Indian universities must focus on research and innovation to compete with their global counterparts

In terms of ranking, this year's India Today Group-Nielsen survey of India's best universities hardly throws up any surprises. While University of Delhi (DU) stays comfortably placed at the top for the third consecutive year, University of Kerala takes a remarkable leap-it has jumped 17 positions to rank ninth this year. In 2014, it was placed at number 26. Kurukshetra University has also moved five ranks to occupy the 10th position while Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has been showing consistent improvement over the years, ranking fourth this time. The Vice Chancellor of AMU, Zameeruddin Shah, has already vowed to grab the top position by 2017. He has an even bigger dream-to be among the top 200 universities in the world by 2020.

The significance of this dream can be understood from the fact that not a single Indian university could make it to the list of top 200 universities that are a part of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. While there are nine Indian universities among the top 100 Asian universities, none of them could find a place among the top 10. Among the top 100 Asian universities, China leads with 21, Japan has 19 and South Korea has 13. Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea have three universities each in the Asian top-20 list along with two Chinese universities.