The
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were established by the
Government of India as
Institute of National Importance through a Central Statute, the
Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. The success of the IITs led to the demand for establishing more such institutions across our country.
Kerala, one of India's most educationally advanced states, had a long pending demand for an IIT. In 2012, then Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said that the Centre was seriously considering a proposal to set up an IIT in Kerala under the Twelfth Plan. In July 2014, an IIT in the state of Kerala was proposed in the
2014 Union budget of India, the first budget of
Narendra Modi led
NDA government. On November 20, 2014,
IIT Madras was designated as the mentor institute by the
Ministry of Human Resources and Human Development, and the director of
IIT Madras,
Bhaskar Ramamurthi assumed the role of Mentor Director. The institute's first academic session commenced on August 3, 2015 with 120 students – 30 each in Civil Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. IIT Palakkad was incorporated in the
Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, through the
Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2016, in September 2016. In January 2017,
P. B. Sunil Kumar, who was the Professor-in-charge, was appointed as the Director by then
President of India,
Pranab Mukherjee. A. Seshadri Sekhar, professor and head of the department of mechanical engineering at the
IIT Madras, succeeded
P. B. Sunil Kumar as the director of the institute in October 2022. == Campus and location ==