IIT Madras is a residential institute that occupies a 2.5 km² (620 acres) campus that was formerly part of the adjoining Guindy National Park. The institute has nearly 360 faculty, 6,000 students and 1,250 administrative and supporting staff. Growing ever since it obtained its charter from the Indian Parliament in 1961, IIT Madras has established itself as a premier centre for teaching, research and industrial consultancy in the country. The Institute has 15 academic departments and advanced research centres across various disciplines of engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories. The IITs are rated among the best educational institutions in the world as ranked by their peers [5]. Much of the spectacular campus is a protected forest, carved out of the Guindy National Park, and still remains home to chital (spotted deer), black buck, and other wildlife. A natural lake, deepened in 2003, drains most of its rainwater.
History
In 1956, the German Government offered technical assistance for establishing an institute of higher education in engineering in India. The first Indo-German agreement was signed in Bonn, West Germany in 1959 for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras. IIT Madras was started with technical, academic and financial assistance from the Government of West Germany and was at the time the largest educational project sponsored by the West German Government outside their country. This has led to several collaborative research efforts with universities and institutions in Germany over the years.[6] Although official support from the German government has ended, several research efforts involving the DAAD program and Humboldt Fellowships exist.
The Institute was inaugurated in 1959 by Prof. Humayun Kabir, the Union Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs. In 1961, the IITs were declared to be Institutions of National Importance that include the seven Institutes of Technology located at Kharagpur (estb. 1951), Mumbai (estb. 1958), Chennai (estb. 1959), Kanpur (estb. 1959), Delhi (estb. 1961), Guwahati (estb. 1994) and Roorkee (estb. 1847, upgraded to an IIT in 2001). IIT Madras celebrates its Golden Jubilee in 2009.
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