thrust in many departments. The program has a limited amount of course work, essentially to prepare the student to carry out the research, but the main emphasis is on the thesis work. The annual intake of research students is approximately 575 with several candidates sponsored from educational institutions and industries ( through External Registration Programme) . The Integrated PhD program is designed to offer opportunities to 3-year BSc graduates for pursuing advanced research in areas of biological, chemical, mathematical, and physical Sciences, leading to the PhD degree. Post-graduate (PG) Course Programmes The two-year MTech program is available in almost all engineering departments. Most MTech programs have a set of hard core courses specified as an essential requirement whereas students can take rest of the credits from many courses available in their parent or other departments and also do a dissertation work on the topic of their choice. Master's degrees offered by the institute are classified into two categories: degrees by coursework (MTech, M.Mgt., and M.Des.) and degrees by research [MTech (research)]. The Department of Management Studies offers a Master of Management program exclusively for engineering graduates. The Center for Product Design and Manufacturing offers the Master of Design (M.Des.) course. Started in 1996, the M.Des. program is a two-year, full-time postgraduate program. In keeping with India's recent National Education Policy (NEP 2020), IISc has launched the Master of Technology (Online) degree programme, a fully online programme, for practising engineers and scientists from academic year 2022–2023. The degree programme is for professionals who are sponsored by organisations, who already have a BE/BTech/Equivalent degree and wish to upskill or re-skill themselves in streams like Data Science and Business Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Electronics and Communication Engineering. Institute has recently announced MSc programme in life sciences and chemical sciences starting from academic year of 2022–23. These 2 years master's degree programs consist of foundational and flexible coursework and hands-on laboratory training. The design is aimed to develop experimental skills in advanced techniques for research, leading to an independent thesis research project. Students enrolled in the M Sc programs can personalize their coursework and research projects. Under-graduate (UG) Programme An undergraduate programme in science for students after Class XII was conceived during the Centenary Celebrations in 2009. The first batch of students was admitted in 2011. The program offers a four-year Bachelor of Science (Research) and a five-year integrated Master of Science course in six