IIT seats doubled in 10 years
According to Sukanta Majumdar, Minister of State for Education, the total number of seats across 23 IITs has increased from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh over the previous ten years. On March 10, he responded in writing to the Lok Sabha with this information.
In response to a question regarding whether the government had increased the number of IIT seats by more than 100%, the minister asked about further infrastructure improvements, specifically in IIT Patna and IIT Delhi, to accommodate an extra 6,500 students.
Majumdar affirmed that funding for infrastructure expansion in the five IITs founded after 2014 was included in the 2025–2026 Budget. This covers IIT Patna's academic facilities and hostel.
The creation of more infrastructure in the five IITs established after 2014 has been announced in Budget 2025–2026 in order to support the education of an additional 6,500 students. The expansion of IIT Patna's hostel and other infrastructure capacities was also announced, among other things, Majumdar said.
He added that IIT-BHU Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), IIT Hyderabad (Telangana), IIT Kanpur, IIT Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), and IIT Patna (Bihar) are now all based on permanent campuses. More than Rs 1,830 crore has been set out for these five IITs' development for the 2024–25 fiscal year.
In the meantime, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) announced that students who perform well in national and international Olympiads can now apply for undergraduate degrees. These Olympiads are competitive tests that evaluate and test students' knowledge of a range of academic disciplines and abilities.
According to IIT Madras, this admission, known as "Science Olympiad Excellence" (ScOpE), would take place outside of the JEE (Advanced) system, and students will be admitted starting in the 2025–2026 academic year.
ScOpE will feature two extra seats each program, one of which will be reserved solely for female students, much as admissions through the Fine Arts and Culture Excellence and Sports Excellence Admissions modalities. The requirements for eligibility, including age and passing Class 12, are the same as those for JEE Advanced for that year. Additionally, the candidate shouldn't have already been accepted to an IIT.
The first batch of applications will be accepted starting on June 3, 2025. The website has the comprehensive criteria and business rules for admission to ScOpE.
