NEW DELHI: IIT Madras has secured the top spot in the overall category for the seventh year in a row in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings of higher educational institutions in the country announced by the Education Ministry. The No. 1 rank for the best engineering institute has also been secured by the premier institution, an honour it has achieved annually since the inception of these rankings in 2016.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday released the India Rankings 2025 for Higher Educational Institutions at Bharat Mandapam. A total of 14,163 universities competed for the top spots in 17 sections.

IIT Madras was rated the best in the Innovation Institutions and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, a new introduction this year) categories, while it stood second in the Research category with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, edging past it.

IISc Bengaluru took the second rank in the ‘Overall’ category. Apart from beating IIT Madras to the top spot in the Research category, it has also been ranked the Best University in the country. The National Law School of Indian University (NLSIU) in the garden city was ranked the best Law college in India.

A couple more reputed institutions add to Bengaluru’s honour list – the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore was voted the second best management institute as well as the third best institute for Innovation. The only other institution in Karnataka to make it to the top three ranks is the Manipal Academy of Higher Education at Manipal, ranked the third best university in the country.

IIT Bombay, which took the third spot in the overall ranking category, also bagged the third rank in the Engineering discipline as well as the second rank in the Innovation category.

IIM Ahmedabad tops in the Management Institution category while IIT Roorkee takes the top spot in the Architecture and Planning category.