IIT-M bags Centre’s innovative institute award for 3rd time

For the third year in a row, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras was recognised by the Union Education Ministry as the most innovative educational institute in the country.

Seven IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, are among the top 10 Central institutions in promotion and support of innovation and entrepreneurship development, according to Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements announced on Wednesday.

The top rank has been bagged by IIT Madras followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Roorkee.

IISc Bengaluru has bagged the sixth rank in the ranking followed by IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut, and Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Uttar Pradesh.

Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) is an initiative of the Ministry of Education (MoE) to systematically rank all major higher educational institutions in India on indicators related to innovation, start-up and entrepreneurship development amongst students and faculties.

ARIIA evaluate institutions on parameters like patent filing and granted, the number of registered students and faculty start-ups, fund generation by incubated start-ups, specialised infrastructure created by institutions to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, etc.

ARIIA-2021 ranking has been announced in various categories which includes centrally funded technical institutions (eg IITs, NITs, etc), state universities, state standalone technical colleges, private universities, private standalone technical colleges, non-technical government and private universities and institutions.

According to MoE officials, this year’s participation has almost doubled to 1,438 Institutes and have quadrupled over the first edition.

“We are delighted to be adjudged the Most Innovative Institute for the third time in a row since inception of the Atal Rankings on Innovation. 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 startup ecosystem in the country,” said Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director, IIT Madras.

Among the government and government-aided institutions, the top rank has been bagged by Panjab University followed by Delhi Technological University, Netaji Subhas University of Technology, Delhi; Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University; Avinashilingam Institute For Home Science And Higher Education For Women, Tamil Nadu; Institute of Chemical Technology, Maharashtra; Gujarat Technological University; Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra; Gujarat University and Periyar University, Tamil Nadu.