Sarkar Committee recommended the establishment of higher technology Institutes in four geographical zones of India. The objective was to be the education of science-based engineers and technologists of the highest calibre to meet the research and development challenges that India would face after attaining independence. The first such institute was set-up in Kharagpur in West Bengal in 1951. From 1958 to 1962, four similar institutes were established in Bombay (now Mumbai), Madras (now Chennai), Kanpur and Delhi with assistance from the USSR, the Federal Republic of Germany, the USA and the United Kingdom, respectively. Assistance provided by USSR was channeled through United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Remarkably, even a war-ravaged Germany willingly provided assistance for the Institute in Chennai. A residential campus, autonomous academic working, an insistence on committed and able faculty, and a properly selected student body from all parts of India were envisaged and ensured in the case of these institutes. A sixth institute came up in the of the Assam accord. The University in Roorkee in Uttar Pradesh was reorganized as an lIT in 2002.
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