Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi


Indian Institute of Technology Varanasi Varanasi or IIT is a public technical and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1919 as the Banaras Engineering College, it became the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in 1968. It was designated an Indian Institute of Technology in 2012. IIT Varanasi has 16 departments, 3 inter-disciplinary schools and 1 Humanities & Social Sciences Section. It is located inside the Banaras Hindu University Campus, however is not dependent on it.
Indian Institute of Technology celebrated its centenary year in 2019-2020. It organized a global alumni meet and other cultural events during the celebration. The 80-year-old BENCO chimney was also re-erected to commemorate the institute's completion of a century.

History

IIT Varanasi has formerly been known as the Banaras Engineering College, the College of Mining and Metallurgy, the College of Technology and the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. Its establishment is intimately linked with that of the Banaras Hindu University. The first convocation ceremony at BHU was held on 19 January 1919. The Chancellor of the University, Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar of Mysore who had come to preside over and address the convocation, performed the opening ceremony of the Banaras Engineering College Workshop buildings. An Artisan Course was started on 11 February 1919. BHU has the credit of first starting degree classes in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgy and Pharmaceutics, thanks to the foresight of its founder, Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya.
The Department of Geology was started under BENCO in 1920. Courses in Mining and Metallurgy were introduced by the Geology Department. The Department of Industrial Chemistry was started in July, 1921. In 1923, Mining and Metallurgy were established as separate departments and in 1944, they were raised to the status of a college forming the College of Mining and Metallurgy.
BHU was the first Indian university to introduce the study of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. This initiative was taken in 1932 when a new group of subjects for the BSc Examination consisting of Chemistry, Botany with Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Studies was started in 1934 and in 1935 a new three-year program leading to the degree of Bachelor of Pharmacy was introduced. The science departments of the University were under the Central Hindu College. In September 1935, a new College of Science was constituted comprising the departments of Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry and Ceramics. In 1937, the Department of Glass Technology also came into existence under this college. The year 1939 witnessed the establishment of a separate College of Technology comprising the departments of Industrial Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Ceramics and Glass Technology.
In 1968, BENCO, TECHNO and MINMET were merged into one and the Institute of Technology was established integrating the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil and Municipal Engineering, Mining Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Silicate Technology and Pharmaceutics. The Department of Silicate Technology subsequently became the Department of Ceramic Engineering. A separate Department of Electronics Engineering was also established. The departments of Applied Physics, Applied Mathematics and Applied Chemistry were established in 1985.
The earlier system of regional admission based on merit lists was replaced in 1972 by admission through Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination for undergraduate courses and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering for postgraduate courses. In the tenth meeting of IIT Council in 1972, it was also proposed to convert the then IT-BHU into an IIT and a committee was appointed by IIT Council for the same but because of political reasons, the desired conversion could not be achieved then.
In 2003, Committees constituted by MHRD had recommended for the conversion of the Institute into an Indian Institute of Technology. On 17 July 2008, the government of India issued a press release granting "In principle approval for taking over the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University – a constituent unit of the Banaras Hindu University, a Central University, its conversion into an Indian Institute of Technology and integrating it with the IIT system in the country." The BHU Executive Council approved the proposal of the HRD ministry to convert IT-BHU to IIT Varanasi, retaining academic and administrative ties to BHU.
On 4 August 2010 a bill seeking to amend the Institutes of Technology Act 1961 to declare IT-BHU an IIT was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for HRD, D. Purandeswari. The Lok Sabha passed The Institutes of Technology Act, 2011 on 24 March 2011 and the Rajya Sabha on 30 April 2012, thereby formalizing the IIT status of the Institute. The Bill was signed by the President of India on 20 June 2012 and notified in the gazette on 21 June.
The Department of Architecture, Planning and Design was set up in the Institute in collaboration with IIT Roorkee, beginning its academic activities from the session 2019-2020. The first cohort of students consisted of 20 students admitted into the five-year programme through the JEE Advanced exam.

Academics

Undergraduate programme

IIT Varanasi offers four-year instructional programs for the degree of Bachelor of Technology and five-year programs for Integrated Dual Degree. The IDD program offers both BTech and MTech degrees. Admission to all programs is expressly through the Joint Entrance Examination conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology. Earlier half of the intake for Pharmaceutical sciences was through JEE and the other half through BHU-PMT. But after the college was converted into an IIT, intake for BTech and the IDD in Pharmaceutical sciences is exclusively through Joint Entrance Exam.

Postgraduate programme

Postgraduate courses offer Master of Technology and PhD degrees. Admissions to the MTech program are made through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering conducted jointly by Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institutes of Technology. For admission into the various PhD courses, one can apply through the official institute website. The application brochure is released on the same.

Admission

The admission of students to the institute is through JEE Advanced for undergraduate courses and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering for postgraduate courses. From 2013, admission to undergraduate programs is based on two tier test called Mains and Advanced. In addition, the students qualifying through JEE need to be in the top 20 percentile of the respective categories and/or have secured 75% or above in the qualifying exam conducted by the boards of their respective state/UT.

