Union Minister for Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today released the India Rankings 2024, which implements the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) drafted for this purpose by the Ministry of Education in 2015. Secretary, Higher Education, Shri K. Sanjay Murthy; UGC, Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar; Chairman, AICTE, Prof. T.G. Sitharam; Chairman, NETF, Prof. Anil Sahasrabuddhe; Member Secretary, NBA, Dr. Anil Kumar Nassa, Additional Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Shri Sunil Kumar Barnwal; Joint Secretary, Shri Govind Jaiswal; Chairman, and other academicians, heads of the institutions, etc. were present on this occasion.

Shri Dharmendra Pradhan while addressing the audience said that Rankings, ratings and accreditation is a vital recommendation of NEP 2020. It is heartening that NIRF rankings deeply reflect the spirit of NEP, he added. The Minister congratulated all the HEIs who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, innovation, research, graduation outcomes and other parameters and bagged a place of pride in the India Rankings 2024.

The Minister stressed that knowing the quality, performance and strengths of an academic institution is a right of students and parents. Therefore, all the 58,000 HEIs in the country must come under the ranking and rating framework. Shri Pradhan stated that employability and skills are a priority. He also said that our ranking mechanism must also include skilling as a parameter. Intangible aspects are powerful stimulus to learning and development. We should devise mechanisms to bring intangible aspects of education in the rankings framework, he added.

The Minister urged to all the captains of Indian academia to come under the ranking framework, set ambitious goals and strive for higher rankings in future editions. Together, let’s foster an environment of educational excellence for realising the goal of Viksit Bharat, he added.

Dr. Sukanta Majumdar in his speech expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for introducing the National Education Policy 2020 with inclusivity and innovations at its core for the academic institutes of the country. The healthy competition among the higher education institutes will improve their overall standards in the time to come, he added. Along with Research, student welfare, publications, etc. have been given weightage with the introduction of the NIRF, Dr. Majumdar said.

Shri K. Sanjay Murthy in his address mentioned how several workshops at national and regional levels for achieving better rankings are conducted by the Ministry of Education and specifically mentioned one that was organized during the Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam on 29th July 2024. He emphasized the importance of collaboration among academic institutes in the country and international institutes.

This is the 9^th consecutive edition of India Rankings of HEIs in India. Four distinct additions to 2024 edition of India Rankings are as follows:

i)    Introduction of three new categories namely State Public Universities, Open Universities, and Skill Universities; and

ii)   Integration of “Innovation” ranking into the India Rankings using NIRF framework.

With the addition of three categories, i.e. Open Universities, State Public Universities and Skill Universities, the existing portfolio of India Rankings has increased to 16 categories and subject domains that have been ranked in India Rankings 2024.

During the maiden year of India Rankings 2016, rankings were announced for Universities as well as for three domain-specific rankings, namely Engineering, Management and Pharmacy. Over the period of nine years, seven new categories and five new subject domains were added to bring the total tally to eight categories, namely Overall, Universities, Colleges, Research Institutions, State Public Universities, Open Universities, Skill Universities and Innovation Institutions and 8 subject domains, namely Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture & Planning, Medical, Law, Dental and Agriculture and Allied Sectors.

Five Broad Categories of Parameters and Weightage

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), launched in November 2015 by the Ministry of Education, was used for this edition as well as for the previous eight editions of India Rankings released for the years 2016 to 2023. Five broad categories of parameters identified in the NIRF and their weightage on scale of 10 are given below:

Each of these five parameters have 2 to 5 sub-parameters. A total number of 18 parameters are used for ranking of HEIs in different categories and subject domains. Institutions are ranked based on total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

Besides, sourcing data on various parameters from applicant institutions, third party sources of data have also been used, wherever possible. Scopus (Elsevier Science) and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) were used for retrieving publications and citations data. Derwent Innovation was used for retrieving data on patents. Data retrieved from these sources was shared with the institutions for transparency with a provision to give their inputs.

