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Home » NIT vs IIT: #1 Solution of the Experts’ Debate!

NIT vs IIT: #1 Solution of the Experts’ Debate!

NIT vs IIT

Which is a better choice, NIT vs IIT? This is a question that ought to prickle your mind if you’re a current or future aspirant of JEE aiming to graduate from IITs or NITs. We attempt to relieve you of this turmoil with this dedicated post containing all tricky details about the difference between NIT vs IIT. Have a stride across to arrive at better answers.

The discussion below is one such endeavour by iDC to help you gain a better understanding of the existing academic & associated atmospheres in IITs and NITs. You’ll know in some time which is better. This will help all engineering aspirants like you compare the pros and cons of these two prime engineering institutions and make your decisions accordingly.

Notable recognition from leaders around the world:

IITs are world-class institutes, and the impact of IIT has been worldwide. The computer industry has benefited greatly from the tradition of the IITs. – Bill Gates, Founder, Microsoft

IITs have played in the growth of India and the United States. Have immense respect for the academic and humanitarian work carried out by the IIT alumni. – Bill Clinton, Former President, USA

IIT is a world treasure.Jeff Bezos, Creator, Amazon

NIT vs IIT – Introduction to the Debate of a Lifetime

IITs and NITs have equally contributed to the immense growth of India in technology and science. NIT vs IIT comparisons have become a benchmark for engineering aspirants to decide their best options.

What are IITs?

IITs date back to India’s pre-independence era.

In the late 1940s, a new India had emerged after a successful non-violent freedom struggle. The new fledgling democracy was aiming to provide equal opportunity to all its citizens.

The Sarkar Committee report of 1948 aimed at creation of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Today our IITs provide access to world-class technical education. There continues to be a high bar for admission and less than 1% of students are offered admission. 

The first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) was set up in 1951 in Kharagpur and today the total number of IITs stands at 23.

The IITs are autonomous and governed by the Institutes of Technology Act of 1961.

Today our IITs of Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati are all world class institutes occupying different ranks among shinier names like MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Nanyang etc. in the lists of global academic research schools.

What are NITs?

Before & during 1950s, owing to the success of technology based industries, IITs were failing to deal with the high demand for technical and scientific education. The erstwhile government wasn’t financially competent then to create more IITs to meet the growing demand.

This need was fulfilled by the establishment of today’s NITs.

NITs (later incorporated in 2003 as is) were first founded as RECs (Regional Engineering Colleges) between 1959 and 1965 by Jawaharlal Nehru.

As a result, the government started RECs at Bhopal, Kozhikode, Allahabad, Tiruchirappalli, Kurukshetra, Durgapur, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Nagpur, Surathkal, Surat, Srinagar, and Warangal.

In 2003, under the leadership of M M Joshi, all RECs were upgraded to National Institutes of Technology (NITs).

Our NITs stand tall among all higher education institutions in India occupying top positions in the national lists of academic research schools.

NIT vs IIT – Curious Cases: Citing an Example

Comparisons,which are mostly flawed with biased facts, increase the chances of engineering students like you ending up with wrong choices.

Consider the situation here.

“A student gets 6krank in JEE Mains and 7k in JEE Advanced. She will get the benefit of supernumerary girls’ quota, but to what extent?

With the benefit given, she has a chance in those branches in IITs that close around 4k rank. This would mean Civil/Chemical in IITs.

Now say, she is inclined to take CSE in NIT. But peers and parents suggest IIT.”

Thousands of students face similar or gravely critical situations like this one where a decision can be life-changing.

Hence to study in the right engineering institution, you need to evaluate various factors carefully and analyze from different perspectives of other students too. If you are in a situation that warrants professional help, seek it and see yourself through the finale, after assessing the different factors described elaborately in this post.
(Figure) Difference between NIT vs IIT: Which is better?
(Figure) Difference between NIT vs IIT: Which is better?

