The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) is an autonomous university founded in 1998. It was set up as a not-for-profit public private partnership (NPPP) and is the first IIIT to be set up (under this model) in India. The Government of Andhra Pradesh lent support to the institute by grant of land and buildings. A Governing Council consisting of eminent people from academia, industry and government presides over the governance of the institution. IIIT-H was set up as a research university focused on the core areas of Information Technology, such as Computer Science, Electronics and Communications, and their applications in other domains. The institute evolved strong research programmes in a host of areas, with computation or IT providing the connecting thread, and with an emphasis on the development of technology and applications, which can be transferred for use to industry and society. This required carrying out basic research that can be used to solve real life problems. As a result, a synergistic relationship has come to exist at the Institute between basic and applied research. Faculty carries out a number of academic industrial projects, and a few companies have been incubated based on the research done at the Institute.