By Finnegan
A familiar headline, a bigger story: IIT Madras is back at No. 1 in India’s national rankings, and this time it also tops two brand-new categories. Announced by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the tenth edition of the NIRF Rankings 2025 keeps the powerhouse from Chennai on top overall for the seventh straight year and at the summit of engineering for the tenth in a row. The institute also leads the new Innovation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) lists, signaling where the system is moving—toward startups, patents, social impact, and greener campuses.
The top tier barely shifted. IISc Bangalore held second overall, and IIT Bombay took third. Several other IITs filled out the upper ranks, with AIIMS Delhi, JNU, and Banaras Hindu University among the non-IIT heavyweights. In the university category, IISc kept its decade-long grip on No. 1, while JNU stayed at No. 2 and Delhi University moved up to fifth. Private sector flag-bearer BITS Pilani broke into the university top 10 for the first time since 2016.
The 2025 table: who placed where
At the top, stability is the story. A few jumps stand out, but the pattern is clear: India’s R&D output, high-impact publications, and patenting are still concentrated in a relatively small circle of publicly funded institutions, with a handful of standout private players edging in.
Overall category, highlights:
- No. 1: IIT Madras
- No. 2: IISc Bangalore
- No. 3: IIT Bombay
- Also in the top 10: IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, AIIMS New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Banaras Hindu University
University category, highlights:
- No. 1: IISc Bangalore (tenth year running)
- No. 2: JNU
- Delhi University rises to No. 5
- BITS Pilani enters the top 10 after jumping from No. 19 last year
Category leaders elsewhere:
- Management: IIM Ahmedabad remains on top
- Medical: AIIMS Delhi leads
- Law: National Law School of India University (Bengaluru) stays ahead
- Engineering: IIT Madras—ten straight years
In the college rankings, Delhi University’s performance was the headline. Hindu College and Miranda House held the top two spots. Hansraj and Kirori Mal delivered their best showings yet, climbing to third and fourth after big leaps from last year’s 12th and ninth. St. Stephen’s, often a default leader, slid to fifth. The reshuffle shows how perception, placements, and output beyond classrooms—research projects, industry exposure, community work—are now shaping the pecking order.
Two new categories changed the texture of this year’s list. The Innovation category, previously tracked as ARIIA, is now part of the core framework. It puts a premium on patents filed and granted, disclosures, technology transfer, incubation, and startup outputs tied to campuses. The SDG category pushes institutions to show how they measure up on equity, outreach, environmental sustainability, and governance. IIT Madras topping both tells you where its energy has gone: labs that convert research into intellectual property, and campus-wide programs that track impact on people and the planet.
Why it matters and what changed
NIRF’s system is straightforward at a high level. It scores institutions on five pillars—teaching and learning resources; research and professional practice; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity; and perception—then adapts the weights by category. The new Innovation and SDG tracks widen that lens, rewarding technology pipelines and social responsibility alongside labs and lecture halls. The signal to administrators is loud: invest in faculty and facilities, publish at scale, place students well, diversify your campus, build a startup ecosystem, and prove you are reducing your footprint.
IIT Madras has spent years building exactly that machinery. It followed a five-year plan, coordinated across departments, and fed by a deep bench of alumni and industry partners. Its research park and incubation network have turned labs into companies and prototypes into products. The director, Prof. V. Kamakoti, credits collective effort—faculty, staff, students, alumni, industry, and government agencies—for the streak. He points to graduation outcomes, perception, innovation, funding, startups, and citation impact as the drivers. In short: scale, consistency, and a system that converts ideas into measurable results.
Why the Delhi University surge in the college list? A few reasons line up. First, graduation outcomes are improving: more students reaching the finish line on time, better placement traction, and stronger postgraduate pathways. Second, colleges have pushed research exposure at the undergraduate level—faculty-student projects, small grants, summer labs—enough to show up in output metrics. Third, outreach and inclusivity have become visible priorities: scholarships, support programs, and an intake that’s more representative. Add perception—where employers and peer academics weigh in—and a sustained push can move the needle fast.
Take Hansraj and Kirori Mal. Their jump from the middle of last year’s top 15 into the top four suggests deeper shifts: structured internships, industry seminars, research mentorships, and competitive societies now count for more. A college that’s stronger on mentoring, placements, and research exposure will score well across multiple NIRF bands without needing flashy infrastructure. St. Stephen’s slip to fifth is not a fall from grace so much as proof the field is tighter. When everyone boosts outcomes, small dips in any metric can shuffle the order.
