Hyderabad, Aug 18 The University of Hyderabad has been ranked 10th in the prestigious institutes of national importance and central universities category in the Union Education Ministry's Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020.
The university is the only central university in the list of top 10 institutes of national importance and stood first among the central universities, as per the ranking released by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras stood in the first place, followed by the IITs at Mumbai and Delhi. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore stands in fourth place while the IIT-Kharagpur ranked fifth.
ARIIA is an initiative of the ministry to systematically rank all major higher educational institutions and universities in India on indicators related to "innovation and entrepreneurship development" amongst students and faculties.
The Hyderabad University said it made a good beginning in creating the innovation ecosystem and established Section 8 company ASPIRE (Association for Scientific Pursuits for Innovative Research Enterprises) to support and coordinate the varsity's innovation and entrepreneurship activities.
ASPIRE coordinates the activities of the varsity's three incubation centres viz. TBI, TIDE and BioNEST, which together incubated more than 40 start-ups creating a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in the campus.
ASPIRE is also planning to establish an "Innovation Park" in the university which will give a big boost to the innovation ecosystem in the region. The park is proposed to be established in tripartite collaboration among the university, industry and government funding bodies.
Prof. G.S. Prasad, Director of the varsity's Technology Industrial Liaison and Entrepreneurship Unit (TIE-U), expressed his happiness at the achievement of the university and thanked all the colleagues involved in creating and expanding its innovation ecosystem for their support in achieving the rank.
Vice Chancellor, Appa Rao Podile said: "I am happy that UoH is the only Central University to be ranked in the Top Ten of ARIIA ranking 2020. This will inspire us to encourage high quality research, innovation and entrepreneurship. More than quantity, we will focus on the quality of innovations and will try to measure the real impact created by these innovations nationally and internationally."
"This will also set the tone and direction for UoH for future development of the university to be globally competitive and be in the forefront of innovation," he added.
( With inputs from IANS )