IIT Madras was recognised as the most innovative technical institute in the 2021 rankings. The ARIIA rankings are an initiative of the Union education ministry to promote innovation

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras bagged the top position among the centrally funded technical institutes in the Centre's Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2021 released on Wednesday. IIT Madras was recognised as the most innovative technical institute for the third consecutive year.

The ARIIA rankings, an initiative of the Union education ministry to promote innovation, assess technical universities and colleges on parameters ranging from support for entrepreneurship development to innovative learning methods, intellectual property generation, technology transfer, and commercialisation among other aspects.

The third edition of the ARIIA ranking was dominated by the IITs in the centrally funded institution category. Seven IITs are on the top-10 list. IIT-Madras is followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IT Kanpur, and IIT Roorkee. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru bagged the sixth position in the category.

In a statement, the ministry's innovation cell said there was unprecedented participation in the third edition of the ARIIA. "Out of a total of 3,551 higher education institutions registered, 1438 institutions (including all IITs, NITs, IISc, etc) participated, which is more than double as compared to the second edition and approximately four times as compared to the first edition."

In the state and deemed to be universities category, Panjab University (Chandigarh) topped the ranking followed by Delhi Technological University, and Netaji Subhas University of Technology (Delhi).

In the government engineering colleges category, the College of Engineering in Pune stood first, followed by PSG College of Technology in Tamil Nadu, and LD College of Engineering in Gujarat.

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Khordha (Odisha) topped the private university category. G H Raisoni College of Engineering in Maharashtra was recognised as the most innovative private college.

For the first time, the Centre introduced a "non-technical institutions'' category in the ARIIA rankings to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education institutions. Indira Gandhi National Open University (Delhi) topped the category among centrally funded institutions followed by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode.

Announcing the rankings virtually on Wednesday, minister of state for education Subhas Sarkar said they will inspire institutions to reorient their mindset and build ecosystems to encourage high-quality research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

"There are ample opportunities for higher education institutions to play the role of enabler to drive Indian innovation and the start-up ecosystem. A concerted effort by our higher educational institutions is required towards inculcating the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among our students and to prepare faculty as innovators, out-of-the-box thinkers, creative problem solvers, entrepreneurs, and job creators. This will definitely bring a revolution not only at the economic level, but also at the social, environmental front."

IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, "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 start-up ecosystem in the country."