The Student life and culture of IITs refers to the characteristics of student life and culture that are common to among the various IITs. This prominently includes the lifestyle of students, both about studies and co-curricular activities. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are the premier educational institutions for science and technology spread all over India . ...

Hostel life

All the IITs provide residential facilities to its students, research scholars and faculty inside their campus. The students live in hostels (sometimes referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT. There are separate halls for girls and boys, and even for boys, usually the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students/research scholars live in separate halls. Most of the students get single accommodation (i.e. one student per room) though a sizable number of students have to live in double or triple rooms also. Most of the students keep a computer in their rooms though there is no such rule made by the IITs to do it.

The usual structure of the hostels is an array of rooms, clubbed usually in groups of 11 or 12 rooms to form a wing. The standard size of a single room is 12 feet by 9 feet. Every hostel has its own common room and provides mess facilities to its boarders. The IITs also have high-speed LAN and internet connection infrastructure helping students to do their assignments online (wherever applicable) and even view video recordings of their lectures. Technical seminars by experts are organized from time to time in various IITs. Lan can stand for several things: A local area network Lan (airline) formerly LanChile Lan Peru Län, a kind of administrative division used in Sweden Lan Mandragoran, a fictional character in the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. ...

Co-curricular activities

IIT Madras Swimming Pool

Students in various IITs have to compulsarily choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organization (NSO) in their first years. The choice for later years vary from one IIT to the other. The National Cadet Corps (India) is the Indian military cadet corps. Most IITs force student to take up NCC in the first year to instil in them a sense of patriotism and discipline. The NSS is another national organization that strives to reach out to the needy population of the country through its volunteers by organizing camps at regular intervals of time. Both the NCC and NSS hold a camp at the end of the first semester at a location near the IITs and the students attend these as a part of the curriculum. The NSO is a national level sports organization that strives to improve the quality of sports talent in the country by providing coaching facilities to budding athletes. All the IITs have playgrounds of various sports including Cricket, Football, Hockey, Volleyball, Lawn Tennis, Badminton, Athletics, and swimming pools for aquatic events. Usually the hostels also have their own sports grounds. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (891x588, 40 KB) Summary Swimming Pool of IIT Madras. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (891x588, 40 KB) Summary Swimming Pool of IIT Madras. ... The National Cadet Corps (India) is the Indian military cadet corps. ... The National Service Scheme is a government-sponsored voluntary community service organization in India for young Indians. ... The National Sports Organization of India is a government-sponsored voluntary programme to encourage sports, atheletics and physical education amongst Indian youths. ...

Student body

All the IITs have their own students' council elected through an election among the students. The students are represented in the IIT Senate and other forums through the Vice President of the Student's Council, elected through the elections. The election process in IITs is quite unlike the other colleges. Formation or affiliation to political parties is strongly discouraged. Poll graffiti, rallies and processions are also not allowed. Use of loudspeakers for election purposes is also banned. For other uses, see Graffiti (disambiguation). ...

Technical festivals

All IITs organize annual technical festivals in which students from the IIT and even other colleges participate. Usually the technical festivals last 3 to 4 days. The various technical festivals organized by IITs are Techfest (IIT Bombay), Shaastra (IIT Madras), Techkriti (IIT Kanpur), Kshitij (IIT Kharagpur), Cognizance (IIT Roorkee), Tryst (IIT Delhi), and Techniche (IIT Guwahati). Most of the technical festivals are organized in the month of February or March. Apart from the technical festivals mentioned above, some IITs also organize annual robotics contest and other technical events for the students. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay)is one of the Indian Institutes of Technology. ... Shaastra is the annual science and technology festival of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Chennai, India. ... Techkriti is the annual science and technology festival of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT/K). ... The life of a student in IIT Kharagpur is a lot similar to that of his counterpart in other IITs, though it has developed some typical features owing to the differences in living environments. ... Cognizance (Lat. ... ‘Techniche’ is the techno-management festival organized by the students of IIT Guwahati in the month of September every year. ... Robotics is the science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application. ...

Techfest is the annual science and technology festival of IIT Bombay. Started in 1998 as a two day festival it has achieved a lot in a short span of 10 years. Now it is the largest fest of its kind in Asia and attracts over 30,000 students from 1000 colleges in India and countries like USA, Singapore, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The competitions, lecture series, exhibitions and workshops expose students to the latest research in developing cutting edge technology. The fest is also very popular amongst academicians and professionals. For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation). ...

