Lok Sabha Question No. 1257 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-08
Subject: NIRF India Rankings 2025
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Khalilur Rahaman

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1257 ANSWERED ON 08.12.2025

## NIRF India Rankings 2025

1257. Shri Khalilur Rahaman :

Will the Minister of Education be please to state:

- (a) the details of the list of Engineering Institutes across the country as per the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) India Ranking 2025, State/UT-wise;
- (b)  whether  the  Government  has  assessed  the  implementation  of  research  programmes  and adequate infrastructure facilities and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the initiatives taken by the Government to ensure that institutes meet the NIRF parameters of teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice as well as graduation outcome; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR)

(a) to (d):  To promote healthy competition among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was launched in 2015 by the Government of India for the annual ranking (called India Rankings) of these HEIs. The methodology of India Rankings is based  on  five  broad  parameters,  i.e.  'Teaching,  Learning  and  Resources,'  'Research  and Professional Practices,' 'Graduation Outcomes,' 'Outreach and Inclusivity,' and 'Peer Perception'.

The list of ranked institutions in the Engineering category is available on the NIRF website at the link: https://www.nirfindia.org/Rankings/2025/EngineeringRanking.html

The  Government  of  India  has  been  making  concerted  efforts  for  institutional  development, capacity building, democratization of research and promotion of innovation to enhance the quality of education across the country. Following are some of the initiatives:

In addition to budgetary support to Centrally Funded Higher Education Institutions, Government of India also provides financial support to State Governments under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)/ Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) scheme under three components namely, 'Enhancing Quality and Excellence in select State Universities', 'Infrastructure Grants to Universities' and 'Multi-Disciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERU)' for improvement in Higher Education.

Further, with an objective of Research & Development driven integration of academic, industry and enterprise creation, Research Parks have been set up in premier HEIs to establish research ecosystem around these institutions. These research parks facilitate funded research from Industry, promoting  Industry-Academia  collaborations.  Since  2014,  Government  has  established 6  new Research  Parks,  one  each  at  IIT  Delhi,  IIT  Kanpur,  IIT  Guwahati,  IIT  Hyderabad  and  IISc Bangalore and IIT Gandhinagar.

With an aim to attract the best minds to pursue high - quality research in India's premier academic institutions,  the  Government  launched  Prime  Minister's  Research  Fellows  (PMRF)  Scheme  in 2018-19 with total financial outlay of Rs. 1650 Crores.

Also,  to  promote  research  activities  in  HEIs,  more  than  6000  HEIs  have  set  up  Research  and Development Cells.

In  alignment  with  the  principles  of  NEP  2020,  Anusandhan  National  Research  Foundation (ANRF),  has  been  established  as  an  apex  body  to  provide  high-level  strategic  direction  for research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the fields of natural sciences including mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health and agriculture.

Government has approved ONOS scheme to expand access to scholarly journals to a vast diaspora of  students,  faculty,  researchers  and  scientists  of  all  disciplines,  of  all  Higher  Educational Institutions  under  the  management  of  the  Central  or  State  Government  and  Research  & Development Institutions of the Central Government, through a national subscription coordinated by a central agency. More than 6300 such institutions are covered under this scheme. A total of about Rs.6,000 crore has been allocated for the scheme for 3 calendar years, 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Ministry  of  Education  launched  the  World  Class  Institutions  scheme  to  grant  the  status  of Institution of Eminence (IoE) to 10 higher educational institutions each from the public and private category and enable them to emerge as world class teaching and research institutions. Twelve institutions have been notified as IoE so far. These include 08 public category institutions, and 04 private category institutions. Only public institutions are provided funds under the scheme. An amount of Rs 6198.99 Crore (approximately) has been sanctioned for the 08 public institutions since the inception of the scheme.

Furthermore, in order to conduct interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications, and create scalable solutions in three areas of health, sustainable cities and Agriculture, Government has approved establishment of three Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial intelligence (Al), one each in the areas of health, sustainable cities and agriculture with a total financial outlay of Rs. 990.00 Cr over the period of FY 2023-24 to FY 2027-28. An AI CoE in field of Education with an outlay of Rs. 500 crores has been sanctioned in IIT Madras.

The 'Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education' Scheme has been  approved  for  implementation  in  275  technical  institutions  comprising  175  engineering institutions and 100 polytechnics. The objective of the scheme is to improve the quality, equity and  governance  in  technical  education  covering  all  States/UTs  by  implementing  interventions aligned with the National Educational Policy-2020 (NEP-2020).

It is a 'Central Sector Scheme' with total financial implication of Rs.4200 crore for a period from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

An  outcome  -  based  monitoring  of  various  schemes  under  Output-Outcome  Monitoring Framework (OOMF) is carried out as part of assessment of various schemes.