78th Independence Day: From IITs to FTII, how India developed as an educational hub

NEW DELHI: India has made remarkable strides in the establishment and development of educational institutions since it gained independence.
With first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) set up in 1950 in Kharagpur, to Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) established in 1960 in Pune, the country has come a long way in making sure that education is provided to growing youngsters in the country.

Let's have a look at the fine monuments of India:
IITs
“Here… stands the fine monument of India, representing India’s urges, India’s future in the making…” said Jawaharlal Nehru, while delivering the first convocation address at IIT-Kharagpur in 1956. It was the country’s first IIT, set up in 1950 following recommendations of a committee that mandated setting up of these institutions across India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While four other campuses came up in quick succession – Bombay (1958), Madras (1959), Kanpur (1959) and Delhi (1961) – India now has as many as 23 IITs.
IIMs
After India became independent, the Planning Commission was entrusted to oversee the development of the nascent nation that was witnessing rapid growth in the 50s. The commission began finding it difficult to get managers to run the public sector enterprises that were being established. In 1959, the panel invited a UCLA professor to set up an institute of management studies. In 1961, the first of the IIMs came up in Calcutta, followed by Ahmedabad and Bangalore. There are over 20 IIMs in the country now.
BITS-Pilani
At a time when India was building its IITs, a regional engineering college in Pilani in Rajasthan was being transformed into a top national university in 1964, backed by GD Birla. Birla Institute of Science and Technology (BITS-Pilani) now has campuses in Goa, Hyderabad and even Dubai.
AIIMS
Kolkata’s loss was Delhi’s gain. When the first AIIMS was proposed in Calcutta, former West Bengal CM Bidhan Chandra Roy said no. So Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, health minister in the Nehru cabinet, built the institute in Delhi in the early 50s, after she introduced a Bill in the Parliament. The old and new main OPD blocks at AIIMS, Delhi are named after her.
FTII
From Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi to Santosh Sivan and Rajkumar Rao, the sprawling Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) campus in Pune has given India’s best in cinema. FTII came up in 1960, when India saw a culture boom. It also had the likes of Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan as its president and Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and David Lean as its faculty.
NID
Yet another path-breaking institute came up in the 1960s when the National Institute of Design was established in Ahmedabad. It came at a time when a young India was faced with the task of nation building and balancing traditions with modern ideas and technology. NID came up to fulfil the “search for Indian identity in all aspects of life”.