IIT-M emerges first for the third consecutive year in Atal Rankings

For the third consecutive year, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has been adjudged as the ‘Most Innovative Educational Institute in India’ in the Centre’s Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) announced on Wednesday.

Over 1,400 educational institutions, including IITs and NITs, participated in the third edition of ARIIA rankings as compared to 674 institutions in 2020. The third edition has a special framework for non-technical institutions which will further strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in educational institutions.

The rankings were announced by Dr Subhas Sarkar, Union Minister of State for Education, in New Delhi on Wednesday. IIT-M has an ecosystem that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship at multiple levels including Nirmaan, a pre-incubator to nurture student ideas mature towards incubation and IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC), India’s leading deep-tech start-up incubator that has incubated more than 240 start-ups.

“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,” Dr Sarkar said.

He also asked the IIT-M to focus on the quality of innovations and research as it will help achieve Atma Nirbhar Bharat in a true sense.

“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,” IIT-M Director Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi said.

The Centre For Innovation (CFI) at IIT Madras is a student body that has augmented the ‘tech’ space in the institute wherein their projects have gone on to produce high-profile start-ups and internationally acclaimed competition teams.

ARIIA endeavours to systematically rank education institutions and universities primarily on innovation-related indicators. It aims to inspire Indian institutions to reorient their mindset and build ecosystems to encourage high-quality research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. More than quantity, ARIIA focuses on the quality of innovations and measures the real impact created by these innovations nationally and internationally.

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