Record number of tech PhDs from IIT-Delhi

India’s top tech schools are increasingly becoming major hubs of higher learning, popular with students seeking both specialist knowledge and fat salaries, reports Swaha Sahoo.

If you thought IITs were hot only for graduate B Tech courses and the crorepati engineers they produced, think again. India’s top tech schools are increasingly becoming major hubs of higher learning too, popular with students seeking both specialist knowledge and fat salaries.

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A whopping 140 PhDs in engineering disciplines were awarded by IIT Delhi last year, the most ever in the institute’s history. The reason is the changing nature of private-sector operations in India in recent years, say experts.

“Research in engineering is in, and career prospects of PhDs are changing,” said M. Balakrishnan, Dean, Post Graduate Studies and Research, IIT Delhi. “Industrial research and development is becoming big in India. Today, the private sector employs PhDs in all disciplines — automobiles, energy, environment, materials.”

The returns, in monetary terms, are attractive as well.

“A PhD in any engineering discipline is today paid between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 16 lakh per annum,” said Balakrishnan. “Companies such as Yahoo and Google, which work with new technologies, pay the highest,” he said.