Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology

Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology (abbreviated as IIEST) are a group of academic institutions in India for research and education in engineering. These were originally proposed by the Government of India in 2007 to meet the increasing demand for technological and scientific workforce in the industrial and service sectors of India as well as the growing need for qualified personnel in research and development.

It was decided that the institutes under the banner of IIEST were to be created by upgrading existing engineering colleges or universities under the various State governments of India through an act of the Parliament of India, instead of founding completely new institutes. After upgrading, these institutes would also be granted the status of "Institutes of National Importance".[INI]

The first institute to be upgraded to IIEST was Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, which was a university under the Government of West Bengal prior to the upgrade process. Three more universities are in the pipeline to be upgraded to IIEST in the coming years.

In the early years of the 21st century, the Government of India recognized the need to create more institutes for education in engineering and technology at the national level, since there were only a few institutes, under the banner of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) which provided top quality education and research opportunities in engineering and science. The result was the decision to improve the level of some existing colleges and universities at the state level, that is, under the various State governments of India, which would enable these institutes to receive direct funding from the central Government of India as well as be classified as "Institutes of National Importance", thereby earning its students various benefits. Consequently, a group of seven colleges and universities were selected for upgrade by the S. K. Joshi Committee in 2003. However, these institutes were under the respective State governments of India and could not be upgraded due to various political, administrative or technical difficulties.

...
Wikipedia