Kanhaiya Kumar calls ranking of JNU at 3 in list of central varsities as 'ridiculous'

Delhi:  Kanhaiya Kumar has said that it was "ridiculous" that Jawaharlal Nehru University has been ranked number 3 in the country by the Union HRD Ministry. 

"Feels ridiculous that on one hand the Ministry of Human Resource Development is attacking us over autonomy and on the other hand we are on this list," Kumar was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Kumar, who was arrested on charges of sedition last month, is the president of the students union at JNU.

JNU and Hyderabad university, which have been at the centre of massive rows recently, top the list of central varsities while IIT-Madras and IIM-Bangalore lead among technological and management institutions, according to the first-ever domestic ranking released on Monday by the government.

In the technological institutions category, IIT Mumbai is placed second, followed by IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur. Manipal College of Pharmacy is ahead of others in the category of Pharmacy education.

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) covering 3,500 different institutes in four different categories was released by HRD minister Smriti Irani.

In the universities category, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (which is a deemed University) is rated as the top-ranked institute followed by Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai.

Among the management institutes, IIM Bangalore leads the pack followed by IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Kolkata and IIM Lucknow.

Later speaking to reporters, Irani said the effort is to make this ranking system an annual affair and more categories will be added so that students can know about an institute before taking admission, as per PTI. 

 In the Universities category, Tezpur University, which recently won President's award is placed fifth, University of Delhi is sixth, BHU, Varanasi is seventh.
Thiruvanathapuram based Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology is eighth while Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani stands 9th while AMU stands tenth.

In the engineering institutes category, all the ten places are occupied by IITs with IIT, Roorkee placed sixth, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad seventh, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, eighth. IIT Ropar-Rupnagar is ninth and IIT Patna is placed tenth.

(With Agency inputs)