definition for: #IndianInstitutesOfTechnology

The Indian Institutes of Technology are India's premier engineering and technical universities, started with foreign collaboration from the 1950s onwards. The graduates are highly regarded and, even before they graduate, the whole of the graduating classes are usually snapped up by Silicon Valley firms. Till 2015, they have been autonomous of whichever political party has been in government. The current Indian government now proposes to bring the IITs (as they are called) under its political control - giving rise to the anxiety that these premier institutions will be dumbed down.