(Note: "IIT" refers to the Indian Institutes of Technology, a network of autonomous public engineering and research universities in India, established in 1950 and governed by the Ministry of Education, Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology)). "Bombay" is the traditional name for Mumbai and "Indore" is a city in Madhya Pradesh, India. This article has no connection to the similarly-named Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois, USA — Illinois Tech — which is a separate, unrelated American university ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Institute_of_Technology)); "Madras" and "Delhi" below refer to other Indian cities that host other, unrelated IITs, mentioned only for context.)
Quick Verdict
IIT Bombay has the stronger, more mature alumni network on the evidence available — it belongs to the "old" or first-generation cohort of IITs with nearly seven decades of graduating classes, while IIT Indore is explicitly identified as one of the newer IITs still growing in this exact area. One direct source states that new-generation IITs like Indore "still lag in infrastructure, faculty expertise, and alumni network" compared to their older counterparts (source).
Snapshot
| Metric | IIT Bombay | IIT Indore |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1958 (source) | 2009 (source) |
| IIT generation | 1st Generation (Old) (source) | 2nd Generation (New) (source) |
| Years producing graduates (as of 2026) | ~68 years | ~17 years |
| Faculty count | 759 (source) | 204 (source) |
| Student body | 12,976 (source) | 2,323 (source) |
| Official alumni network/association website | Not specifically identified in sourced facts | Yes — alumni.iiti.ac.in (source) |
| Sourced statement on alumni network maturity | Grouped among "old" IITs whose alumni networks are the established baseline (source) | Explicitly flagged as lagging older IITs in alumni network strength (source) |
We could not find a specific alumni headcount for either IIT Bombay or IIT Indore in our sourced facts — one source does cite "over 50,000 alumni globally" for IIT Delhi specifically (source), but that figure is about a different institute entirely and should not be read as applying to Bombay or Indore.
Detailed Analysis
The clearest, most direct evidence on this specific question comes from a source comparing "old" versus "new" IITs. It places IIT Bombay among the seven original, first-generation IITs (alongside Kharagpur, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and Roorkee), while IIT Indore sits in the second-generation cohort established around 2008–2012 (source). The same source states plainly that "new IITs are still developing" and that, while their placements are improving, "they still lag in infrastructure, faculty expertise, and alumni network" relative to the old guard (source). That's about as direct a sourced statement as this comparison gets, and it points squarely toward IIT Bombay.
Institutional age itself does a lot of the explanatory work here. IIT Bombay was founded in 1958, one of the four original campuses established on the recommendation of the Sarkar Committee alongside Madras, Kanpur, and Delhi (source). IIT Indore, by contrast, was part of a wave of eight new IITs set up between 2008 and 2009 (source). Simple arithmetic matters for an alumni network: IIT Bombay has had roughly 68 years of graduating classes to accumulate alumni compared to IIT Indore's roughly 17 — meaning IIT Bombay's alumni base has had far more time to spread across industries, found companies, reach senior leadership positions, and build the kind of decades-deep professional network that makes an "alumni network" valuable in the first place.
Scale reinforces the same story: IIT Bombay's faculty count (759) and student body (12,976) each dwarf IIT Indore's (204 faculty, 2,323 students) (source) — meaning even year-over-year, Bombay has simply produced more graduates per batch across a much longer span.
To be fair to IIT Indore, it does maintain its own dedicated alumni association platform, hosted at alumni.iiti.ac.in (source), showing the institute is actively building out formal alumni infrastructure even if its network is not yet as deep as Bombay's. It's also worth noting, on a general note not specific to this pair, that IIT alumni broadly "have made significant contributions across various sectors, including technology, business, academia, and public service" (source) — a reputation IIT Bombay, as one of the most storied IITs, shares fully, even though our sourced facts don't include a specific headcount or list of notable IIT Bombay alumni to cite here.
Verdict
Winner: IIT Bombay, on the strength of its first-generation status, roughly four-decade head start over IIT Indore, and a direct sourced statement that newer IITs like Indore still lag older ones specifically on alumni network strength. Runner-up: IIT Indore, which is actively building its alumni infrastructure (it has its own alumni association website) but is still working from a much smaller and younger graduate base. The one condition under which a reader should not weight this heavily toward Bombay: if you care less about the sheer size and seniority of an alumni network and more about the direct, closer-knit community a smaller, newer institute can offer — in which case IIT Indore's more compact alumni base may feel more accessible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Which IIT has the bigger alumni network, Bombay or Indore?
A: IIT Bombay — it's a first-generation IIT with roughly 68 years of graduating classes versus IIT Indore's roughly 17, and one source explicitly says newer IITs like Indore "lag" in alumni network strength (source).
Q: Does IIT Indore have an alumni association?
A: Yes — it runs a dedicated alumni site at alumni.iiti.ac.in (source).
Q: How many alumni does IIT Bombay have?
A: Our sourced facts don't include a specific alumni headcount for IIT Bombay, so we can't state a number.
Q: Is IIT Indore considered an "old" or "new" IIT?
A: New — it's part of the second-generation IITs established around 2008–2009, alongside institutes like IIT Hyderabad and IIT Gandhinagar (source).
Q: Does a bigger alumni network actually matter for students?
A: Alumni networks generally provide career connections and support systems for graduates, according to general research on the topic (source), so a larger, more established network like IIT Bombay's can offer broader professional reach.
Q: Is IIT Delhi's 50,000+ alumni figure relevant to this Bombay vs Indore comparison?
A: No — that figure is specifically about IIT Delhi, a separate institute, and shouldn't be applied to either IIT Bombay or IIT Indore (source).
Related
For the complete picture beyond Alumni Network -- placements, academics, campus life, and more -- see the full IIT Bombay vs IIT Indore comparison.