Shaastra is the annual technical festival of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Beginning as Pragma in 1997, this festival has traditionally focused on quizzes related to engineering and technology, technical workshops and video conferences, as well as contests that test engineering skill and intuition. Pragma was renamed to Shaastra in 2000, a year which also saw a substantial overhaul of the model by which it was organized. Shaastra takes its name from the Sanskrit word for science. Shaastra holds the distinction of being the first student managed event in the world to implement a formal Quality Management System, one that has earned it the ISO 9001:2000 certification. A quality management system (QMS) is a system that outlines the policies and procedures necessary to improve and control the various processes that will ultimately lead to improved business performance. ...

Techkriti is the annual science and technology festival of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. It is usually held in the last week of February or the first week of March each year. Techkriti is an inter-collegiate festival wherein colleges from all over India are eligible to participate. The scope of this festival is ever widening with emiment people being called for lectures(Ex. Ankit Fadia, although his eminence can be debated upon.) and the level of competition ever increasing

Kshitij, is the annual techno-management festival of IIT Kharagpur. Its literal translation in English is "Horizon". It has participation from colleges all over India (and even some from abroad) apart from the 4000 strong student community within the campus. Previously started as Ideon, Kshitij took off in its present avatar in 2004, when 260 participants from outside the campus came for the Fest. Robotix, the annual robotics competition, is also held during Kshitij. It aims to bring forth the technical talent in the country. It was started in the year 2001. The ten avatars of Vishnu, copyright BBT In Hindu philosophy, an avatar (also spelt as avatara) (Sanskrit: , ), most commonly refers to the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of a higher being (deva), or the Supreme Being (God) onto planet Earth. ...

Techniche is the Annual Techno-Management festival of IIT Guwahati which takes place in the first week of September. It plays host to more than 20 different online and on the spot events ranging from robotics,programming events, glider making contest (to name a few) to events like Virtual Stock Market and other management events. Techniche'07 launched a completely independent website- www.technicheonline.com for the online events which received more than 70,000 clicks in a few hours on some days. The participation in year 2007 consisted of more than 5000 teams which included International participation as well(China, US- Berkley, MIT, Stanford, LSE from the UK). Techniche'07 also played host to a Laser show for the first time. Techniche also consists of workshops and lectures from eminent personalities over the country. The aim of the festival is to give a platform for the budding and young talent to showcase and compete against the best in the country.

Cognizance is the annual technical festival of IIT Roorkee. In heraldry a cognizance is an emblem, badge or device, used as a distinguishing mark by the body of retainers of a royal or noble house. It is held over 3 days which include Robotics, Innovation of the Year, Industrial Challenges, Design competitions, Gaming contests, Workshops, and Guest Lectures among others. It subscribes to the basic idea of innovating for the future and serves as a platform for participants to exploit their talents and skills to the best. What sets it apart from the hoard of technical festivals, is the fact that it brings people from various academic, social and regional backgrounds in one arena to foster an atmosphere of learning, unlearning and relearning through an application-oriented approach. Heraldry in its most general sense encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms. ...

Cultural festivals

Open air theatre in IIT Madras. Used to host cultural events.

Annual cultural festivals are organised by the IITs. These include Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay), Spring Fest (IIT Kharagpur), Saarang (IIT Madras), Antaragni (IIT Kanpur), Alcheringa (IIT Guwahati), Rendezvous (IIT Delhi), and Thomso (IIT Roorkee). These cultural festivals are organized by a student group within each institute, and typically last 3 to 4 days. All the money required for the organization of these events are sourced from sponsors of the event, and if required the remainder from the students of the institute. The institute remains closed during these festivals to allow better participation of the students. Students from other colleges are also invited to participate in the various events of the festival. Although all IITs have different set of events for their festivals, there are usually a set of literary events (like extempore speech and debate), fashion shows and art-related events (like dramatics, singing, and instrumentals). Download high resolution version (1750x1201, 117 KB) IITM OAT showing the screen File links The following pages link to this file: Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Categories: GFDL images ... Download high resolution version (1750x1201, 117 KB) IITM OAT showing the screen File links The following pages link to this file: Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Categories: GFDL images ... A culfest (short for cultural festival) is an annual event organized by colleges in India. ... Shaan performing live at Mood Indigo 2005 Mood Indigo is the annual cultural festival (Culfest) of IIT Bombay held around the last week of December. ... The life of a student in IIT Kharagpur is a lot similar to that of his counterpart in other IITs, though it has developed some typical features owing to the differences in living environments. ... A newspaper review on Saarang 2005 Saarang is the culfest of IIT Madras, Chennai. ... Antaragni is the cultural festival of IIT Kanpur, held annually in October, and is one of the biggest college fests in India. ... Alcheringa is a national annual cultural festival held once a year at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India. ... Thomso is an annual cultural festival held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. ...

