It was a memorable day on May 01,2016 at Jammu, when a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Department of Higher Education, Government of Jammu & Kashmir and Department of Higher Education, MHRD, Government of India, was signed, setting the ball rolling to set up an IIT campus at village Jagti, Tehsil Nagrota at Jammu. The site is located on the National Highway and is about 15 Km from the Airport. The State Government has provided the land, measuring 159 hectare for establishment of Indian Institute of Technology at Jammu. The agreement was signed by Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director IIT Delhi for and on behalf of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, being the mentor Institute and Shri Hemant Sharma, Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department Government of Jammu and Kashmir. The august presence of Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Hon'ble Deputy Chief Minister and Ms. Priya Sethi, Minister of State for Education, Technical Education, Culture, Tourism and Horticulture, Jammu and Kashmir during the signing of MoU ceremony was quite encouraging. The Land has been handed over to the CPWD, Jammu Division to take up the construction of the Transit campus as per layout plan. Senior functionaries of the State and Central Government from Education, Forest, PWD and CPWD etc., were present during the occasion.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Mr. Prakash Javadekar on 6^th May 2016 inaugurated the transit campus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Jammu and praised Jammu and Kashmir for “keeping pace” with education despite a decades-long turmoil with gross enrolment figures higher than the national average. Eighty two students enrolled at IIT, Jammu for the first academic session.

“Jammu and Kashmir has excelled in education despite the turmoil,” said Javadekar after declaring open the institute. The minister said the Centre has laid emphasis on creating centres of excellence in higher education and IIT, Jammu was a step towards that direction, adding that the government has also launched a free online coaching programme for IIT aspirants. He said the inauguration of IIT, Jammu was delayed due to a land problem.

A fund of Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked in the Union Budget to create a finance agency and another Rs 1,000 crore is expected to come from a bank soon to create a kitty of Rs 2,000 crore for infrastructure building and research in IITs.

He said over 2,000 research proposals have been received and of these, 450 have been shortlisted and around 300-400 would be funded. “Now, researchers will teach here and do research as well,” said Javadekar.