18th IIT opens at Palakkad

Palakkad (Kerala): The 18th Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) opened here on Monday with 117 students -- six from Kerala and a majority from Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing the students and parents through video conferencing, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani urged the students to develop a social outlook besides pursuing their studies.

Presently lodged in a temporary campus, admissions have been made to four streams of BTech.

The institution will for now function from a makeshift campus. The main campus is to come up in a 500 acre plot of land near here.

An official opening of the IIT will take place later.