To learn more about opportunity within the IIT system

How To Get Into IITMedical Courses In IIT
IIT Without JEEIIT Entrance Exam
Top 10 IIT Colleges In IndiaIIT Jam Exam 2024
IIT Without JEE 

Difference between NIT vs IIT: The Face-off

Well, which is better? Both IITs and NITs are well-noted for their exceptional standards. IITs and NITs have squared off a great contribution in bolstering the structure of education in India.

Every Indian student with a view to pursue a graduation or post-graduation degree from top reputed institutes must have passed through this view at least once during their academic life.

  • Both IITs and NITs have performed a significant role in India’s advancement in technology and science, taking into account the global benchmarks. But a comparison also assists engineering aspirants to learn about their best choices, keeping in mind the various engineering disciplines.
  • A comparison has to be unbiased while differentiating the supremacy of one over the other to leadyoung engineering aspirants away from making wrong decisions. One needs to assess the merits and demerits of IITs and NITs thoroughly.

Also Read: NIT Colleges In India

Key Metrics Used in This Study of NIT vs IIT: How to Know Which is Better?

The 8 key parameters we must look at and compare are:

  1. NIT vs IIT – Number of institutes pan India
  2. NIT vs IIT – Admission procedure
  3. NIT vs IIT – Courses offered
  4. NIT vs IIT – Facilities & infrastructure:
    • Faculty
    • Quality of education
    • Approach & Online Presence
    • Fee Structure
  5. NIT vs IIT – Academic and Extra-Academic Environment
    • Co-curricular activities
    • Culture fests & sports
  6. NIT vs IIT Placements & packages:
    • Average Pay Packages offered
    • Highest Pay Packages Offered
  7. NIT vs IIT – Entrepreneurs & Alumni – Young Leaders & Founders
    • Companies founded by the students of IITs and NITs
    • Notable Positions in the Business/Public/Academic/ sector Held by the Students of IITs and NITs
  8. World and India Rankings – IITs and NITs

We’d include another single most important 9th yardstick to this list of parameters:

Quality of research, although this 9th parameter already is a part of the methodologies used by established official scorers like Quacquarelli Symonds Limited (QSGlobal) and NIRF (India). We have thus, kept this one out of the list above since we’ve already mentioned World and India rankings as the 8th one in the list above.

We’d like to elaborate a bit on this (in latter sections), using two further sub-parameters:

  1. Total number of patents filed (regional + international)
  2. Average number of citations per paper published in national & international peer-reviewed journal
(Figure) Key Metrics Used in This Study of NIT vs IIT: How to Know Which is Better?
(Figure) Key Metrics Used in This Study of NIT vs IIT: How to Know Which is Better?

NIT vs IIT- Let us look at each of the 8 parameters in detail:

We shall now discuss the parameters at length and discuss few pointers in detail. NIT vs IIT: Which is better?

1. NIT vs IITNumber of institutes pan-India

The IITs are established by the government to provide high-quality scientists, engineers, and technologists. The IITs are all maintained by the national government.

Whereas the NITs are independent technical & research schools divided state-wise in Indiamaintained directly by the respective state governments.

In India, there are 16 IITs & 31 NITs which indicates NITs are covered in more cities than IITs. Hence opportunities are severely truncated in terms of number of seats, with regards to IITs.

2. NIT vs IITAdmission procedure

There are 2 entrance exams for getting admission into undergraduate courses – IIT JEE Mains & JEE Advanced Exam. If you pass JEE Mains you will be qualified for NITs but not for IITs. To become acceptable for IITs, you must pass JEE Advanced.

If you’re seeking admission in to Post-Graduation Programs such as M.Sc., IIT JAM is the exam you want to clear. If you don’t get admission in IITs by JAM counseling, you must appeal for CCMN counseling to hold your seats in NITs.

So conclusively, when it comes to admission criteria for IITs and NITs, the requirements differ to an extent:

  • Firstly, to qualify for an undergraduate degree at NIT, JEE Mains is the essential exam you need to clear while for the IITs, a pass in JEE Advanced is the crucial eligibility prerequisite.
  • For postgraduate courses, Joint Admission Test for MSc. (JAM) is conducted mainly for IIT programs but if you have missed a seat there, then CCMN counseling for the NITs will be your next option.

