The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras bagged the top position in the centrally funded institutions category of the Ministry of Education’s Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020 announced by the Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu here on Tuesday.

IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi stood at the second and third position respectively. In the category, primarily dominated by IITs, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore was ranked fourth.

The Ministry of Education had initiated ARIIA to rank education institutions and universities primarily on innovation-related indicators.

In the government and government-aided universities, Maharashtra’s Institute of Chemical Technology took the first spot in the ARIIA ranking followed by Panjab University and Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University.

“Innovation should become a people’s movement. That is the need of the hour. It must be the heartbeat of education. There should be concentrated efforts to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among our students and to make them out of the box thinkers,” said Naidu.

Among the government and government aided college/institutions category, the College of Engineering Pune was ranked first, PES college of Engineering took the second spot while Coimbatore Institute of Technology stood at the third position.

“I congratulate all the institutions who have been featured meritorious in ARIIA and urge them to work hard to make outcome-based ground impact and make Aatma Nirbhar Bharat,” said Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of Education.

Women’s category

In the higher educational institutions for women, the top spot went to Avinashlingam Institute for Home Sciences and Higher Education in Coimbatore while the second spot was taken by New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women.

Around 674 institutions participated in the ARIIA Rankings this year compared with 496 last year.

Among the private or self-financed universities category, Odisha’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) was ranked first. SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Tamil Nadu and Vellore Institute of Technology took the second and third spot respectively.

Meanwhile, in the private colleges category, the top position was bagged by SR Engineering College in Telangana while GH Raisoni College of Engineering took the second spot.