Mood Indigo (also known as Mood-I) is the annual cultural festival (Culfest) of IIT Bombay held around the last week of December. The festival lasts for 4-5 days. One of the biggest cultural festivals in India, MoodI (as it is popularly known) has almost 50,000 students from over 300 colleges assembled in the plush environs of IIT Bombay. There's also plenty of "laid-back fun" for students not interested in competitions. Many informal and fun events, as well as aquagames, take place round the clock, going on till late at night. There are workshops, plays, rare & beautiful films, and dance performances to keep one fully occupied for the 4 days.

Alcheringa is the annual cultural festival of IIT Guwahati. The theme for Alcheringa'08 is Revel in Retro.

Spring Fest (also known as SF) is held annually in January and is the largest college fest in Eastern India and the second largest in the country. Spread over four days, Spring Fest hosts a variety of competitions and performances by some of the best professionals (individual performers and bands) in India. Most of the colleges from eastern India and other parts of the country participate in the fest. Major events are Star Nite, Wildfire, Fashion Parade, Nukkad (streetplay), Quizzes, Vocals, Dances (both eastern and western), Face painting and many more.

A performance by Indian Ocean during Antaragni 2004

Antaragni (which stands for 'The Fire Within') is the cultural festival of IIT Kanpur, held annually in October, and is one of the biggest college fests in India. The festival spans four days, and attracts participation from all the major colleges of India. Antaragni manages to attract a sizable crowd which stay on the campus in shared accommodation for the duration of the event. As part of Antaragni, issues of national importance are debated upon by experts. Download high resolution version (1200x900, 252 KB)Indian Ocean (an Indian folk music band) performing in the Professional night of Antaragni, the annual culfest of IIT Kanpur. ... Download high resolution version (1200x900, 252 KB)Indian Ocean (an Indian folk music band) performing in the Professional night of Antaragni, the annual culfest of IIT Kanpur. ...

Saarang (a musical is the culfest of IIT Madras, Chennai. It is held annually in the third week of January. The culfest was known as Mardi Gras from its inception until 1996, when it was renamed Saarang. It is host to around 50,000 students over the five days that it runs. Every evening has a 'pro-show', which refers to a professional music artist or band act. The Saarang Main Quiz has a reputation of being the only one of its sort. It starts at 11 PM and continues until 6 AM (sunrise), and is held in an open-air auditorium. When students are not competing or watching others compete, they are often found partying to loud music, or simply relaxing in the beautiful campus of IIT Madras, which is set inside a national forest reserve.

Other unique festivals

Illumination festival

Main article: Illumination and Rangoli

Illumination festival in IIT Kharagpur. The outlines are made by earthen lamps.

In addition to the cultural festivals mentioned above, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay celebrate festivals unique to them. IIT Kharagpur celebrates Illumination festival, a festival unique to it. It is celebrated on the eve of Diwali. In this festival, large bamboo structures (called chatais), sometimes even as high as 20 feet are made and earthen lamps (diyas) are placed on them forming outlines of people of showcasing a monument or an event. Held in a competitive environment as a competition between the hostels, it even gets a lot of outside visitors. A lot of care is taken to avoid fire hazards and the placing of chatais so as to minimize the effect of breeze. Coupled with the Illumination festival is the Rangoli festival. In this, large panels of an event or a concept are made on the ground by fine powder and sometimes even by crushed bangles. Illumination and Rangoli are festivals unique to IIT Kharagpur. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2078x672, 178 KB) Summary Illumination festival at IIT Kharagpur. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2078x672, 178 KB) Summary Illumination festival at IIT Kharagpur. ... Illumination and Rangoli are festivals unique to IIT Kharagpur. ... This article is about the Religious festival. ... The Indian light festival Diwali is traditionally lit up by huge numbers of Diya (plural diyas). Diya is a contracted form of deep or light given by small earthen pots (also known as Pradeep), with wick made of cotton and dipped in ghee. ... Rangoli in Singapore Rangoli is one of the most popular art forms in India. ... Bangles in Laad Bazaar, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

