Indian Govt. Names IISc Bengaluru as India’s Best Institution Overall

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, has been named the best overall institution in India by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). In its National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2018 released on April 3, the HRD ministry has placed the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras at the second spot, followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur.

The sixth spot was acquired by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), while IIT Kanpur was ranked seventh.

IIT Madras has been declared the best engineering college, while the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) gets the tag of the best management institution in the country.

Among the universities, IISc is ranked No.1, followed by JNU. The Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, is at the third spot, ahead of Anna University, Chennai; University of Hyderabad; Jadavpur University, Kolkata; and the University of Delhi.

“The main purpose of India Rankings introduced by MHRD is to create an opportunity for Indian academic institutions to introspect on a regular basis. I strongly believe that such introspection is the only way for institutions to identify deficiencies and effect improvements as needed,” Prakash Javadekar, the Minister for Human Resource Development, said in a statement.

The categories that were included in the rankings this year are overall institutions, universities, engineering, colleges, management, pharmacy, medical, architecture and law.

According to the rankings for the medical institutions, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, was at the top, followed by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh; Christian Medical College, Vellore; Kasturba Medical College, Manipal; and King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, making the top five medical institutions of the country. In the engineering category, IIT Bombay follows IIT Madras, while IIT Delhi is ranked third.

Delhi’s Miranda House was adjudged the best college in the country, ahead of St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi. Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli, was ranked third, followed by Hindu College, New Delhi, and Presidency College, Chennai.

The parameters used to judge the institutions included student strength, doctoral students, and faculty-student ratio with emphasis on permanent faculty. Other parameters were graduation outcomes, percentage of students from other states or country, percentage of women, etc.

Meanwhile, the University of Delhi and various branches of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) were named in the list of world’s top 200 universities, in a joint study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Yes Institute.

A total of 49 institutions from the United States, 30 from the United Kingdom, 11 from Germany and eight from China and Australia, each, figured in the list of top 200 universities, according to the report released on April 2.