About 63 per cent of the IIT graduates choose to remain India than go abroad, according to a new study that gives lie to the ruling myth of IITians moving en masse overseas, thereby adding to the country's brain-drain.

The study titled 'IIT Alumni Impact Study – 2008' was released at the  'Sixth Pan IIT Global Conference' at Chennai, which was inaugurated by prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The report was released simultaneously at the IIT-Madras, soon after the prime minister opened the IIT alumni meet via video conference from New Delhi.

While the number of IIT alumni going abroad has been on the rise and the ''current geographical location'' of 65 per cent of them is outside India about 35 per cent have returned to India after some work or study, the reports says, adding that between 1955 and post-2001, a majority of them (about 63 per cent) have been in India.

The first batch of IIT students passed out of IIT-Kharagpur in 1955.

The study takes stock of the contributions of IIT alumni over the last 50-odd years and seeks to create a ''fact base'' for mobilising the IITs and their students and enable the government make pro-active policies in various fields, including education and rural development, it said.

According to the study, about 70 per cent of the post-2001 IIT alumni are in India while 30 per cent have moved abroad.

The total number of IITians have now reached 1.75 lakh since the first batch passed out from IIT-Kharagpur in 1955, the report pointed out.

The percentage of students from the 'middle income group' has steadily risen ( to nearly 55 per cent in the post-2001 years), while the students from 'upper economic group' has sharply dropped from about 38 per cent in 1976 to barely 20 per cent in the post-2001 era. The IITs, instead, are attracting a higher number of people (up 15 per cent from 10 per cent earlier) from the lower income groups and the smaller cities of India post 1976, says the report.

Other findings include:

An increasing number select service as their first role;

67 per cent of alumni pursue subsequent degrees post-IIT;

40 per cent who choose research and education stay in that role; and

More than  a third who choose engineering remain in that role.

The average annual revenue of those in positions responsible for budgets is about $1.1 trillion (2007-08).

The study also dismissed the popular view that IIT alumni need to get an MBA/subsequent degree to be successful as unfounded, but found that there has been a ''shift from conventional manufacturing to software.''