Manipal Institute of Technology

Going for a long term totally depends on you. Taking a year drop is not so easy. There's a lot of peer pressure as well as there's 'self-pressure'. But if you really want to get into IIT, don't think about it and go for a long term.
As far as the question for mechanical engineering is concerned, mechanical in MIT is really good. There are well equipped labs and workshops. The college even has license for a number of mechanical software's and you can anytime contact a professor to learn them in the college lab. Apart from that, I won't say all but some professors are really learned. Also there are a number student projects in he college like formula Manipal, SolarMobil, team Manipal racing, etc. which gives you a lot of practical hands on experience at UG level.

I won't say that all the courses are worth the pay. At the end it all narrows down to what you do in the college. You are provided with all the facilities be it well equipped library, labs, 24 hours WiFi and even research grants. It is you who has to decide what to do with all the facilities. If you make use of all the facilities, then yes it's worth spending. Apart from all this there's wonderful campus life. There are people from different parts of globe. After joining college I have friends in Singapore, Dubai and different parts of the country. All this counts. There are feats at national levels and if you participate you get to meet people even from different colleges.