Mark Zuckerberg at IIT Delhi: When Campus Demand Exceeded Capacity (2015)

In late October 2015, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi for a high-profile Townhall Q&A session. Student demand to attend the session in person was so overwhelming that the institute had to conduct a randomised lottery to allocate limited auditorium seating.

Massive Demand Among Engineering Students

When the application portal opened on the IIT Delhi campus network, over 1,300 students registered within the first two hours. Registration was halted after 3,500 applications were submitted for just 900 available student seats in the 1,100-capacity hall — leaving eight out of nine applicants to watch the live broadcast remotely.

Silicon Valley Inspiration in India

For IIT students pursuing entrepreneurship and technology innovation, Zuckerberg represented a premier role model. The Townhall featured questions ranging from artificial intelligence and physical hardware expansion to Facebook's controversial Free Basics connectivity initiative in developing nations.