The institution was founded in 1999, and in the following year received university status and the right to award its own degrees. In 2014 the IIIT Act was passed, under which IIITA and four other Institutes of Information Technology funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development were classed as Institutes of National Importance. The first director of the institute was M.D. Tiwari, from 1999 to 2013. G.C. Nandi served as director in-charge on the first four months of 2014, until Somenath Biswas took over the directorship and served from May 2014 to July 2016. After another stint by Nandi as director (Offg) that lasted until May 2017, P. Nagabhushan was appointed director.