New Delhi: IIT Madras has yet again swept the National Institutional Ranking Framework's 2025 India rankings. The Indian Institute of Science, IIM Ahmedabad, AIIMS Delhi and National Law School, Bengaluru, also continue to hold fort in their disciplines even as some private universities made significant inroads in university rankings. However, the bulk of India's R&D, publications and patents are concentrated in the top-100 institutes-most of them public funded. ET details the findings of NIRF 2025.
National picture
IIT Madras towers high, acing NIRF 2025 for the seventh consecutive year, topping the engineering rankings for the 10th time besides heralding new categories like Innovation and Sustainable Development Goals rankings for the year.
IITs have once again proved their mettle, bagging six of the top-10 slots. AIIMS Delhi follows at the eighth place followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University and Banaras Hindu University.
OLD guard holds fort
If IIT Madras leads the engineering rankings, it is IISc Bengaluru that helms the rankings for Universities and R&D. IIM Ahmedabad leads in management rankings, AIIMS Delhi tops the medical stream and National Law School of India, Bengaluru, leads the law school tally.
IITs & IIMs
IIT Madras leads followed by IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee. IIT Hyderabad trumps up the older IIT Guwahati while NIT Trichy is at the ninth place followed by IIT-BHU.
Among IIMs, IIM-A continues to reign followed by IIM Bangalore. IIM Kozhikode impresses at third position while IIM Calcutta fell to the seventh position, below IIT Delhi, IIM Lucknow and IIM Mumbai. MDI Gurugram and XLRI bagged the 9th and 10th place, respectively.
Standout performers
Jamia Hamdard leads the pharmacy rankings followed by BITS Pilani; Delhi's Hindu College and Miranda House ace the college rankings while St Stephens is at the fifth place this year; Jadavpur University and Anna University top the state public university rankings while IGNOU holds fort among Open Universities. Symbiosis Pune and Indore are the leaders among skilling varsities while IIT Roorkee and NIT Calicut top the architecture and planning rankings and Indian Agricultural Research Institute aces the agricultural studies tally.
Research Output Concentrated Across categories, top-ranked institutes dominate high-impact research, with IITs and IISc among 19 institutions contributing 28.7% of publications and 30.8% of citations, the report notes.
58% and 60% of highly-cited publications have been contributed by the 100 top-ranked institutions in the overall category and 50-top-ranked research institutions. The 100 top-ranked institutions also secured an average of 51 patents each, compared to just 2.07 for the remaining institutions, a ratio of about 1:25.
While NIRF 2025 reports that nearly 60% of the faculty members have achieved the highest level of academic qualification -- PhD -- which is a positive indicator, most of this faculty is concentrated in top-100 institutions.
Uneven research culture
The overall category, which includes all disciplines, shows that 136 of the 1,757 institutions (7.74%) did not contribute any research publications. The management category shows the most concerning trend, with 58.31% of its institutions reporting no research publications at all; 31.47% colleges show similar research inactivity while engineering offers some solace with only 5.98% (89 out of 1,489) institutions reporting zero publications.
National picture
IIT Madras towers high, acing NIRF 2025 for the seventh consecutive year, topping the engineering rankings for the 10th time besides heralding new categories like Innovation and Sustainable Development Goals rankings for the year.
IITs have once again proved their mettle, bagging six of the top-10 slots. AIIMS Delhi follows at the eighth place followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University and Banaras Hindu University.
OLD guard holds fort
If IIT Madras leads the engineering rankings, it is IISc Bengaluru that helms the rankings for Universities and R&D. IIM Ahmedabad leads in management rankings, AIIMS Delhi tops the medical stream and National Law School of India, Bengaluru, leads the law school tally.
IITs & IIMs
IIT Madras leads followed by IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee. IIT Hyderabad trumps up the older IIT Guwahati while NIT Trichy is at the ninth place followed by IIT-BHU.
Among IIMs, IIM-A continues to reign followed by IIM Bangalore. IIM Kozhikode impresses at third position while IIM Calcutta fell to the seventh position, below IIT Delhi, IIM Lucknow and IIM Mumbai. MDI Gurugram and XLRI bagged the 9th and 10th place, respectively.
Standout performers
Jamia Hamdard leads the pharmacy rankings followed by BITS Pilani; Delhi's Hindu College and Miranda House ace the college rankings while St Stephens is at the fifth place this year; Jadavpur University and Anna University top the state public university rankings while IGNOU holds fort among Open Universities. Symbiosis Pune and Indore are the leaders among skilling varsities while IIT Roorkee and NIT Calicut top the architecture and planning rankings and Indian Agricultural Research Institute aces the agricultural studies tally.
Research Output Concentrated Across categories, top-ranked institutes dominate high-impact research, with IITs and IISc among 19 institutions contributing 28.7% of publications and 30.8% of citations, the report notes.
58% and 60% of highly-cited publications have been contributed by the 100 top-ranked institutions in the overall category and 50-top-ranked research institutions. The 100 top-ranked institutions also secured an average of 51 patents each, compared to just 2.07 for the remaining institutions, a ratio of about 1:25.
While NIRF 2025 reports that nearly 60% of the faculty members have achieved the highest level of academic qualification -- PhD -- which is a positive indicator, most of this faculty is concentrated in top-100 institutions.
Uneven research culture
The overall category, which includes all disciplines, shows that 136 of the 1,757 institutions (7.74%) did not contribute any research publications. The management category shows the most concerning trend, with 58.31% of its institutions reporting no research publications at all; 31.47% colleges show similar research inactivity while engineering offers some solace with only 5.98% (89 out of 1,489) institutions reporting zero publications.
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