3. NIT vs IITCourses Offered

It is believed that the educational standards of IITs are far better than NITs as IITs embrace any curriculum from scratch to the edge. IITs’ excellent teachers have more innovative pedagogical techniques that benefitstudentswith an extremely new and interesting version of learning.

The difference between NIT vs IIT can be computed in every regard if we discuss, prima facie, the courses offered by these institutes.

IITNIT
B-TechB Tech
Dual Degree M.Sc.Dual Degree integrated courses
Dual Degree MABA
B-ArchB Sc
M-TechB Arch
MBAM Tech
M.Sc.MBA
M-ArchM Sc
MS by ResearchM Arch
Master of DesignMS by Research
Post Graduate Diploma in Information and Technology (PGDIT)MCA
Master in Medical Science &Technology (MMST)PhD
Post Graduate Diploma (PGDIPL) 
Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDM) 
PhD 
(Table) Courses offered by IITs and NITs
  • After the conclusion of the first year, it is necessary for every disciple of both IITs and NITs to begin a subject from other branches like – humanities, social sciences & management.
  • As far as the difference between NIT vs IIT in terms of programs offered is concerned, they both stand at more or less at the same stance.
  • Besides the regular courses, IITs also offer MDes, Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST) and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM).
  • NITs offer fewer postgraduate courses than the IITs.
NIT vs IIT – Important concern wrt the engineering discipline you choose:

Like for example, with regards to CS/IT or any Software related streams, IIT-Delhi is the considered to be the best in India. After that comes, NIT Trichy. IIT Hyderabad and NIT Delhi are other giants. The culture followed in these institutes is off the charts.

For core sectors like Mechanical and Electronics, IIT Mumbai and IIT Kharagpur followed by NIT Kurukshetra and NIT Jamshedpur are considered to be the best.

4. NIT vs IITFacilities and Infrastructure

The IITs are equipped with latest technologies and their infrastructures are wider. Their outstanding classrooms & practical labs show how technically advanced they are! Theirlabs are told to be the best for any technological college in India and their classrooms are filled with brilliant digital learning instruments.

The IITs strive to keep many invention prototype models of famous Scientists in mini-museums like IIT Kanpur boasts a functional prototype of the Van De Graff Generator, which was invented by Robert JV DGraaff.

NIT vs IIT – Faculty
  • According to a Ministry of Education’s(erstwhile Ministry of HRD) report, the IITs, including those established recently, are undergoing a terrible shortage of faculty.
  • IIT-Hyderabad has a total of 74 faculty members against its requirement of 85 members. IIT-Bhubaneswar has a requirement of 62 faculty members while it currently has50 members.
  • Owing to this scenario, most IITs have already begun aggressive communication campaigns across the country and worldwide to contact alumni of top universities worldwide. They are also organizing meetings in various universities across the globe.
  • The NITs have also been facing shortage of quality faculty for quite some time now.
NIT vs IIT – Quality of education
  • We typically believe that the educational standards of IITs are far better than NITs as the focus on core subjects is far greater, which is quite the case actually.
  • IITs are esteemed institutes, just like IIMs are for business education and are among most preferred choices for those wanting to study Engineering courses.
  • IITs have an experienced as well as academically & professionally accomplished faculty, with members who are renowned in their respective domains for their research standards.
  • On the other hand, NITs are yet to catch up in these areas and remain the second choice of those wanting to pursue technical courses.
NIT vs IIT – Approach and online presence

Culture of most the IITs are innovation oriented. IITs have established multiple research labs and provide better machinery & facilities to students that help them in the long run. Projects undertaken by IITs are better accepted.

On the other hand, NITs are productivity driven and hence, they mostly work in order to make their students understand every aspect of production. This is one of the many reasons why subjects like economics are a part of the curriculum.

