Introduction:

On the first day of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, IIT Delhi director Rangan Banerjee made the news. Banerjee explained that the institution will handle all academic matters at its new Abu Dhabi branch, including curriculums, labs, and research initiatives, in addition to participating in infrastructure planning, especially digital infrastructure, in cooperation with partners at ADEK and other relevant entities.He added that some of the areas targeted by the institute’s branch in Abu Dhabi in the first phase include computer science, artificial intelligence, energy and sustainability, health care, in addition to research programmes. According to Dr. Ahmed Sultan Al Shoaibi, acting executive director of Higher Education Sector, ADEK, the Abu Dhabi campus will embrace comparable best practices while utilising its distinct advantages. IIT Delhi is well-known for its demanding placement procedure.

There are 23 IITs in India and the institute is famous for producing graduates ranked among the world’s most successful innovators, engineers and entrepreneurs. Alumni include Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive and Narayana Murthy, founder of software giant Infosys.    Sunjay Sudhir, Indian ambassador to the UAE, outlined details about the IIT’s first campus outside India. Mr Sudhir said that “The idea behind setting up of IIT Abu Dhabi is to bring the academic excellence of IITs to the wide international community. Therefore, IIT Abu Dhabi will also aspire to be a truly global campus having a good mix of Indian, Emirati and other nationalities”.

The Director said the Abu Dhabi branch will provide an added value to the research and innovation sector in the emirate, adding that it will benefit from cooperation opportunities with institutions such as the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZ UAE), New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), and Technology Innovation Institute (TII) to provide integrated programmes and advanced research.

 Admission in IIT is conducted through Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced. Top-ranking JEE Mains qualified students are eligible to appear for JEE Advanced. Initially, the students can only enrol in degree courses. PG and PhD courses will be available at a later date. As per the recommendation of the IIT council standing committee, Indian students only receive admission in 20 percent of the total available seats. The remaining seats are reserved for students from the respective country where the campus is set up.

The IIT brand has global recognition. It would be the first time that a campus of IIT will be set up overseas and the government of India has chosen the UAE for this purpose. The IIT so established will be open to Emiratis, the Indian diaspora as well as international students. It will be a shining example of how our countries are collaborating in the field of higher education.