69 Indian universities have made it to the prestigious subject-based rankings announced last week by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), London, a higher education analytics company. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been ranked 20th among the excellent institutions of the world. India’s entries in the topic-based ranking have increased by 19.4 per cent and overall performance has increased by 17 per cent.
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad is one of the top 25 institutes in the world in the business and management studies category. Similarly, Indian Institutes of Technology Madras, Delhi and Mumbai have also made it to the top 50 institutes of the world. This represents a significant milestone in the Indian education sector.
According to QS World University Rankings, India is one of the fastest-expanding research hubs in the world. It said research has increased by 54 per cent between 2017 and 2022, which is not only more than double the global average, but also much higher than Western counterparts. India is now the fourth largest country in the world in research area and 13 lakh academic research papers have been produced during this period. Going by the current pace, India is close to surpassing Britain in research productivity.
JNU 20th Best University
Jawaharlal Nehru University has received an overall score of 81.3. With this score, JNU is in 20th place in this list. It has got 87.4 marks for academic reputation, 82.7 marks for paper citations and 70.3 marks for H-index citations. This achievement not only underlines JNU’s commitment towards academic excellence, but also reflects India’s growing prominence in the global education landscape. JNU has long been one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Since its inception in 1969, it has always been in the relentless pursuit of excellence, creativity and intellectuality. JNU has made it possible for students coming from poor families to get quality education and that is why it is called the cheapest university in the country.
Recently, the School of Indian Languages has been started in JNU to promote the Indian knowledge tradition.
India’s Future Needs
A nation which fails to invest in research and development will be in trouble of economic stability. Israel has shown that despite being a small nation, sustainable development can be achieved by prioritising investment in R&D. To truly have a strong economy, the country needs to have a long-term and meaningful level of knowledge system that powers the economy. The more intellectual property is created, the more employment will be created.
Along with great achievements, there are also challenges ahead as there is still much to be done to improve access, global competitiveness and standards of higher education. India has set an ambitious target of a 50 per cent gross enrolment ratio by 2035 in the National Education Policy of 2020. It is important to increase fellowships in higher education, provide education loans to students at affordable rates and also provide subsidies to skill-based courses.
Research and innovation are key
We know that research and development open the door to a better life for all of us. The National Research Foundation (NRF) was formed last year. There is no dearth of talent in this country. One of the oldest civilisations in the world, Indian civilisation and the Indian knowledge tradition have given a strong foundation to science and technology since ancient times. Talented people like Aryabhatta and Srinivasan Ramanujan showed a new path to the whole world.
Then the question arises why does a country with so much research capability produce so little domestic innovation? Perhaps the biggest answer to this is that we have not paid as much attention to research and development as other countries. While countries like China, Japan and South Korea spent a lot on education in the 60s, our country is still waiting for a proper budget.
India’s expenditure on R&D, which is about 0.6 per cent of its GDP, is well below the world average of 1.8 per cent. The contribution of the private sector is less than 40 per cent of the gross expenditure on R&D whereas in advanced countries, it is more than 75 per cent. The good thing is that the government’s new initiatives like Digital University and Gati Shakti University are going to become the backbone of the knowledge-based economy. Due to new efforts, India is ranked 40th out of 132 in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023 ranking released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). It was ranked 81st in 2015, which is a big improvement.
The Way Forward
India has all the necessary components—a robust market potential, an outstanding talent pool, and a flourishing culture of frugal innovation—to become a global leader in education and innovation. Appropriate funding and appropriate direction are required to uncover untapped talent.
The author is Associate Professor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship (ABVSME), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He tweets @bkt_brajesh. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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