  • Apart from the approach followed by NITs and IITs, the digital presence of IITs over ‘edX’ and other massive open online courses (MOOCs) gives them a global recognition. Reduced efforts of the NITs on this front amount to massive back-tracking.
  • Other than this, NPTEL a.k.a National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning started by the IITs was later joined by NITs. This, however, creates equal reach of both among engineering aspirants and pursuers.
NIT vs IIT – Fee structure

Although both NITs and IITs are controlled & maintained by fundamental governmental bodies in India and its states, their fee structures are relatively different. Let’s look at fee structures of NITs and IITsacross India for the general category.Fee structure of IITs is typically higher than that of NITs.

In 2016 (under the NDA government), the tuition fee for all UG programs (including B.Tech)was revised from Rs. 90,000 per year to Rs. 2 lakh per year. This is the current scenario.

The IIT panel and the erstwhile HRD ministry had approved that:

  • Students belonging to families with an annual income of less than Rs. 1 lakh will get full waiver
  • SC, ST and the differently-abled will also get a full waiver.
  • Students belonging to families with an annual income less than 5 Lakhs will be entitled to a waiver of two-thirds, irrespective of their caste category.

After IITs, fees (for undergraduate as well as post graduate courses) in NITshad also seen a hike from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.25 lakh per annum.

The fee hike has an aim of providing more resources to these institutions so that highest quality education can be provided.

5. NIT vs IITAcademic and Extra-Academic Environment

Being two prime technology institutes of India, educational and college environment of the two don’t really differ much. However, on various extra-academic factors, IITs are likely to score higher.

  • Popularity of IITs among its engineering aspirants (and their guardians!) is highly driven by its educational and college environment. IITs campuses are both inspiring and vibrating with a perfectly planned and aligned layout including libraries, and hostels.
  • NITs have a good infrastructure too. With sophisticated hospitable classrooms, libraries, and beautiful hostels, NITs are a close second to IITs. NITs also have great computing facilities.
NIT vs IIT – Co-curricular activities

IITs and NITs both conduct hostel competitions every year. It’s an incredible chance for able pupils to participate & showcase their skills.

Hostels have private bands, dance clubs, sports teams, &drama units! Associations in IITs are more productive.

Extra-Curricular Activities include –

  • Drama
  • Dance
  • Literature Club
  • Music
  • Quizzing
  • Hindi Samiti
  • Student Welfare

In the IITs, with so many activities, events, competitions and festival celebrations going on throughout the year, the atmosphere becomes vibrant and full of life. Besides developing a number of connections through these interactions, you also become smart, active, disciplined and self-dependent.

However, on these various extra-academic factors, NITs are likely to score lower.

NIT vs IIT: Culture – science festivals & sports

Both IITs and NITsconsider sports activities as crucial to the curriculum!

There are various inter-college contests held by both IITs and NITsbut nevertheless, IITs carry more frequent sports competitions and cultural fests in contrast to NITs.

Examples of culture and science festivals:

NITsIITs
AdvaitamKshitij
UtkanshShaastra
SaptrangTechfest
ConfluenceNvision
UtkarshCognizance
AarohiTechnex
(Table) NIT vs IIT: Examples of culture and science festivals

6. NIT vs IIT – Placements & packages:

NITs, due to their adaptive industry-oriented curriculum and higher productivity, havewitnessed a major rise in placements and better jobs to among students.

Although the IT sector is still majorly active among the IITs in offering students higher jobs, the Non-IT sector is a big opening for NITs and holds a better record of students performing great in that sector.