Increase in Number of Applicants for India Rankings from 2016 to 2024

A total number of 6,517 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under “Overall”, category-specific and / or domain-specific rankings for India Rankings 2024. In all, 10,845 applications for ranking were made by these 6,517 unique institutions under various categories / domains including 2,781 in Overall Category, 1,463 in Engineering, and 3,371 in General Degree Colleges. A noticeable increase in institutional participation in the rankings exercise this year indicates its recognition amongst institutions of higher education in India as a fair and transparent ranking exercise. Number of unique applicants to India Rankings have increased from 2,426 in 2016 to 6,517 in 2024 whereas total number of applications for ranking in various categories have increased from 3,565 in 2016, to 10,845 in 2024 i.e. total increase of 4091 (168.63% increase) in number of unique institutions and 7,280 (204.21% increase) in total number of applicants.

Increase in Number of Institutions Ranked in India Rankings from 2016 to 2024

Historically, 100 institutions have been ranked in the Overall, Universities, Engineering and College categories since inception of India rankings. In addition, 100 institutions each are ranked in Overall and Universities categories in two rank bands of 50 each. 200 additional institutions each are ranked in Engineering and Colleges in three rank bands consisting of two rank bands of 50 each, i.e. 100-150 and 151-200 and one rank band of 100 each i.e. 201-300. In Management and Pharmacy, the numbers of ranked institutions were increased from 75 to 100 each from 2022 onwards with additional 25 institutions each ranked in these two disciplines in a rank band of 25 each. For subject domains such as Architecture & Planning, Law, Medical, Dental, Research Institutions, Agriculture & Allied Sectors, the number of ranked institutions ranges from 40 to 50.

As far as newly introduced categories are concerned, 50 State Public Universities are ranked this year with additional 50 in rank band of 51-100. However, only three institutions each are ranked in the Open Universities and Skill Universities categories. In case of Innovation Institutions, while 10 institutions are ranked, addition 40 institutions are ranked in rank bands of 11-50.

Key Highlights of India Rankings 2024

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains its 1st position in Overall Category for the sixth consecutive year, i.e. 2019 to 2024 and in Engineering for 9^th consecutive year, , i.e. from 2016 to 2024.

• Top 100 in Overall category consists of 23 state public universities,  22 private deemed universities, 16 IITs, 9 NITs , 7 each central universities 7 private universities, 4 each AIIMS, IISERs and Govt. deemed universities, 3 Other CFTIs and 1 college.
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• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops the Universities Category for ninth consecutive year, i.e. from 2016 to 2024. It stood first in Research Institutions Category for the fourth consecutive year, i.e. from 2021 to 2024.

• IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management subject retaining its first position for fifth consecutive year, i.e. from 2020 to 2024. It was ranked amongst top two in Management subject of the India Rankings from 2016 to 2019.

• All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi occupies the top slot in Medical for the seventh consecutive year, i.e. from 2018 to 2024. Moreover, AIIMS is ranked at 7th position in Overall category. It was ranked at 6th position in Overall category in 2023. 

• Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi tops the ranking in Pharmacy this year. Jamia Hamdard was ranked at 1st position for four consecutive years, i.e., from 2019 to 2022. It was ranked at 2nd position in Pharmacy in 2018 and 2023.

• Hindu College secured the 1st position amongst Colleges for the first time replacing Miranda House which retained its 1st position for seven consecutive year, i.e. from 2017 to 2023. Hindu College was ranked at 2nd position in 2019, 2022 and 2023, and at 3rd and 4th positions in 2020 and 2018 respectively. 

• IIT Roorkee retained its 1st position in Architecture and Planning for the fourth consecutive year, i.e. from 2021 to 2024. IIT Roorkee was ranked at 2nd position from 2018 to 2020.

• National Law School of India University, Bengaluru retains its first position in Law for the seventh consecutive year, i.e. from 2018 to 2024.

• Colleges in Delhi maintained their dominance in ranking of Colleges with six colleges out of first 10 colleges from Delhi itself.

• The Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai takes the top slot in Dental subject for the third consecutive year.

• Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi takes the top slot in Agriculture and Allied Sectors for the second consecutive year.

• Anna University, Chennai tops the State Public Universities Category introduced for the first time in 2024.

• Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi tops the Open Universities Category introduced for the first time in 2024.

• Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur tops in the Innovation category.

• Symbiosis Skill and Professional University (SSPU), Pune tops the Skill Universities category ranked this year for the first time.

Click the link to see India Rankings 2024: https://www.nirfindia.org/