BITS, Pilani

Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

बिरला प्रौद्योगिकी एवं विज्ञान संस्थान पिलानी
Motto	ज्ञानं परमं बलम् (Sanskrit) (jñānaṁ paramaṁ balam)
Motto in English	Knowledge is Supreme Power
Type	Private (Deemed university)
Established	1964
Chancellor	K.M. Birla
Vice-Chancellor	Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya
Director	Prof. Ashoke Kumar Sarkar
Administrative staff	280
Undergraduates	2,698 annually
Postgraduates	1897 annually
Other students	4840
Location	Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Campus	1,320 acres (5.3 km2)
Affiliations	ACU,UGCNAAC,PCI,AIU
Website	www.bits-pilani.ac.in

University and college rankings
General – international
QS (Asian)	176
Times	601-800
Times (BRICS)	196
Times (Asia)	181-190
General – India
Careers360	3
Engineering – India
NIRF	16
India Today	4
Outlook India	6
Dataquest	1
Private colleges:
Mint	1
Electronics For You	1

Birla Institute of Technology & Science (shortened BITS or BITS Pilani) is an Indian institute of higher education and a deemed university under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956. The university has 15 academic departments, and focuses primarily on undergraduate education in engineering and the sciences and on its management programme. It is widely known as the best private engineering institute and stands among the top Engineering and B-schools of India.

The institute was established in its present form in 1964. During this period, the institute's transformation from a regional engineering college to a national university was backed by G.D. Birla. BITS has established centres at Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai.

BITS administers the all-India computerised competitive entrance examination, BITSAT (BITS Admission Test), Admission is merit-based, as assessed by the BITSAT examination. The fully residential institute is privately supported.

The Birla Education Trust was founded in 1929; the intermediate college became a degree college and later offered postgraduate courses. The masters programme in electronics began in 1955.

Reacting to criticism about the project, Drew said:

In my judgment to attempt to develop an American institution in India would be like trying to graft apples on a pine tree. We have not been asked to make such an attempt. We were asked to help devise in India an Indian technological school to produce graduates with the know-how to produce knowledge pertinent for India…. In many respects they consider us immature, rude, hypocritical barbarians who in certain respects happened to hit it lucky. To be viable in India an institution must be framed with Indian values in mind.

In 1964, the Birla Colleges of Humanities, Commerce, Engineering, Pharmacy and Science were merged to form the Birla Institute of Technology & Science. The board provided direction in developing a curriculum, selecting equipment, upgrading the library and recruiting (and training) an Indian faculty. To quicken the pace of reform he convinced C. R. Mitra to be the new director of the institute. Mitra advocated a "practice school" internship program as a requirement for faculty and students. The Practice School Program is still a requirement for students in BITS.

According to Robert Kargon and Stuart Leslie:

BITS offered an opportunity to build a leading technological university in India responsive to India's goals, to produce practising engineers who will be in a position to graduate and to build industries in India, under Indian conditions. With its emphasis on the Practice School and ties to Indian industry, it helped educate Indian industrialists along with Indian engineers who would remain in India, in contrast to many other engineering colleges in India, most of whose graduates would leave the country after obtaining their basic engineering education. The Ford Foundation Evaluators...proudly noted that the Indian government, despite having given no direct financial support, was looking to BITS to provide a model for future development in education in engineering and science in India.

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