NIRF Ranking 2025: IISc Bangalore still the best research institute; IIT Madras, Delhi, Bombay in top 5

NIRF 2025: Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore has once again retained its position as the top research institute in the National Institutional and Ranking Framework (NIRF) India Rankings 2025, released on Thursday. This is the fifth consecutive year that IISc Bangalore has bagged the top rank ever since the category was added in 2021.

Live Updates: NIRF Ranking 2025

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has secured the second place, followed by IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur in the third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

These five institutions have consistently dominated the first five positions, with IIT Delhi overtaking IIT Bombay for the second position from 2022 onwards.

NIRF Ranking 2025: Research Institutes

IISc Bangalore has also secured the top spot in NIRF 2025 university rankings.

NIRF 2025: IITs dominate in research

Among the top 10, eight institutes are IITs, barring Homi Bhabha National Institute and Academy of Scientific & Innovation Research ranked at Rank 7 and 9, respectively.

IIT Madras has also secured the top rank in engineering and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) categories. The SDG category has been introduced in India Rankings 2025 for the first time this year.

The other categories include overall category, university, college, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture and planning, dental, innovation, agriculture and allied sectors, research institutions, open universities, skill universities and state-funded public universities. The last three categories were added in 2024.

NIRF Ranking 2025: Stricter rules

The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) has introduced stricter measures for evaluation this year. It has introduced negative marking for the retraction of research papers and citations. Anil Sahasrabudhe, NBA chairman, called this a “double whammy”.

This year over 14,000 institutions participated in the India Rankings 2025 – a growth of 30.6% in a year – higher education secretary Vineet Joshi highlighted. “Third party verification of the data has been undertaken in the rankings,” Joshi added.

The parameters for ranking includes “Teaching, Learning and Resources,” “Research and Professional Practices,” “Graduation Outcomes,” “Outreach Inclusivity” and “Perception.”