IIT Madras bags top spot in central government rankings
NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras was ranked as the best institute for innovation, for the third consecutive year, among Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIS) in the Atal Rankings of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) rankings 2021, results of which were declared by the Union education ministry on Wednesday.
IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi bagged the second and third positions respectively.
The ARIIA rankings, an initiative of the Union education ministry to promote innovation, assess technical universities and colleges on parameters ranging from support for entrepreneurship development to innovative learning methods, intellectual property generation, technology transfer and commercialisation among other areas.
The third edition of ARIIA in the centrally funded institution category was dominated by the IITS – IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Roorkee.
“We’re delighted to be adjudged the Most Innovative Institute for the third time in a row since inception of the Atal Rankings on Innovation in 2019. IIT Madras places a lot of emphasis on innovations among its students and faculty, which has resulted in a very successful and fast-growing deep technology start-up ecosystem in the country,” IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said.
Prof Rajat Agrawal, associate dean of innovation and incubation, IIT Roorkee, said: “This shows that IIT Roorkee is moving in the right direction for making the institute an innovation savvy campus.”
In a statement, the education ministry’s innovation cell said there was unprecedented participation. “Out of a total of 3,551 higher education institutions registered, 1,438 institutions (including all IITS, NITS, IISC, etc) participated, which is more than double as compared to the second edition and approximately four times as compared to the first edition.”
In the state and deemed to be universities category, Panjab University topped the chart followed by Delhi Technological University and Netaji Subhas University of Technology (Delhi).
The College of Engineering in Pune stood first, followed by PSG College of Technology in Tamil Nadu, and LD College of Engineering in Gujarat in the government engineering colleges category.
Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Khordha (Odisha) topped the private university category. It was for the first time that the Centre introduced a “nontechnical institutions’’ category in the rankings to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education institutions.