During 1991 to 2007, NPIU implemented three technical education Projects of Government of India assisted by World Bank, which helped to strengthen and upgrade the technical education System and benefited 552 polytechnics in 27 states including UTs of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. These three projects have been rated as "Highly Satisfactory" on Project Management and Implementation, which is highest rating, provided by the World Bank. Success of three technical Projects has encouraged the Govt. of India to seek similar financial assistance from World Bank for a systemic transformation of the technical education system as a whole with special focus on overall quality improvement in engineering education.

World Bank took keen interest in systemic transformation of India's technical education system to make it globally competitive and showed its willingness to assist the Government of India to launch a Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) as a long term programme of 10-12 years and in 2 or 3 phases.

Subsequently, TEQIP was conceived in pursuance of the National Policy on Education 1986 (Revised 1992) with a goal to upscale and improve quality of technical education and enhance existing capacities of the institutions to become dynamic, demand driven, quality conscious, efficient and forward looking, responsive to rapid economic and technological developments occurring both at national and international levels.

Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme of Government of India (TEQIP) is being implemented as a World Bank assisted project to improve the quality of technical education system in the country.