Introduction
ABOUT BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE
(बिरला
प्रौद्योगिकी
एवं
विज्ञान
संस्थान
पिलानी)
Birla Institute of Technology & Science,
(known as BITS Pilani) is a private technical university located in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. BITS
also has campuses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates Goa, India, Hyderabad, India
and an extension center in Bangalore, India
BITS Pilani enrolls students on the basis of merit
and not through any kind of reservations. The institute is privately supported
and fully residential. BITS Pilani is the first Indian institution to set up a
campus outside India.
The Institute has developed and administers the
all-India computerized entrance test BITSAT (BITS Admission Test), which is the
first of its kind in India. It is also known to be one of the first Indian
engineering colleges to require compulsory internship through its "Practice
School" program.
About
Campus
Pilani is located 220 km west to Delhi and 217 km
North to Jaipur; the BITS campus is located to the south of the bus stand of
Pilani. The total area of the campus (which includes the Birla Education Trust)
is over 4 square kilometers (990 acres), but the developed area is 0.2 square
kilometres (49 acres) of which 60769 m2 are used for the BITS University
building. The campus has several class rooms (area 11245 M2), laboratories
(area 7069 M2).Saraswati Temple, BITS PilaniBITS has a temple dedicated to the
goddess Saraswati, called Sharda Peeth. It was built by Dr. G D Birla. The
white marble temple is built on a 7 feet (2.1 m) high foundation, with 70
pillars for support and spread across an area of 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2
Pilani Campus has India's first technological museum called Birla Museum. Built
in 1954, it exhibits the accomplishments of technology
BITS has a 2535 m² auditorium decorated by
paintings drawn by students
History
The institute can trace its origins to 1901, when
Shiv Narainji Birla started a 'Patshala' (traditional Indian School) in Pilani
with one teacher for educating his grandsons, GD Birla and RD Birla. In the
perion of 1925-1929 the 'Patshala' gathered strength and evolved to become a
High School. In 1929 , the institute was founded by Ghanshym Das Birla as an
intermediate college. In the period 1943-1947, the Birla Education Trust was
founded and the Intermediate College was converted into a Degree college, and
later on started post-graduate courses.
During World War II, the government of India
established a technical training center at Pilani, Rajasthan to train
technicians for defence services and industry. In 1946, it was converted into
the Birla Engineering College with degree programmes in electrical and
mechanical engineering.The Masters programme in Electronics began in 1955.
In the 1950s, the first Indian Institute of
Technology was set up by the Indian Government to provide advanced engineering
and scientific manpower to the Indian economy. However, most of the students
who graduated were over-qualified for employment in India and many emigrated to
find better employment and research opportunities abroad. Realizing that he
needed better institutions to train highly-skilled engineers for manning his
own companies, and others in the Indian economy, Ghanshyam Das Birla decided that
For this purpose he wrote to James Killian, the
President of MIT at the time, asking for his support in the project. He offered
a list of advisors, headed by the former MIT alumnus Thomas Drew, who was then
at Columbia University. Although reluctant at first, MIT and the Ford
Foundation agreed to help with the project. The Ford Foundation sent Drew and
an MIT colleague back to India in the spring of 1963 to draw up detailed plans
for
"transforming a lackluster complex of
colleges supported by the Birla Education Trust, including the Birla
Engineering College, into a worthy competitor of the IIT's."
On August 1965, the Foundation approved a
two-year, $1.45 million grant to MIT for developing BITS, with the expectation
of a renewal as the project continued
Reacting to criticism about the project, Drew, now
the head of the MIT advisory board, said:
“ I do not believe [Birla] supposes or
wants an American MIT set down in India. In my judgment to attempt to develop
such 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 much be framed
with Indian values in mind ”
In 1964, under the direction of the MIT advisory
board, the Birla Colleges of Arts, Commerce, Engineering, Pharmacy and Science
were merged to form the Birla Institute of Technology and Science. The board
also provided direction in developing a curriculum, selecting equipment,
upgrading the library, and recruiting and training Indian faculty. After Thomas
Drew reached mandatory retirement age, MIT electrical engineer David White was
sent to head the committee for 2 years. To hasten the pace of reforms, he
convinced Birla to hire C. R. Mitra, former head of Harcourt Butler
Technological Institute, as the new Director of the institute. It was Mitra who
pushed for a "practice school" internship program far more ambitious
than anything MIT had done, as a requirement for all faculty and students. This
Practice School Program is still a requirement for students in BITS.
