For the second consecutive year, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Madras) has topped the Atal Rankings of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020, under the ‘best centrally-funded institution’ category. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Delhi have secured the second and third spots respectively.
The ranking was announced by the Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu in the top 10 institutes in ‘Public funded’ and 5 institutes in ‘Private and self-finance’ categories. Addressing the virtual ceremony, Naidu stressed on self-reliance and innovation.
“Mere confidence will not suffice. We need to be self-reliant. For self-reliance, we need innovation. Greater emphasis is given to promote a knowledgeable society. The culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among students will make them out-of-the-box thinkers. They will be job creators and not job thinkers,” said Naidu.
For the first time, ARIIA 2020 had a special prize category for women only higher educational institutions and the top place for which was secured by Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women under this category.
The other five categories were — centrally funded institutions, state-funded universities, state-funded autonomous institutions, private/deemed universities, private institutions. During the last one month this is the third of its kind of rankings of higher education institutions -NIRF and the Central Government ratings of Central Universities’ which had Jamia Milia Islamia and JNU as top baggers.
Speaking on the occasion of ARIIA Minister of Education Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal mentioned that the ranking is named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as under his leadership, India took many leaps in the field of Innovation.
Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre said that Ministry of Education has taken several policy initiatives and new programs to make Innovation an integral part of Higher Education System in India. Secretary, Higher Education, AmitKhare highlighted the efforts that has been put into compilation of all the parameters, data points, and how the awareness sessions were conducted so as to encourage more and more institutes to participate in this path-breaking initiative, because of which, an increase in participation of institutes in ARIIA ranking was observed by 30-35% in comparison to last year. He pressed upon the need and successful execution of such initiatives so as to make the existing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem more robust.
This year, ARIIA announcement included classification of the institutes into two broad categories and six sub categories. Among these, IIT Madras bagged the top position under the category of Institutes of National Importance, Central Universities, and Centrally Funded Technical Institutes; Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai got the top position under Government and Government Aided Universities; College of Engineering, Pune under Government and Government Aided Colleges; Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar under Private or Self-Financed Universities and S R Engineering College, Warangal under Private or Self-Financed Colleges were declared on top positions respectively.
