The Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

institute located in

Palakkad Palakkad (), Renaming of cities in India, also known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery, is a city and a municipality in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of P ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. It is one of India's 23

IIT The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are a network of engineering and technology institutions in India. Established in 1950, they are under the purview of the Ministry of Education of the Indian Government and are governed by the Institu ...

s. Proposed in the 2014 Union budget of India, IIT Palakkad was established in 2015 as an

Institute of National Importance In India, an Institution of National Importance (INI) refers to a premier public higher education institution granted special status by an act of the Parliament of India. Such institutions are recognized for their pivotal role in developing high ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

History

The

Indian Institutes of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are a network of engineering and technology institutions in India. Established in 1950, they are under the purview of the Ministry of Education of the Indian Government and are governed by the Inst ...

(IITs) were established by the

through a Central Statute, the

Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 is a legislation in India giving legal status, including degree granting powers, to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). It was notified in the gazette as Act number 59 of 1961 on 20 December 1961 and ...

. The success of the IITs led to the demand for establishing more such institutions across our country.

, one of India's most educationally advanced states, had a long pending demand for an IIT. In 2012, then Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

said that the Centre was seriously considering a proposal to set up an IIT in Kerala under the Twelfth Plan. In July 2014, an IIT in the state of Kerala was proposed in the 2014 Union budget of India, the first budget of

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

led NDA government. On November 20, 2014,

IIT Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ...

was designated as the mentor institute by the Ministry of Human Resources and Human Development, and the director of

Bhaskar Ramamurthi Bhaskar Ramamurthi is an Indian academic who served as the director of Indian Institute of Technology Madras from 2011 to 2022. He succeeded M. S. Ananth and was succeeded by Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan. Career Bhaskar Ramamurthi obtained his B ...

assumed the role of Mentor Director. The institute's first academic session commenced on August 3, 2015 with 120 students – 30 each in Civil Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. IIT Palakkad was incorporated in the

, through the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2016, in September 2016. In January 2017, P. B. Sunil Kumar, who was the Professor-in-charge, was appointed as the Director by then

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

. A. Seshadri Sekhar, professor and head of the department of mechanical engineering at the

, succeeded P. B. Sunil Kumar as the director of the institute in October 2022.

Campus and location

The institute started functioning in August 2015 from a temporary site located inside the Ahalia Health Heritage & Knowledge Village, Palakkad. The permanent campus, situated in

Kanjikode Kanjikode or Kanchikode is an industrial town located east of Palakkad. Kanjikode is the second largest industrial hub in Kerala after Kochi. The town is part of Pudussery (gram panchayat), Pudussery Panchayat. It is one of the growing suburbs o ...

and divided into two sections—Nila (approximately 40 acres) and Sahyadri (about 500 acres) situated opposite each other—saw academic activities commence in the Nila Campus in February 2019. By August 2023, the institute had fully relocated its operations to the permanent campus. NILA

The Nila Campus includes an auditorium, multimedia-enabled classrooms (both small and large), student laboratories, a library, a canteen, and Wi-Fi-enabled hostels that allow mobility in Internet access. The academic space and the laboratory complex are named Samgatha and Manogatha, respectively. Students are accommodated in three hostels: Bageshri, Brindavani, and Tilang. SAHYADRI SARASWATHI

The Sahyadri Campus, located on 504 acres near the Western Ghats, integrates modern infrastructure with eco-friendly practices aimed at achieving a net-zero carbon footprint. The Saraswathi Block serves as the main academic building and has a capacity for 2,000 students. Students on this campus reside in the Malhar and Saveri hostels.

Academics

IIT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in different engineering disciplines. Similar to the other IITs, admission to undergraduate programmes is based on qualification through the extremely competitive

Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

(IIT-JEE). In addition to that, Ph.D programme is also offered in all the disciplines of Science and Engineering. It is also offering Master of Technology (M.Tech) in two disciplines from the year 2019 in which candidates having valid GATE (

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an Entrance examination (education), entrance examination conducted in India for admission to technical Postgraduate education, postgraduate programs that tests the undergraduate subjects of e ...

) scores are eligible to apply. From 2019, M.Sc programmes in Physics and Chemistry are also be offered. The admissions to these programmes are through IIT-JAM. In 2022, the institute introduced flexible choice based B.Tech programs and degree options alongside a new B.Tech program in Data Science and Engineering. IIT Palakkad offers programmes in 8 disciplines. *

Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

Computer Science & Engineering Computer science and engineering (CSE) is an academic subject comprising approaches of computer science and computer engineering. There is no clear division in computing between science and engineering, just like in the field of materials science ...

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

Ranking

IIT Palakkad is ranked 64th among the engineering colleges of India by

National Institutional Ranking Framework National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministr ...

(NIRF) in 2024.

References

External links

Official website
{{Indian Institutes of Technology Engineering colleges in Kerala