The Indian Institutes of Remote Sensing (IIRS) was established in 1966 under the Indian Department of Space, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The institute was set up for research, higher education and training in the fields of remote sensing, eco-informatics and GPS technology for natural resources, environmental and disaster management.
Formerly known as the Indian Photo-interpretation Institute (IPI), the institute was founded on 21 April 1966, under Survey of India (SOI). It was established with the collaboration of the government of the Netherlands on the pattern of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente, formerly known as the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences. The institute was conceptualized by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, during his visit to the Netherlands in 1957.