Rank 20 - Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of ICT : High on Infrastructure

A dismal showing on industry perception and academic environment, and average
performance on placement and HR perception led to Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of
ICT (DAIICT) slipping eight ranks, thus barely keeping its position in the Top
20. Effectively, this meant a poor faculty/student ratio, lack of highly
qualified faculty, paucity of research papers published, very few industry MoUs
signed and hardly any affiliation worth the name with industry bodies. The
college took a hit even on the placement frontthere was a perceptible dip in
students placed and average salaries. Even recruiters were not overtly keen to
visit the DAIICT campus this time.

The saving grace was a decent record on infrastructurenot just in the campus
and hostels, but also on the IT front. Not surprising, considering DAIICT was
one of the first engineering colleges in the country to run an ICT course. It
had a decent computer to student ratio as well as Internet access in hostels;
DAIICT even went ahead with IBM storage solution for backup and UTM solution for
Internet access. Next year, they plan to expand Wi-Fi implementation in the
campus, deploy NAS and bandwidth management solution for Internet access.

While the industry might not have courted DAIICT assiduously in 2009, its
students still did their alma mater proud on more than one occasion. Three
students won the first prize in the HP Innovate 2009 competition for creating a
light weight, cost effective remote control primarily designed for Spastic
Cerebral Palsy patients; another four won the third spot at Microsoft Imagine
Cup for presenting a healthcare learning platform for children in low-income
regions. Another student is developing an ICT prototype based on technique of
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) under the guidance of two Institute of Rural
Management (IRMA) Anand professors.