The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are also highly prestigious Engineering Institutes of India. There are in all thirty (NITs – one in each major state/union territory of India. They are all autonomous institutes. Decades back when these NITs came into being they were referred to as Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs)/Regional Institutes of Technology (RIT) and were under the direct control of their respective State Governments. The motive behind setting up these institutes of Engineering was to promote unity in regional diversity and multi-cultural exchange ensuring there by national integrity and inter-regional bonding. 

 This is the reason why 50% seats in every REC were reserved for the state to which it belonged and another 50% of seats were filled up by the students of other states. Actually for each state some seats were reserved in every other states RECs depending upon the population of that state. 

 In the year 2002, the parliament passed a legislation bringing thereby all the RECs/RITs under the direct purview of India’s Federal Government. Again in the year 2007, on the insistence of then HRD minister, Dr. Murli Monohar Joshi, of the Union Government, the parliament passed legislation renaming these collages as NITs and giving them the importance at par with IIT’s. Even now half of the intake, in each entry year is drawn from the respective state of NIT itself and the other half is drawn from the rest of India on a common merit list. 

As already mentioned earlier admission into NITs till the year 2013, as being done on the basis of the merit list prepared on the score of AIEEE. But from this year i.e., The year 2013 IIT JEE & AIEEE have been combined to a single National Entrance Test for Engineering referred to as JEE the details of which are given below.