According to Robert Kargon and Stuart Leslie:
BITS Pilani became a Deemed University established
vide Sec. 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 under notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of June
18, 1964.
Chancellor
and Academic Head
BITS Pilani has has long-serving Chancellors and
Vice-Chancellors. Its founder G.D. Birla was the Chancellor from the college's
inception until his demise in 1983.He was followed by his son Krishna Kumar
Birla, who was the Chancellor until his demise in 2008.Currently, Kumar
Mangalam Birla is the Chancellor and Shobhana Bhartia is the Pro-Chancellor.The
first academic head of the institution was Dr. V. Lakshminarayanan, who served
in this capacity from 1946 to 1969.He was succeeded by BITS Directors C.R.
Mitra (1969–1989) and S. Venkateswaran (1989–2006). With the opening of
multiple campuses, the overall head came to be known as 'Vice Chancellor',
while 'Director' denoted the head of a campus. L.K. Maheshwari became the first
Vice Chancellor in 2006, while Bijendra Nath Jain is the current Vice
Chancellor and fifth academic head of the institute since its inception
Student
Life Style in BITS
Hindi Drama Club (HDC)and English Drama Club (EDC)
perform stage and street plays during the semester and during student
festivals.
Hindi Press Club (HPC) and English Press Club
(EPC) publish newsletters describing activities happening on campus and conduct
journalism quizzes in APOGEE and OASIS.
English Language Activities Society (ELAS) and
Hindi Activities Society (HAS) conduct quizzing events.
Bitsmun organizes a model united nations every
year which is supposedly the largest of its kind in India
Creative Activities Club (CrAC) conducts art
exhibitions and competitions
Photography Club conducts workshops and training
sessions in photography.
Ragamalika is a club which organizes Indian
classical and Carnatic music programs. Ragamalika organizes events for Indian
classical dance.
Music Club performs on 'music nights' and in
events like Fusion and Tarang in OASIS.
Dance Club organizes dance workshops and performs
in cultural events in APOGEE and OASIS.
Students play a role in administrative and
technical services: The Students' Union (SU) is the main administrative body
for students and consists of elected post holders. The elections are overseen
by the Election Commission, which also is a student body. The CRAC
(Constitution Review and Amendment Committee) and the CRC (Corroboration and
Review Committee) are two other parts of this system of administration for the
students, by the students. The Student Mess Council carries out mess related
management.
Academics
BITS Pilani offers four year Integrated First
Degree programmes in Bachelor of Engineering (B.E(Hons)), Bachelor of Pharmacy
(B.Pharm(Hons.)), Master of Science (M.Sc(Hons.)), Master of Science
(M.Sc(Technology)), and Master of Arts (M.A(Hons.)). The programmes offered
with the degrees are classified into groups A, B and C.[56]
Group
A:
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Pharmacy
Computer Science
Manufacturing Engineering
Electronics and Communication Engineering
(Hyderabad campus only)
Group
B:
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Economics
Mathematics
Physics.
Group C:
Information Systems
General Studies
Engineering Technology
Finance
These courses are called Integrated First Degree
courses because several courses such as Mathematics and Sciences are common to
each degree. BITS Pilani does not offer Bachelor of Science (B.Sc), or Bachelor
of Arts (B.A) degrees.
Higher
Degree
BITS Pilani offers higher degree programmes such
as Master of Engineering (M.E.), Master of Pharmacy (M.Pharm), Master of Public
Health, and (M.P.H) Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A)
Off-Campus
Programmes
BITS Pilani also offers off-campus programmes, in
which a student performs practice school, which is somewhat similar to
internship that target the Human Resource Development needs of the industry.
The enrolment has grown over the years from 30 in 1979 to over 10000 students
in 2005. More than 19000 students were registered for the off-campus
work-integrated learning programmes during 2008-09 Work related learning
programmes also accommodate industry professionals who wish to pursue their PhD
whilst being employed.
International projects
BITS Pilani is a key partner in several
international initiatives like the development of JournalServer open-access
digital library, the Project IPV6, MIT iCampus initiative, etc.
Contact
Details
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS,
Pilani)
Vidya Vihar Campus
Pilani
Rajasthan
PIN Code - 333031
INDIA
For more detail kindly visit
http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/
