From Nehru's 5 IITs To PM Modi's 23: How India's Premier Institutions Expanded

Key points

• From Nehru's 5 IITs To PM Modi's 23: How India's Premier Institutions Expanded Published By, Last Updated: June 08, 2026, 13:31 IST In PM Modi's era, the challenge has been different: how to extend access to those premier institutions in a country that is larger, younger and far more aspirational.
• Rapid Read The Modi government's push to expand IITs, IIMs and AIIMS has often been described as a "mission-mode" effort to meet the needs of a growing youth population.
• (AI generated image) As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to surpass Jawaharlal Nehru’s record as India’s longest continuously serving democratically elected Prime Minister, comparisons between the two leaders are drawing attention to how India itself has transformed over the past seven decades.
• Few sectors illustrate that transformation better than higher education.
• When Nehru led India in the years after Independence, the challenge was to create institutions that could provide the scientific,...