  • Alumni of IITs are widespread across the globe and are supporting their respective institutes. Also, as IITs were founded much earlier than the NITs, its higher alumni count puts IITs in a better position, in this case.
  • However, whenwe look at it with a statistical approach, the large number of concurrent individual NITs is an equalizer in a way. Thus, the impact of NIT alumniis equalized, although the historical presence of IITs is beyond that of the NITs.
  • For the outgoing batches of 2020, the IITs witnessed more international placements compared to the previous academic year with IIT KGPboasting 51 international offers, highest than any other institute.
  • Comparing these, the placements for NITs remained more domestic localized among operational premises in India of international recruiters like Facebook, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, amongst others.
  • For placements, IITs have greater possibilities and payroll packages compared to the NITs. Most of the IIT graduates work abroad for rhythmic packages through university placements or more giant payrolls startingatUSD200, 000 in the industry!
  • Job openings after NITs are also practically great but closer home, with packagesstarting atRs 8,00,000 per year or so.Exceptions do exist though. There are several NIT graduates who hold a job package higher than her contemporary IIT student today. You will be placed in identified MNCs only by your own merit, abilities & expertise applied in full scale at the right time!
Top recruiters for IITs and NITs:
IITNIT
Microsoft AppDynamics
DellQualcomm
RubrikAmazon
Morgan Stanley Cisco
Uber SAP
SamsungArcesium
Goldman Sachs Oracle
Tata Steel 
Qualcomm 
Oyo 
(Table) Top Recruiters for IITs and NITs

NIT vs IIT placements: Average Pay Packages offered

If we focus entirely on monetary factors only, the possibility of stretching this topic unnecessarily is very high. So, to avoid pointless misunderstandings, we shall onlyrevisit last 5 years average pay packages offered to B.Tech students at top IITs and NITs.

  • The average pay package offered to the 2019 graduating batch of IITs at Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur is approximately Rs 1, 31, 833 per month.
  • The average pay package offered to the 2019 graduating batch of NITs is somewhere between Rs 60,750 and 1, 07, 250 monthly, with upscale offers to students from NITs at Warangal, MNIT Jaipur, Jalandhar, Surat and Calicut.

However, do not forget that there is a lot of variance among these packagesowing to multiple factors. Entry-level packages vary as per the abilities of students and their academic performances in college.

  • Average pay packages vary for international job offers depending upon the candidate. The same company may offer different packages to an entrant from the same IIT if the candidate’s competencies differ. Moreover, these figures include elements that may be performance-based or could be paid out over several years.
  • Future scalabilities shall also vary depending on structured performances of the candidate while on the job. That way, an NIT graduate may perform better while on the job and witness higher salary growth.
  • As per official records, finance companiesoffer best packagesto entrants. Recruiters such as Tower Research Capital, Goldman Sachs, and World Quant etc. have offered Rs 20 LPA(lakhs per annum) to IITians previously.
NIT vs IIT placements: Highest Pay Packages Offered

The attention of the country somehow turns to IITs and NITs every year with the news of fat pay packages offered to the graduates. However, if we talk about who is bagging the highest pay packages, then there’s a lot of disparity to witness.

  • There are 12 IITians from IIT-Kanpur who have very recently grabbed a hefty payoffer of Rs. 1 crore each.
  • On the other hand, there is one extraordinarily talentedstudent from NIT who has bagged an offer of Rs. 1.34 crorefrom Facebook, which isthe highest pay packageever in the historyof Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT).

But again, as in case of average pays offered to students of IITs and NITs, highest pay packages also depend entirely on candidates‘abilities, academic performances, and other important factors. Moreover, these figures include elements that may be performance-based or could be paid out over several years.

  • Highest pay packages vary for international job offers depending upon the candidate. The same company may offer different packages to an entrant from the same IIT if the candidate’s competencies differ.
  • Future scalabilities shall also vary depending on structured performances of the candidate while on the job. That way, an NIT graduate may perform better while on the job and witness higher salary growth.

7. NIT vs IIT: Entrepreneurs & Alumni – Young Leaders & Founders

Half a dozen Indian-origin CEOs are in Fortune 500 companies, especially in global technology giants.

  • An analysis carried out in the US confirms that IITians are amongst the front-facing creators of the foremost startups in the US. The IITsofour country are the only non-US universitiesin the world with the highest number of founders of firms in the US.IITians have produced minds leading Fortune 500 companies today in the world as well as in India.
  • Flipkart, was established by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who are IIT-Delhi graduates. Arjun Malhotra, the co-founder of HCL Technologies, is an IIT-Kharagpur graduate.

