Context

Recently, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) declared the India Rankings 2019.

About

• This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations and broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by MHRD.
• The NIRF rankings tend to compare various colleges across various streams like engineering, pharmacy, law, management, architecture, and more. 
• Although the NIRF rankings use a range of parameters that include important and specific metrics like the number of IPR and patents, or the metric for the number of PhD students graduated from an institute, they also tend to depend on very vague and over-simplified factors like teacher-student ratio and peer perception. 
• The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and it was launched on 29^th September, 2015. First NIRF Ranking was issued in April, 201
  
  

  The NIRF rankings was released for a total of 9 categories - Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Architecture and Law.  The NIRF rankings are based on the following parameters - Teaching, Learning and Resources, Research and Professional Practices, Graduation Outcomes, Outreach and Inclusivity and Perception.

Results:

• One of the least surprising statistics displayed in 2019’s NIRF rankings was the declaration of Miranda House as the foremost college in the ‘colleges’ category. For three straight years, since 2017, Miranda House has been able to retain the foremost position in the rankings. Although this does portray a sense of competence of the college, it also describes the existence of a monopoly over better facilities.
• In the engineering category, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has continued to bag the first rank for a stretch of four years now.

NIRF Rankings-2019

Top 5 Engineering Institutions in India-2019

1. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
2. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
4. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
5. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Top 5 Universities in India-2019

1. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
2. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
3. Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
4. University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad
5. Calcutta University, Kolkata

Top 10 Colleges in India

1. Miranda House, Delhi
2. Hindu College, Delhi
3. Presidency College, Chennai
4. Stephen’s College, Delhi
5. Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi

Significance

• There is no denying the fact that these rankings hold strong significance as, both, the only reliable guide for students to choose between their college options and as an official source of information for statistical analysis for further studies and research initiatives. 
• Universities need grants. To get grants, they must prove their reputation and to prove the reputation they need money. The universities thus are motivated to create better policies to become better.
• Earlier, students had to rely on the Shanghai Rankings or the QS World Rankings which did not take into account Indian conditions. This ranking takes out the disadvantage to Indian Institutes as it takes into account parameters which are suited for Indian situations.