Performing Arts Festival

Main article: Performing Arts Festival

A festival unique to IIT Bombay is the Performing Arts Festival, popularly known as PAF. Though technically a drama, each PAF is a combination of all cultural arts including dramatics, literature, music, fine arts, debating, dance, etc. All PAFs are held in the Open Air Theater (OAT) located within the main campus of IIT Bombay, inside the Students' Activity Center. Typically two or three hostels (out of 14) tie up by random draw for each PAF. A peculiarity about PAF is that all the dialogues are delivered as voice overs and not by the actors, mainly owing to the structure and the huge size of the OAT. H3-H6 PAF Dastak, introducing street play as a sub-drama in the PAF. The Performing Arts Festival, abbreviated as PAF, is the biggest inter-hostel cultural competition in the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay located at Powai in Mumbai (India). ... The term voice-over refers to a production technique where a disembodied voice is broadcast live or pre-recorded in radio, television, film, theater and/or presentation. ...

Inter IIT Sports Meet

A volleyball event at Inter IIT Sports Meet-2004

All the IITs compete in a variety of sports held under the purview of the Annual Inter IIT Sports Meet. The competition is organized every year in the month of December in one of the seven IITs by a policy of rotation. The first Inter IIT Sports Meet was held in IIT Bombay in 1961. The total number of participants in any Inter IIT Sports Meet is usually around 700. The award consists of a running shield that is passed over to the winning IIT every year. The winner is decided based on the weighted average of the points of the events. There are three prizes for every event: gold, silver and bronze. Separate events for boys and girls are organized and points are tallied separately for determining the final winner. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (616x816, 179 KB) Summary Image at Inter IIT Sports Meet. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (616x816, 179 KB) Summary Image at Inter IIT Sports Meet. ...

The twelve events in the Inter IIT Sports are athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, swimming, lawn and squash tennis, table tennis, volleyball, water polo and weightlifting. As swimming and water polo are played in water, which is usually very cold by the month of December, the Inter IIT Sports Meet for them is usually held in the first week of October and is called Inter IIT Aquatics Meet. IIT Madras has won the Inter IIT Trophy for most number of times.^{[citation needed]} A womens 400m hurdles race on a typical outdoor red rubber track. ... -1... This article is about the sport. ... Bowler Shaun Pollock bowls to batsman Michael Hussey. ... A player (wearing the red kit) has penetrated the defence (in the white kit) and is taking a shot at goal. ... A game of field hockey in progress Field hockey is a popular sport for men and women in many countries around the world. ... This article concentrates on human swimming. ... This article is about the sport, tennis. ... Squash tennis is an American variant of squash racquets, but played with a ball and racquets that are closer to the equipment used for lawn tennis, and with somewhat different rules. ... “Ping Pong” redirects here. ... For the ball used in this sport, see Volleyball (ball). ... Water polo is a team water sport. ... A weightlifter about to jerk 180 kg[1] Weightlifting is a sport in which competitors attempt to lift heavy weights mounted on steel bars called barbells, the execution of which is a combination of power, flexibility, technique, mental and physical strength. ...

See also

see: Ragging in IIT Ragging is the systematic human rights abuse which takes place in most colleges and schools. ...

The Indian Institutes of Technology
	IIT Kharagpur • IIT Bombay • IIT Kanpur • IIT Madras • IIT Delhi • IIT Guwahati • IIT Roorkee • Schools of Management • RGSOIPL, IIT Kharagpur
	History of IITs • Joint Entrance Examinations • Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering • Policy of Reservation • Alumni • Culture • Performing Arts Festival • Illumination and Rangoli • Cognizance • Shaastra • Techkriti • Kshitij • Spring Fest • Antaragni • Alcheringa • Saarang
	More on IITs • National Institutes of Technology • Indian Institutes of Management • Indian Institute of Science • LAOTSE • The IITians