Preamble, Acknowledgements and Credits The Ministry of Education is pleased to present the fifth edition of India Rankings for the year 2026 based on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The fifth edition of India Rankings builds upon previous four annual exercises undertaken between 2016 and 2026 with consolidation and improvements.
The First and Second Meetings of the Implementation Core Committee (ICC) for India Rankings 2026, constituted by
the Ministry of Education (see Appendix I), was convened under the Chairmanship of Secretary (HE) on 5 and 23 Sept. 2026 respectively at MHRD.
During the Meeting, it was resolved to invite applications for participation for ranking institutions under two additional subject domains, namely, Agriculture and Dental from 2026 onwards. However, while ranking of institutions under subject domain “Dental” was undertaken this year considering the request received from the Dental Association of India, ranking of institutions under “Agriculture” subject domain was not undertaken as desired by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Moreover, based on feedback received from individuals and institutions, NAAC-accreditation score was considered as an extended parameter under “Perception” for ranking under “University” with appropriate weight.
The ranking exercise for the year 2026 continues with the practice of providing a common “Overall” rank in addition to a separate rank for Universities and degree Colleges, and discipline-specific ranks in Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Law, Medical and Architecture.
India Rankings continues to be a colossal and a challenging exercise that requires experts with in-depth knowledge of
higher education system in India, tenets of data science and data crunching.
The Ministry is happy to put on record its appreciation for the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) for its continued zeal and for taking leadership position in executing the task, under the guidance of the Implementation Committee.
The NIRF Team at NBA together wit the team of its partner institute, i.e. INFLIBNET Centre at Gandhinagar have played a pivotal role in the execution of this task.
- NIRFParameters forRanking of Institutions of HigherEducation
The NIRF provides for ranking of institutions in five broad generic groups of parameters, namely: i) Teaching, Learning and Resources; ii) Research and Professional Practice; iii) Graduation Outcomes; iv) Outreach and Inclusivit ; and v) Perception. Fig. 1 provides an outline of the various sub-parameters for each of the five generic groups. Some of the subparameter (such as public perception, earnings from patents, etc.) have been dropped due to serious questions of reliability or consistency of data provided by the participating institutions.. The NIRF envisaged separate rankings for different categories and subject domains. As such, category-specific and domain-specific frameworks were drafted for every category and subject domain based on the broad recommendations of the National Institutional Ranking Framework. Frameworks for Universities, Colleges, Engineering, Pharmacy and Architecture were released in 2015. Frameworks for new domains and categories were drafted at the time of their induction for ranking. The Ministry also appointed an Implementation Core Committee (ICC) to oversee implementation of rankings under overall National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The final ranking framework has identified between 16-18 parameters organised in five major groups. Several of these. parameters are common to those employed globally and serve as pointers to ambience for teaching, learning and research. However, there are a few India-centric parameters, reflecting aspirations of the rising numbers of our young people enrolled in higher education institutions. Country-specific parameters relevant to the Indian situation include regional diversity, outreach, gender equity and inclusion of disadvantaged sections of the society.