TECH AT ITS BEST

India’s top technical university is a nerve centre of research and innovation, and sets the standard for engineering excellence

- SHELLY ANAND

Research and innovation are thriving at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), the top-ranked technical university in the India Today-MDRA Best Universities survey. The most recent example of the institute’s inventiveness is the Coronavirus diagnostic kit developed by its researchers—the Corosure kit, approved by the ICMR, reduces both the cost and time required for testing. The institute has always been at the forefront of technological innovation, more so during the pandemic. In May, an IIT Delhi start-up, Nano safe Solutions, launched an anti-microbial, washable face mask called safe. A first-of-its-kind invention, this mask can be washed up to 50 times and has a bacteria-filtration efficiency of about 99.2 per cent. These examples clearly indicate why IIT Delhi leads the game when it comes to technical education.

One of the seven original IITs, set up in 1961, IIT Delhi was the given the ‘institution of eminence’ status in 2018 and was granted almost full autonomy. The college offers several undergraduates, postgraduate and doctoral programs but is especially known for its postgraduate education. Continuing its tradition of cutting-edge excellence, the institute recently opened a department of material science and engineering to boost the study of materials and promote multidisciplinary research.