New Delhi: India produces more than 8 lakh engineering graduates per annum. The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are considered as a premier engineering institutes in India, which have more than 18,000 intake capacity for various under graduate programmes (BTech). NITs are a group of premier central-funded public engineering institutes in India. These are governed by the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007, which declared them as institutions of national importance alongside Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

In India there are 31 NITs and all are funded by the central government. All the institutes are autonomous which enables them to set up their own curriculum. Out of these 31 NITs, the top five institutes as per NIRF 2017 are as followed: NIT Tiruchirappalli (1), NIT Rourkala (2), NIT Surathkal (3), NIT Warangal (4) and NIT Allahabad (5).

Courses Offered:  NITs offer degree courses at graduate, masters, and PhD levels in various branches of engineering, architecture, management and science. Admission to the under-graduate courses such as Bachelor of Technology (BTech) and Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) programs in NITs are through the pan India prestigious competitive exam – Joint Entrance Examination (Main). Similarly, admission to master degree courses are through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for Master of Technology (MTech). Meanwhile, admission to Master of Science (MSc) programs is based on Joint Admission Test for MSc (JAM), Master of Business Administration (MBA) program through Common Admission Test (CAT) and Master of Computer Applications (MCA) program through NIMCET.

Admission to their major programmes are done by centralized counseling system. Since 2015, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) and Centralized Counselling for MTech/MArch and MPlan (CCMT) conduct the admission process for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, respectively in all NITs. As of 2017, the total number of seats for undergraduate programs is 18,013 and for post graduate programs is 8,158 in all 31 NITs.

BTech Programmes: The eligible candidates need to appear Joint Entrance Examination (Main) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) each year. Top ranked students are eligible to apply NITs through the centralized counseling system Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA).

Master’s Degree (MTech): Eligible candidates need to appear GATE exam, generally conducted by any IITs or IISc Bangalore as an organizing institute each year. Centralized Counselling for MTech/MArch and MPlan (CCMT) conduct the admission process for MTech/ MArch/ MPlan/MDes programmes for NITs.

MSc Programmes: Eligible candidates should appear JAM exam, generally conducted by IITs or IISc  as an organizing institute each year. Candidates with valid JAM 2017 score are eligible to participate in Centralized Counselling for admission into M Sc and MSc (Tech ) programme at 18 Participating Institutes (PIs) of CCMN 2017.  The merit list of the registered candidates is solely based on JAM 2017 score.

Master of Computer Applications (MCA):   The NIMCET, NIT MCA Common Entrance Test 2017,  is a National Level Entrance Test conducted by NITs for admission to the MCA course offered by NITs. Admissions in MCA course of NITs will be given on the basis of ranks scored by them in the NIMCET 2017 exam.

Doctoral Programmes: Individual institutes have their own admission policy for PhD programmes. Some of NITs invite applications for PhD programmes under two sessions in each year (July  & January). Some of NITs invite applications for PhD programmes in a single session. Research programmes are available under various subject areas: Engineering, Technology, Science, Management, Humanities, Social Sciences, & Arts.

List of 31 NITs in India:

1. NIT Patna
2. NIT Raipur
3. NIT Warangal
4. NIT Bhopal
5. NIT Jamshedpur
6. NIT Nagpur
7. NIT Surathkal
8. NIT Durgapur
9. NIT Srinagar
10. NIT Allahabad
11. NIT Calicut
12. NIT Rourkela
13. NIT Surat
14. NIT Kurukshetra
15. NIT Jaipur
16. NIT Trichy
17. NIT Agartala
18. NIT Silchar
19. NIT Hamirpur
20. NIT Jalandhar
21. NIT Delhi
22. NIT Goa
23. NIT Puducherry
24. NIT Manipur
25. NIT Meghalaya
26. NIT Mizoram
27. NIT Nagaland
28. NIT Sikkim
29. NIT Uttarakhand
30. NIT Arunachal Pradesh
31. NIT Andhra Pradesh