NITs are also not sluggish in producing leaders. NIT students have also established many startups in India as well as overseas.

  • Simply 360, a social media monitoring & analytics program, was established by Bhupendra Khanal, a graduate from NIT-Durgapur. MicrolandTechnologies Co. was founded by Pradeep Kar, who is a graduate from NIT-Nagpur.
NIT vs IIT: Companies founded by the students of IITs and NITs

Academic establishments consider students founding companies in India and abroad, an ideal benchmark to prove their dominance in the education sector. Incidentally, this is also closely reviewed as a factor by students before they apply for admission.

  • For example, there is MIT in the United States, which has produced graduates with companies surpassing the mark of whopping USD 2 trillion in collective revenue. Alternatively, the total collective revenue of these companies founded by MIT graduates is just a little less than India’s current nominal GDP!
  • That explains how this factor (number of graduates who have founded companies) can be taken as an ideal yardstick to figure out which is better between IITs and NITs.

A research firm in the United States surprised the world when their study in 2013 revealed that IITians are among the leading founders of major startups in the US.

  • A list prepared by PitchBook (PE/VC database firm), led by University of California, Berkeley and Stanford features IITs as the only non-US university producing future leaders as graduates.
  • Pitchbook has been recorded in an official statement which mentions that India’s Indian Institutes of Technologies entering the list in at No. 10 was definitely a surprise, but givenIndia’s boom in the IT industry over the last couple of decades, IITs have stood in good stead and have consistently been producing innovative thinkers to fuel India’s and the world’s rapidly growing technology-reliant economy.

IITs have produced founders of many prominent startups in India and the world.

NIT vs IIT – Let’s go through the table given below: Founding fathers from IITs
COMPANIESFOUNDERSENGINEERING INSTITUTES
SnapdealRohit BansalIIT-Delhi
InfosysN.R. Narayana MurthyIIT-Kanpur
TranswebAditya Singhal, Nishant SinhaIIT-Delhi
FlipkartSachin Bansal and Binny BansalIIT-Delhi
BluepageAyush Vashney, Sahil BaghlaIIT-Kanpur
HCL TechnologiesArjun Malhotra (co-founder)IIT-Kharagpur
Travel TriangleSankalp Agarwal, Sanchit Garg, Prabhat GuptaIIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Guwahati
Sun Microsystem (co-founder)Vinod KhoslaIIT-Delhi
(Table) NIT vs IIT – Founding Fathers From IITs
NIT vs IIT – Let’s go through the table given below: Founding fathers from NITs
COMPANIESFOUNDERSENGINEERING INSTITUTES
Simply 360Bhupendra KhanalNIT-Durgapur
MindcronS. Kumar VimalNIT-Dugrapur
Peepul CapitalSrini RajuNIT-Kurukshetra
Microland TechnologiesPradeep KarNIT-Nagpur
iocLSudhir VasudevaNIT-Raipur
Bartec Middle East FZEUmesh KumarNIT-Sri Nagar
(Table) NIT vs IIT – Founding Fathers From NITs

NIT vs IIT – Notable Positions in the Business/Public/Academic/ sector Held by the Students of IITs and NITs

Both IITs and NITs have contributed enormously to India’s exceptional growth in the field of engineering and technology. Students of both the prestigious institutions today hold notable positions in various sectors.