Departments

Indian Institute of Technology has the following academic departments:
EngineeringHumanities and Social SciencesInter DisciplinarySchools

  • Department of Humanistic Studies.
    • Courses are offered in:
    1. English
    2. History
    3. Philosophy
    4. Linguistics
    5. Sociology
    ScienceArchitecture
  • Chemistry
  • Physics
  • Mathematical Sciences
  • Architecture, Planning and Design

    • Library facilities

    IIT Varanasi has a well-stocked Main Library and five independent Departmental libraries. The main library has a vast collection of books across streams in engineering, science, and technology, along with a host of books in humanities, social sciences, and literary fiction.
    The library database boasts of about 1,38,000 volumes of books, journals, theses, reports, and pamphlets. Basic facilities like circulation, scanning, printing, photocopying amenities are also available in this Wi-Fi-enabled library. The library has a sitting capacity of more than 600 students. The faculty and students can have access to these facilities by registering themselves. The faculty and students can have access to these facilities by registering
    themselves.
    The library permits access to nearly 8000 e-journals, 25,000 standards and more than 30,000 electronic books and databases. It has an excellent collection of bound volumes of old and new periodicals, codes and standards, etc. The library also maintains an online repository containing student thesis and publications, transcripts and event videos, available on the Institute intranet. Apart from this, students also enjoy access to the central and cyber library of Banaras Hindu University.

    Student life

    IIT Varanasi provides students with a vibrant campus life, providing an ideal setting for the all-round development of the students and a forum for interaction amongst themselves, with the rest of the University community as well as outsiders. The IIT Gymkhana, housed in Kings' Pavilion, is the primary hub of all extracurricular activities in the Institute.
    The Gymkhana functions through its five councils:
    1. Games and Sports Council
    2. Cultural Council
    3. Science and Technology Council
    4. Film and Media Council
    5. Social Service Council
    These councils are headed by their respective Counsellors who work in close coordination with the Dean. On the student side, each council has a General Secretary and two Joint General Secretaries, with each club being headed by a Secretary and two Joint Secretaries. The councils also organize different festivals in the college annually.

    Festivals

    Technex is the annual techno-management festival of IIT Varanasi and Asia's oldest techno-management fest. It has footsteps dating back to 1939. It brings together students across colleges from all over the country to participate in the celebration to exploit their knowledge and creative extravagance along with experts from the fields of both academia and industry. While events may vary from year to year, generally they include or are based on software development, model exhibition, astronomy, robotics, aero-modelling, business and general awareness. Over years Technex has become one of the most sought after techno events in the country. Technex in its effulgent history has witnessed eminent personalities such as Garrett Brown - Inventor of Steadicam, Bjarne Stroustrup - Creator and Developer of C++, Vinod Dham - Father of Pentium Chips
    Kashiyatra is the Annual Socio-Cultural festival of IIT Varanasi. It sees a participation of students from different regions of the country to compete in various cultural events like dance, music, theatre, fine-arts, literature, quiz, fashion, etc. Started in 1982, it has been named as Sparsh and Spandan in the past. Along with these events, it sees performances from artists and celebrities from Bollywood as well as other parts of the world.
    IIT also participates in Banaras Hindu University's Inter-college festival Spandan which is held annually in the month of February.
    Spardha, India's largest games and sports festival is also organised at IIT BHU.
    FMC Weekend, India's first and largest digital arts festival, is organised at IIT BHU.

    Institute Magazine

    The institute newsletter, IIT BHU Connect is a bi-yearly magazine which features in-depth cover stories, recently organized events, adopted proposals, technical advances and helps promote the Institute beyond the boundaries of the university. Having been initiated in the year 2016, six editions have been published so far which received mostly positive reviews. It is run by a student team of around twenty students with one Student Editor.

    MCIIE

    Malaviya Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship was established in 2008. The objective of MCIIE is to produce successful firms that will leave the program financially viable. Incubator tenants not only benefit from business and technical assistance but also from official affiliation with the incubator, a supportive community with an entrepreneurial environment, direct link to entrepreneurs, and immediate networking and commercial opportunities with other tenant firms. The various programmes under MCIIE include:
    MCIIE has some established startups incubated there like Internlelo, Bridgedots, etc.

    Rankings

    Among engineering colleges, IIT Varanasi was ranked 11 by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2019 and 10th overall. It was ranked 9th among engineering colleges in India in 2019 by The Week.

    Alumni

    The IIT Chronicle is a monthly e-magazine published by the IITBHU Global Alumni Association. It was first published in May, 2005. It provides an account of events at the institute as well as notable achievements of members of the alumni community. It also publishes news and articles, sourced from a number of published sources, stating recent developments around the world. The magazine is published around the 25th of each month. It is emailed to over 11,000 alumni, students and faculty of the institute.

    Notable alumni

    The Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi has had numerous notable alumni.