The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has been recognised as the Most Innovative Educational Institute in India for the third consecutive year. It has been Ranked #1 in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) launched by the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

IIT Madras is in the ‘CFTIs (Centrally Funded Technical Institutions)/Central University/Institute of National Importance (Technical)’ category.

Participation

As many as 1,438 higher education institutions (HEIs), including all IITs, NITs, and IISc, participated in the third edition of ARIIA Rankings as compared to 674 HEIs last year. This third edition of ARIIA has a special framework for non-technical institutions which will further strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in our education institutions.

Subhas Sarkar, Union Minister of State for Education, announced the results on Wednesday. “We need to give a huge push to innovation and entrepreneurship within our educational institutions and ARIIA is one major initiative in that direction. The ARIIA Ranking will prepare our higher educational institutions to position themselves in major international educational rankings and I would like to see ARIIA Rankings go global as innovation and entrepreneurship has become an integral part of the education system across the globe,” the minister said.

Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, 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.”

ARIIA 2021 has rankings for six categories of institutions - CFTIs (Centrally Funded Technical Institutions) /Central University/Institute of National Importance (Technical); State University and Deemed University (Govt & Govt aided)(technical); Government College/Institution (Govt and Govt Aided)(technical); University & Deemed University (Self-finance/private)(technical); Private college/Institute (self-finance/private)(technical); Institute of National Importance, Central University and CFIs (non-technical) and General (non-technical).