BITS Pilani’s move into the university top 10 is another signal. Stronger faculty hiring, deeper research collaboration, and a steady stream of doctoral output tend to pay off with a one-year lag in rankings. Private universities often face a steeper climb in perception and research metrics because grants and national labs historically cluster around public institutes. Breaking into that circle takes time, but it’s happening.
The bigger picture is funding. Most of India’s high-impact research, patents, and publications still sit inside the top 100—institutes that are, by and large, publicly funded. That’s not a surprise, but it matters. Public investment has made the research backbone; policy now aims to widen it. If more institutions want to climb, they will need predictable research funding, support for doctoral programs, access to equipment, and the freedom to hire and collaborate at speed. Rankings don’t change that reality; they reflect it.
There’s also a geographic layer. Southern and western India have long enjoyed strong representation at the top, thanks to denser research ecosystems and older institutes. Northern India’s presence is anchored by Delhi-based institutions and a few IITs and central universities. The emerging question is whether state universities outside major metros can break through. The SDG and Innovation categories give them an opening—work with local industries, show measurable community impact, and build startup pipelines around regional problems. If they can turn that into data—patents, jobs, outcomes—they will rise.
For students and families, the 2025 list is both guide and caution. It is a solid way to compare institutions at a macro level. But it can’t replace program-level due diligence. The best overall institute may not be the best fit for a specific department, specialization, or research interest. Two colleges with similar ranks can feel very different on culture, mentorship, and alumni support. The right call usually comes from a mix of NIRF data, department-level outcomes, faculty profiles, internship histories, and campus visits.
For recruiters, the rankings map where talent and training intensity sit today. Graduation outcomes, research exposure, and innovation activity often translate into job readiness. That’s why companies don’t just look at a brand name—they look at the labs, the projects, the course design, and what recent hires achieved. A college that gives students a real research or product build before they graduate tends to produce fewer first-year shocks at work.
For administrators, the message is practical. Strengthen teaching resources and labs. Build a reliable data backbone so outcomes and research are tracked cleanly. Invest in faculty development and collaborations that can yield high-impact work. Push incubation with real mentorship and seed funds. Treat perception as a lagging result of real improvements, not a PR goal. And on SDG: measure what matters—energy use, water, inclusivity, access—then improve it year over year.
If you’re wondering what changed inside the NIRF house, two moves stand out. By pulling innovation into the core ranking structure, the framework closes the gap between research papers and market-ready technology. It rewards institutions that don’t just publish but also patent, license, and spin out companies. By adding SDG, it recognizes that a campus is part of a community: cleaner energy, smarter transport, equitable access, and transparent governance are no longer afterthoughts. Both moves align with where higher education is going globally.
None of this means the old metrics faded. Teaching and learning resources still count heavily. So do citations and grants. Graduation outcomes—placements, higher studies, median salaries, qualification rates—are sticky drivers. Outreach and inclusivity matter more than many realize; a diverse, supported student body tends to perform better. Perception, often maligned as subjective, largely follows the others. It doesn’t lead; it amplifies.
As the rankings hit inboxes, the impact is immediate. Admissions teams will tout movement up the table; cut-offs and interest lists will shift; scholarship committees will revisit priorities. Expect a rush of MoUs, new incubation calls, and sustainability pledges in the next quarter. That’s the cycle: data triggers decisions, and the best-run institutes turn those decisions into durable systems, not one-off fixes.
Ten years in, NIRF is no longer just a scoreboard. It’s a playbook. The leaders—whether IIT Madras, IISc, IIM Ahmedabad, AIIMS, or NLSIU—are the ones that learned how the gears mesh: great teaching, serious research, tight industry links, clear social goals, and evidence to prove it. The rest now have a clearer map. The hard part is execution, year after year.
about author Finnegan McArthur
As an expert in education and employment, I am passionate about bridging the gap between learning and the workforce. With a background in teaching and career coaching, my goal is to inspire and empower individuals to achieve their full potential. I enjoy writing about various topics in education, including innovative teaching methods, career development, and the ever-evolving job market. Through my writing, I hope to make a positive impact by helping others navigate the complex world of education and employment.