Seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), 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 (ARIIA) announced by the Centre 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.
Launching the ARIIA, Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar emphasised on promoting innovation to achieve the target of a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025, the minister said more than quantity, the institutes should focus on the quality of innovation and research.
"This will help us achieve the Aatmanirbhar Bharat dream in true sense. 'Emphasis on Innovation' was amongst the three vows taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent Kashi visit. The other two vows were for Swachh Bharat and Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Considering all these three vows, innovation is the only path for their fulfilment. Hence, we need to give a huge push to innovation and entrepreneurship within our educational institutions," he said.
Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) is an initiative of 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.
According to MoE officials, this year the participation has almost doubled to 1438 Institutes and have quadrupled over the first edition.
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.