Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs) have witnessed an extraordinary increase in the number of research scholars pursuing a doctoral degree. Increasing government funding, associations with industry stalwarts, and an urge of IITs to transform themselves from undergraduate technology institutions to research-oriented establishments have led to a steep increase of 50-100%.    

The number of students have almost doubled at IIT Kharagpur and Delhi, and the number has jumped by 50% at IIT Madras and Kanpur. During the academic session 2018-19, the number of PhD graduates was highest at 380. Among other IITs, Delhi tops the chart by 378 (up 112% since 2014), IIT Kanpur 186 (41%), Madras 257 (49%), and Kharagpur 295 (80%).     

Ashok Mishra, Dean, Academic Research at IIT Madras told a leading daily, “Over the years, the ministry of human resource development has been increasing funding support with respect to the number of PhD students sanctioned as well as the amount of monthly fellowship/assistantship for a PhD student. The rate of increase in PhD strength is primarily related to this.”