NIT vs IIT – Positions Held by IITians in business/public/academic sectors:

NameEngineering InstitutionAchievements
Sundar PichaiIIT-KGPCEO, Google
Shatanu NarayenIIT-KGPCEO, Adobe Systems
Dinesh PaliwalIIT-RoorkeeCEO, Harman International
Soumitra DuttaIIT-DelhiDean of Cornell University’s Management School
Vinod KhoslaIIT DelhiSun Microsystems
Nikesh AroraIIT-VaranasiSenior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google
Kunal BahlIIT DelhiCEO, Snapdeal
Bhavish AggarwalIIT BombayOla Cabs
Arun SarinIIT KGPCEO Vodafone
Deepinder GoyalIIT DelhiCEO, Zomato
Ajit JainIIT-KGPPresident, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute
ArogyaswamiPaulrajIIT-DelhiProfessor, Stanford University
Bharat DesaiIIT-BombayChairman and CEO, Syntel
V. C. KulandaiswamyIIT-KharagpurPadma Shri (1992) and Padma Bhushan (2002)
G. V. LoganathanIIT-KanpurProfessor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
(Table) NIT vs IIT – NOTABLE POSITIONS HELD BY IITians IN BUSINESS/PUBLIC/ACADEMIC SECTORS:

NIT vs IIT – Positions Held by NITians in business/public/academic sectors:

NameEngineering InstitutionAchievements
Dr. Rajesh Kumar GuptaNIT BhopalProject Director, Agni 5, DRDO.
R.K. WanchooNIT SrinagarExecutive Director, BHEL, Hyderabad
Sunil Dutt SharmaNIT SrinagarGeneral Manager, Flovel Energy Pvt LTD, Faridabad
N ChandrasekaranNIT, TrichyChief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services
Nitish KumarNIT, PatnaChief Minister of Bihar
Prafulla Kumar DasNIT, Rourkela (REC)Engineer-in-Chief, Odisha govt. (Retd.)
Dawood Danesh JafariNIT, SrinagarMinister of Finance & Economic Affairs, Iran
Ajit JogiNIT, BhopalFirst Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh
Samir BaruaNIT, NagpurDirector, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Chitranjan SahayNIT, JamshedpurChairman, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hartford
Sudhir VasudevaNIT, RaipurGold Medalist in Chemical Engg. and CMD of the ONGC – Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, India
Baldev RajNIT, RaipurIndian scientist and Former director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam, India.
(Table) NIT vs IIT – NOTABLE POSITIONS HELD BY NITians IN BUSINESS/PUBLIC/ACADEMIC SECTORS:

8. World and India Rankings – IITs and NITs

The table here will give you clarity about where the IITs stand among the world’s best universities as well as among all higher education institutions in India:

UNIVERSITYQS WORLD RANKINGS 2020NIRF RANKINGS INDIA 2020
IIT Bombay1622
IIT Delhi1724
IIT Madras2641
IIT Kanpur2835
IIT Kharagpur2953
IIT Roorkee3816
IIT Guwahati47211
IIT HyderabadN/A 7
IIT (ISM) DhanbadN/A12
IIT (BHU) VaranasiN/A14
IIT IndoreN/A16
IIT BhubaneswarN/A26
IIT RoparN/A9
IIT GandhinagarN/A8
IIT PatnaN/A10
IIT MandiN/A20
(Table) NIT vs IIT – WORLD AND INDIA RANKINGS of IITs

The table here will give you clarity about where the NITs stand among all higher education institutions in India: (NITs have not participated in QS Rankings)

UNIVERSITYNIRF RANKINGS 2020
NIT Trichy (NITT)9
NIT Karnataka (NITK)13
NIT Rourkela (NITRKL)16
NIT Warangal (NITW)19
NIT Calicut (NITC)23
NIT Nagpur (VNIT)27
NIT Jaipur (MNIT)35
NIT Kurukshetra (NITKKR)40
NIT Silchar (NITS)46
NIT Durgapur (NITDGP)47
NIT Allahabad (MNNIT)48
NIT Jalandhar (NITJ)52
NIT Surat (SVNIT)54
NIT Meghalaya (NITM)61
NIT Bhopal (MANIT)65
NIT Raipur (NITRR)67
NIT Agartala (NITA)75
NIT Goa (NITG)77
NIT Jamshedpur (NITJSR)79
NIT Patna (NITP)92
NIT Hamirpur (NITH)98
NIT Puducherry (NITPY)130
NIT Manipur (NITMN)158
NIT Arunachal Pradesh (NITAP)200
NIT Srinagar (NITSRI)NA
NIT Delhi (NITD)NA
NIT Mizoram (NITMZ)NA
NIT Nagaland (NITN)NA
NIT Sikkim (NITSKM)NA
NIT Uttarakhand (NITUK)NA
NIT Andhra Pradesh (NITANP)NA
(Table) NIT vs IIT – INDIA RANKINGS of NITs

