Behold! IIT-Tanzania and IIT Middle East... Announcement soon on foreign expansion of India's premier institute

In a remarkable first, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) -- the country's prestigious government-owned technical institute -- has decided to set up a campus on foreign soil.

It will be on the island of Zanzibar in the east African nation of Tanzania, where the maiden foreign branch of the IIT will come up. The announcement is likely to be made during external affairs minister S Jaishankar's African tour scheduled for next month. The MEA is set to visit the countries of Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique during the tour.

The Zanzibar campus will be the 24th branch of the IIT. There were only five— in Kharagpur, Chennai, Mumbai, Kanpur and New Delhi— for over three decades before a decision to open 18 more was taken up by the Government of India in the 1990s.

The Zanzibar campus is likely to come up in the next two years. There are plans to follow up the expansion project by opening another foreign campus in the Middle East.

There is considerable pressure on the government to launch an IIT in the United Arab Emirates— either in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Discussions on the same are progressing among concerned departments.