On Monday, the Ministry of Human Resource Development released the National Institutional Rankings Framework (NIRF) rankings, also known as the India Rankings. Overall, the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) took the top spot among all higher education institutions. The second and third positions were occupied by the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras), and Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay) respectively.

The second edition of the India Rankings ranked institutions in six categories - Overall, Engineering, Management, Universities, Colleges & Pharmacy.

The top ranked institutions for each category were as follows:

Due to inadequate participation of institutions, no rankings were released for categories like Medicine, Architecture, and Law.

As Dr. Pushkar writes, the India Rankings have held out great promise because the capability of the government to aggregate and verify data cannot be rivalled by a private agency. But, the lack of institutional participation is a concern. It was true of India Rankings 2016 which had 3,563 participants; and it is especially true this year, where the number of participating institutions has fallen to 2,995.

Also, while the India Rankings lists institutions based on parameters such as ‘Teaching Learning & Resources’, ‘Research and Professional Practice’, ‘Graduation Outcome’, ‘Outreach and Inclusivity’, and ‘Perception’, it fails to indicate important data on doctorates awarded, institutional income and global reputation. For various reasons, as outlined in BrainGain magazine earlier, these criteria are critical in gauging the quality of an institution.

That said, the rankings seem an important step to understanding the strengths of our higher education institutions, as well as how we can build them.

The top 10 for each category are as follows:

Common Overall Ranking

1. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
2. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
4. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
5. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
6. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
7. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
8. Indian Institute of Technology, Guauhati
9. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
10. Banaras Hindu University

Top 10 Universities in India

1. Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
2. Jawahalal Nehru University, Delhi
3. Banaras Hindu University, Vasanasi
4. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research, Bengaluru
5. Jadavpur University, Kolkata
6. Anna University Chennai
7. University of Hyderabad, Telangana
8. University of Delhi
9. Amrita Vishwa Vidaypeetham, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
10. Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra

Top 10 Engineering institutes

1. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
2. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
4. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
5. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
6. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
7. Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
8. Anna University, Chennai
9. Jadavpur University, Kolkata
10. Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

Top 10 Colleges in India

1. Miranda House, Delhi
2. Loyola College, Madras
3. Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi
4. Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli
5. Atama Ram Sanatan Dharma College, New Delhi
6. St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta
7. Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi
8. Dyal Singh College, New Delhi
9. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, New Delhi
10. Womens’ Christian College, Madras

Top 10 Management institutes

1. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
3. Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
4. Indian Institutes of Management, Lucknow
5. Indian Institute of Management, Kazhikode
6. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
7. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
8. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
9. Jamshedpur Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur
10. Indian Institute of Management, Indore