His Excellency Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar presents ‘President of India Prize’ to Mr. Ashwin Subramanian Murugan during IIT Madras’ 63 Convocation on 17 July 2026

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) hosted its 63rd convocation ceremony here on Friday, where 3,518 degrees (including Joint and Dual Degrees) were awarded to 3,106 graduating students. 

The institute also awarded 511 doctoral degrees for the second consecutive year which V Kamakoti, Director IIT Madras suggests will be a significant step to address the faculty shortage across the higher educational institutions in the country. 

Addressing the graduating class, Kamakoti mentioned that 2026 had been a milestone year for the institute which has been consistently ranked as India’s number 1 engineering college. 

The convocation ceremony was presided over by Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar, where the institute hosts its first international campus. 

“The establishment of IIT Madras Zanzibar, the first international campus of IIT-Madras, represents far more than an educational milestone. It reflects a shared belief that knowledge should know no borders and that excellence should never be confined by geography. Today, students from Zanzibar, mainland Tanzania, India and several other African countries study side by side. They bring different cultures, different experiences and different perspectives, yet they are united by a common pursuit of excellence,” Mwinyi said. 

“In the academic year 2025-26, IIT Madras expanded its undergraduate portfolio with the introduction of BS programs in Mathematics, Aeronautics and Space Technology, Management and Data Science. At the postgraduate level, the institute launched M.Tech programs in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering and Semiconductor Materials Technology among others,” Kamakoti said.

During the year, the Institute also launched IIT-M Global Foundation, an initiative to launch campuses and centres of the IIT-Madras ecosystem internationally, he added. IIT-M Global has launched an AI Innovation Center in Dubai, a $7.5 million Deep Tech Hub in California. 

IIT-Madras is also expanding its campus footprint with the establishment of a sustainability campus of 100 acre in the Auroville township and International Industry Innovation Campus I4C of 91.5 acre in Puducherry to strengthen research, innovation, technology transfer, industry academia collaboration and regional economic development.

Beyond academics, the institute has also emerged as a major entrepreneurial ecosystem with IIT Madras incubating 100+ startups for the second year in a row in 2025-26. It also launched a 600 crore venture capital fund in partnership with Unicorn India Ventures to strengthen India’s deep tech innovation ecosystem. 

Pawan Goenka, Chairman of the Board of Governors at IIT-Madras highlited some of the noteworthy ventures emerging from the institute’s ecosystem including Ather Energy, Agnikul Cosmos, and GalaxEye.“This campus does not merely produce graduates and publish papers. It builds industries, creates jobs, and turns research into enterprise,” he said.

Published on July 17, 2026