New Delhi:  The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher education in India and are declared as Institute of National Importance. These premier institutes stand among the top ranked engineering colleges in India and have one of the lowest acceptance rates for engineering & technology institutes, of around 2 to 3 percent, second only to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India.

As of now there 32 NITs including Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (WB) (19). More than 61,000 students have enrolled in various under-graduate programmes offered in 32 NITs. More than 16,000 students have enrolled in various post-graduate programmes. Nearly, Six thousand students have enrolled in various doctoral programmes offered by 32 NITs, as per All India Survey on Higher Education 2019.

Among 32 NITs, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, is crowned as the best NITs in India, as per India Ranking Report Engineering Category 2019, released by Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) under NIRF 2019. NIT  Tiruchirappalli stands at 10 place among the engineering institutes category of NIRF 2019. National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha, bags second position among NITs with overall ranking of 16th in the engineering category.

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (WB) secures third spot with overall ranking at All India Level at 19^th place.  National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka secures fourth place while National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh  finds fifth spot among NITs with overall position of 21nd and 26th places, respectively in the engineering category.

NIT Calicut stands at 28^th place while NIT Nagpur bags seventh spot. NIT Kurukshetra  secures 8^th spot among NITs. NIT Allahabad and NIT Durgapur secure 9^th and 10^th place respectively.

A total of 19 NITs feature among top 100 engineering institutes.  A total of ten NITs feature among India’s to 50 engineering institutes.

NIT Trichy is only NIT that stands among Top 10 Engineering Institutes as per NIRF 2019.

List of Best National Institutes of Technology (NITs) with ranking among engineering institutes as per NIRF 2019:

1. National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu (All India Rank Engineering Rank -10)
2. National Institute of Technology Rourkela (All India Rank Engineering Rank – 16 )
3. Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (WB) (19)
4. National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka (21 )
5. National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh (26)
6. National Institute of Technology Calicut (28)
7. Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (31)
8. National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra (41)
9. Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh (42)
10. National Institute of Technology Durgapur (46)
11. National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam (51)
12. Malviya National Institute of Technology (53)
13. Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat (58)
14. National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh (60)
15. Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, Madya Pradesh (62)
16. National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya (67)
17. National Institute of Technology Agartala (70)
18. National Institute of Technology Raipur (74)
19. National Institute of Technology Goa (87)
20. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandar (113)
21. National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur (130)
22. National Institute of Technology Patna (132)
23. National Institute of Technology Manipur, Manipur (148)

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 32 NITs. These institutes also doctoral and post-doctoral programmes with fellowship benefits.