NIT vs IIT: Quality of research output

This 9th parameter already is a part of the methodologies used by established official scorers like Quacquarelli Symonds Limited (QS Global) and NIRF (India). We have thus, kept this one out of the list above since we’ve already mentioned World and India rankings as the 8th one in the list above.

Adding this parameter is supremely important to make this comparison more worthy as well as reliable to discerning readers like yourself.

“Quality of research” is a hallmark of a good engineering and technology institution. We’d like to elaborate a bit on this, using 2 further sub-parameters.

These 2 following parameters primarily indicate quality of research output made.

  1. No. of patents (industrial commercial licensing) filed in an academic year
  2. No. of citations of papers published in national and international peer-reviewed journals.

Look, the number of papers published is also important but citationsfor each paper indicate whether the research is good enough.

A good work is read, debated, and cited by fellow scholars in the same community.

There are other parameters too to determine the quality of research but the above two are critical.

And this quality of research (which obviously is an indication to the quality of academics in UG and above levels) is what differentiates a good institution from a bad one.

In this debate of NIT vs IIT, this is a key factor which puts the old IITs way, way ahead of the NITs.

UniversityQS Score out of 100 for Citations/paperNo. of patents published in 2018-2019
IIT Bombay80.5153
IIT Delhi79.275
IIT Madras46.1195
IIT Kanpur75.347
IIT Kharagpur80.977
IIT Roorkee87.625
IIT Guwahati99.525
NIT Trichy (NITT)84.810
NIT Karnataka(NITK)53.24
NIT Rourkela(NITRKL)75.23
NIT Warangal (NITW)NA0
NIT Calicut (NITC)NA5
NIT Nagpur (VNIT)NA0
NIT Jaipur (MNIT)NA0
(Table) IITs and NITs: Quality of Research Output

(Table) Source: IIT Council Official Archival; NIRF 2020 Archives; Quacquarelli Symonds Limited (QS) Records 2020
NA = Not Available

News: NIT B. Tech.students to get direct admission for PhD in IIT

According to their recent MOU signed mutually, from 2020onwards, students pursuing B. Tech.,with a CGPA of >=8.00 at the end of their 6thsemester, in National Institute of Technology Trichy (NITT) can now seek direct admission to PhD in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi without the need to qualify GATE or any other national level examination. This has been made possible as the two institutes signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

IIT-Delhi already has a similar arrangement with NIT Agartala and NIT Warangal.

Such students can carry out part of their studies including their summer project work and 4th year at IIT-Delhi.IIT-Delhi will not be charging any academic fees, since they will be paying their regular academic fees at the NITs.

NIT vs IIT: Conclusions

While it is a known fact that IITs are more promising compared to the weakly maintained NITs, you will still have to assess all the factors given in this post when you decide after you get a rank. Engineering disciplines are a huge differentiating factor, when we plainly consider future possibilities.

NIT vs IIT is a debate that’s still going strong in people’s minds. Parents in India today still find a Sundar Pichai in their little Sonu, no matter if he’s still in Class 5! You’re not alone if you cannot decide which is better between IITs and NITs.

We’ve presented a compilation of the difference between NIT vs IIT as well as similarities between the two.

However, this is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life, and it’s crucial that you do not make a hasty one. That is why career counselling is an indispensable option for thousands like you, confused before they make a choice.

You must check these:

1 thought on “NIT vs IIT: #1 Solution of the Experts’ Debate!”

  1. Do private colleges stand a chance against such big names as many private institutions are also well equipped with the facilities and curriculum to create or mold a fresher into a expert in any field of his/her choice.

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