'Anti-national' JNU India's 2nd best varsity, finds BJP Govt

Despite political controversies round the year, Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been ranked at number six in the overall university ranking while the varsity has been adjudged as second best institution in the category of top universities.

The number one position has been bagged by Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in both the categories, followed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Unlike last year, this time the ministry has released ranking under five categories -- Overall, Colleges, Universities, Management and Engineering. JNU, which was at third position in the last ranking, has been ranked second this year in 'Universities' category.

Among the overall best colleges and universities, West Bengal's prestigious varsity Jadavpur University has been ranked at number 12 in the university rankings announced by the Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday.

"The JNU and Jadavpur University didn't get rankings for Afzal Guru or anti-India slogans but for the good work done by students," Javadekar said after releasing the list. He was referring to the controversy over a protest organised last year in JNU against the 2013 hanging of Afzal Guru, that drew charges of sedition on some of its students, while rival student groups had clashed over the screening of a political film in Jadavpur University last year.

The ranking of 100 institutes has been conducted by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) which comes under the MHRD. The Banaras Hindu University has been ranked at number 10, while Delhi University (DU) has managed to get 15th position with 55.37 score, while Aligarh Muslim University bagged 19th position with 52.74 score.

Karnataka-based KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research is at the last position with 37.25 score in the list of 100 best universities and colleges of the country.

However, higher ranks to some "less known" colleges has raised doubts over HRD ministry's ranking system as University of Delhi's less known college – Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College (ARSD), has bagged fifth position in the list of best 100 colleges in the country, while Kolkata's prestigious St Xavier's College is at the sixth position and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College is at ninth position.

In the category of management institutions, IIM-Ahmedabad is at the top followed by IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta. Surprisingly, IIM-Indore has bagged 10th position in management category but failed to get a position in overall categories, which bring ranking framework parameters under suspicion.

In the category of engineering, IIM-Madras is at the top followed by IIT-Bombay and IIT-Kharagpur. Among the private engineering institutions, Vellore Institute of Technology at 13th position, while Patiala-based Thapar University has bagged 26th position and Chennai-based SRM Institute of Science and Technology is at 35th position in the list of top 100 engineering colleges.

In the category of pharmacy, Delhi-based Jamia Hamdard is at the top followed by Mohali-based National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education Research and Chandigarh-based University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.