About
Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a private deemed university in Pilani, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences.After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has become the first international deemed university, spearheading in science, engineering and research with 4 established campuses and 15 academic departments.
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. The university has expanded its campuses from Pilani to Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai. Through its highly successful and widespread alumni network spanning globally across varied fields, BITS Pilani has made a significant impact on corporates, academia, research, entrepreneurship, arts and social activism.
The institute is backed by the Aditya Birla Group and is one of the first six institutes to be awarded the Institute of Eminence status in 2018. BITS conducts the All-India computerized entrance examination, BITSAT (BITS Admission Test). Admission is purely assessed by the BITSAT examination. The fully residential institute is privately supported.
History
Inception
Aerial Image of the Pilani campus with the newly inaugurated Rotunda
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 early criticism about the project, contemporary advisor Thomas 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.
BITS Pilani became a deemed university established under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 by notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of 18 June 1964.
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.
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.
The acceptance rate of BITS Pilani is 1.47% based on the data of BITSAT 2012.
Like Berkeley, BITS Pilani has also experienced student activism. BITS Pilani had to be shut down multiple times because of student strikes during 1973, 1980, and 1985.
Multi-campus expansion
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani is located in IndiaPilaniPilaniGoaGoaHyderabadHyderabad
Campuses Within India: Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad
In 1999, enrollment expanded from 2,500 to 4,000 and campuses were founded in Dubai (2000) and Goa (2004). In 2006, BITS Pilani acquired 200 acres (81 ha) of land from the Andhra Pradesh government through the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority for a new campus. The land is located in Jawaharnagar, Shameerpet Mandal in the Rangareddy district. The BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus opened in 2008; the school also has a virtual university and an extension center in Bangalore.
Chancellor and academic head
BITS Pilani has a tradition of long-serving chancellors and vice-chancellors. Its founder, G.D. Birla, was chancellor from the college’s inception until his death in 1983. He was followed by his son, Krishna Kumar Birla, who was chancellor until his death in 2008.Currently, Kumar Mangalam Birla is chancellor and Shobhana Bhartia is pro-chancellor.
The first academic head of the institution was J. C. Stracliff (Principal) and V. Lakshminarayanan (Vice-Principal) for a period of 3 years during 1946–1949.V. Lakshminarayan became Principal of Birla Engineering College in 1949 (served from 1946 to 1963 in Birla Engineering College), then becoming the first Director of BITS-Pilani in 1964 when it was formed and served till 1969.He was succeeded by BITS directors C.R. Mitra (1969–1989) and S. Venkateswaran (1989–2006). “director” denoted the head of a campus.
In April 2016, Chancellor Kumar Mangalam Birla announced that Prof. Souvik Bhattacharya of IIT Kharagpur / Jadavpur University was selected to take over as the new Vice chancellor of BITS Pilani. He took over in June 2016 to become the 6th academic head of the institute.Prof. Ranendra N. Saha became Acting Vice Chancellor since June 13, 2021 after the expiration of Prof. Bhattacharya’s term.
Campuses
Pilani campus
Pilani is located 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Delhi and 220 kilometres (140 mi) north of Jaipur; the BITS campus is to the west of Pilani bus stand. The area of the campus is 328 acres (1,330,000 m2); its developed area is 49 acres (200,000 m2), of which 15 acres (61,000 m2) is used for the BITS building.The campus has 11,245 square metres (121,040 sq ft) of classrooms and 7,069 square metres (76,090 sq ft) of laboratories.
BITS has a Birla Mandir dedicated to the goddess Saraswati, Sharda Peeth, built by G. D. Birla. The white marble temple is built on a 7-foot (2.1 m)-high foundation, with 70 pillars for support. It covers an area of 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2). The Pilani campus has India’s first technological museum, the Birla Museum. Built in 1954, it showcases technological achievements.BITS has a 2,535-square-metre (27,290 sq ft) auditorium decorated with paintings by students from the department of art and decoration.
Residential and dining facilities
The institute has fourteen hostels in total. Each hostel is referred as a “Bhawan”, the Sanskrit word for hostel. Thirteen of them – Krishna Bhawan, Vishwakarma Bhawan, Rana Pratap Bhawan, Bhagirath Bhawan, Ashok Bhawan, Gandhi Bhawan, Shankar Bhawan, Vyas Bhawan, Budh Bhawan, Ram Bhawan, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Bhawan, CV Raman Bhavan and Srinivasa Ramanujan Bhawan are for male students. There is a single hostel for female students called Meera Bhawan. The institute also has one more hostel for parents and guests The hostels are named after saints, scientists, and historical and religious figures.
Every two hostels share a mess hall except Meera Bhawan, Srinivasa Ramanujan Bhawan and Sir C V RAMAN Bhawan which have their own mess halls. All dining areas are student-managed.Students may also eat at a “Redi” (a small canteen near every hostel), Institute Canteen (IC), the All-Night Canteen (ANC) and the Student Activity Centre (SAC) cafeteria (Talk of the town and Mr. Idli), LOOTERS . The ANC is also student-managed. Moreover there is a small area inside campus called “Connaught” which has many restaurants, cafes, etc. and has shops for general daily needs as well.
Vision 2020, Mission 2012
In 2010 the institute launched a renewal project, “Vision 2020, Mission 2012,”to identify and implement measures establishing BITS Pilani as one of India’s top three research-led universities by 2015 and among the leading 25 technical universities in Asia by 2020. As a part of this initiative, Kumar Mangalam Birla visited the Pilani campus on 13 November 2011 citation needed with pro-chancellor Shobhana Bhartia citation needed and other members of the board of governors. At this meeting, Birla announced a Rs. 600 crore fund citation needed for renovation and construction of new academic buildings and student hostels on the Pilani campus.citation needed The project was planned for completion
“Above mentioned information taken from Wikipedia”