IIT schools require an incredibly difficult entrance exam. As its reputation has grown, through the notoriety of its alums -- including N.R. Narayana Murthy -- the competition to get in is increasingly tough. Murthy, who earned a master's degree from IIT Kanpur, cofounded Infosys (INFY), a global IT outsourcing company, in 1981. Infosys employs over 194,000 people.
Nandan Nilekani and Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan, two other cofounders, also attended IIT schools: one in Bombay and the other in Madras, respectively. All three campuses were among the first IIT schools to be established in India in the late 1950s.